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Relationships Between Religiousness and Life Satisfaction Among Emerging Adults in Mexico and Nicaragua

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Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures

Abstract

This study examines relationships between religiousness and life satisfaction among 571 emerging adults (M age 29.94, SD = 2.93) from Mexico and Nicaragua. Based on the four-factor religiousness model (Saroglou V, J Cross-Cultural Psychol 42:1320–1340, 2011), we investigated the interplay of believing (beliefs relative to external transcendence), bonding (rituals and emotions), behaving (adherence to norms) and belonging (social group cohesion) and their relation to life satisfaction. Participants completed the Four Basic Dimensions of Religiousness Scale (4-BDRS; Saroglou V, J Cross-Cultural Psychol 42:1320–1340, 2011) and the Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS; Diener E, Emmerson RA, Larsen RJ, Griffin S, J Pers Assess 49:71–75, 1985). We tested measurement invariance and associations of religiousness and life satisfaction models across groups. Findings indicated good measurement invariance for both measures and that life satisfaction was consistently associated with high endorsement of all four religiousness domains.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the support by a COFAS Forte Marie Curie Grant (2013-2669) and grants by the Iberoamerican University and the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico for data collection. We are particularly grateful to Patricia Gansert and Lily Konowitz for their helpful comments and textual revision and Dr. Saroglou for providing the scale used in this study.

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Correspondence to Radosveta Dimitrova .

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Dimitrova, R., del Carmen Domínguez Espinosa, A. (2017). Relationships Between Religiousness and Life Satisfaction Among Emerging Adults in Mexico and Nicaragua. In: Dimitrova, R. (eds) Well-Being of Youth and Emerging Adults across Cultures . Cross-Cultural Advancements in Positive Psychology, vol 12. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68363-8_15

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