Why are Women More Religious?

Visit the official website: https://www.psychxspirit.com/
SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER on Front Page to keep updated!

To read my articles, visit: https://themuslimvibe.com/author/syed...
Visit our official "Mindfulness Research Lab" site at https://www.mindfuluh.org​​​​​​

In today’s video, we seek to understand why women tend to report higher levels of religion and spirituality than men, as well as the historical role of faith for African-American and other minority groups. We speak on broadening research to include more qualitative & experimental studies, having a broader definition of ‘religion’, the role of mystical/spiritual experiences and positive outcome variables (as opposed to solely focusing on reduction of mental health symptoms). Finally I touch on maladaptive processes or negative ways that religion impacts adolescents through parental-child conflict and environmental mismatch (living in a country that is highly religious when a person is not). I use clips from ‘Bruce Almighty’, ‘Witches of Eastwick’, ‘War Room’, ‘Joan of Arc’, ‘The Rite’ and ‘We Bought a Zoo’.

You can also visit the official website for more resources: https://psychxspirit.com/

Link to Pt. 1:    • Is Religion Good for Youth?  

Link to interview with Reverend Jennifer Bailey:    • Spirituality & Faith in the Black Com...  

Link to ‘Is Japan Religious?’ video:    • Is Japan Religious?  

Link to ‘In-group/out-group bias’ video:    • We Need an Enemy! Exploring Bias in Film  


Peer-reviewed citations used in video:


Hardy, S. A., Nelson, J. M., Moore, J. P., & King, P. E. (2019). Processes of religious and spiritual influence in adolescence: A systematic review of 30 years of research. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 29(2), 254-275.

Trzebiatowska, M., & Bruce, S. (2012). Why are women more religious than men?. Oxford University Press.

Schnabel, L. (2018). More religious, less dogmatic: Toward a general framework for gender differences in religion. Social science research, 75, 58-72.

Vardy, T., Moya, C., Placek, C. D., Apicella, C. L., Bolyanatz, A., Cohen, E., ... & Atkinson, Q. D. (2022). The religiosity gender gap in 14 diverse societies. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 12(1-2), 18-37.

Rantanen, J., Metsäpelto, R. L., Feldt, T., Pulkkinen, L. E. A., & Kokko, K. (2007). Long‐term stability in the Big Five personality traits in adulthood. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 48(6), 511-518.

Taylor, R. J., Chatters, L. M., & Brown, R. K. (2014). African American religious participation. Review of Religious Research, 56(4), 513-538.

Stokes, C. E., & Regnerus, M. D. (2009). When faith divides family: Religious discord and adolescent reports of parent–child relations. Social Science Research, 38(1), 155-167.

Marks, L. (2006). Religion and family relational health: An overview and conceptual model. Journal of Religion and Health, 45(4), 603-618.