Papers by David Dollahite
Religions
Research on the relationship between religion, spirituality, and health suggests that religious i... more Research on the relationship between religion, spirituality, and health suggests that religious involvement can help people deal with various kinds of adversity. Although there has been a great deal of work on the influence of religious involvement and religious and spiritual practices on physical, mental, and relational health, there exists a gap in the theoretical and empirical literature about the potential benefits of transcendent religious experiences on marriage and family relationships. We report some findings from a study of in-depth interviews with 198 religious American exemplar families from diverse religious, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds. The religious-ethnic make-up of the sample included: African American Christian (13%), Asian Christian (12%), Catholic and Orthodox Christian (11%), White Evangelical Christian (12%), White Mainline Christian (10%), Latter-day Saint (LDS, Mormon), (14%), Jewish (16%), and Muslim (12%). Systematic group coding resulted in the findi...
Religions
In this article, we highlight the contributions of the findings from a branch of the American Fam... more In this article, we highlight the contributions of the findings from a branch of the American Families of Faith national research project that pertain to positive religious and spiritual development in youth. We present detailed findings from six previous studies on religious youth and their parents from diverse faith communities (various denominations in Christianity, three major branches of Judaism, and two major groups in Islam). We discuss what our findings suggest for positive religious/spiritual development, particularly in a family context. Finally, we suggest several ways to strengthen the literature on development in youth by exploring positive religious/spiritual development in relation to (a) social and political activism, (b) popular media and music, (c) participation in secular activities (e.g., sports, arts, gaming), (d) wrestling with BIG questions (i.e., questions involving Being, Intimacy, and God), (e) conversion and disaffiliation, (f) interfaith knowledge and exp...
Journal of Family Theory & Review
Religions
Research has found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity results in higher family fu... more Research has found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity results in higher family functioning and improved family relationships. Yet the Pew Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood. And 78% of the expanding group of those who identify as religiously unaffiliated (“Nones”) reported that they were raised in “highly religious families.” We suggest that this may be, in part, associated with religious parents exercising excessive firmness with inadequate flexibility (rigidity). We used a multiphase, systematic, team-based process to code 8000+ pages of in-depth interviews from 198 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families from 17 states in all 8 major religio-cultural regions of the United States. We framed firmness as mainly about loyalty to God and God’s purposes, and flexibility as mainly about loyalty to family members and their needs and circumstances. The reported findings provided a range of exa...
Journal of Family Theory & Review
Evidence suggests that religion can both help and harm families. We posit that a central reason f... more Evidence suggests that religion can both help and harm families. We posit that a central reason for these divergent outcomes is a system of dualities at the nexus of religion and family. We propose a conceptual framework of a dynamic system of religious and relational dualities. We propose eight dualities: (a) transcendent and mundane spiritual experiences may affect families, (b) families may experience God as a close confidant and an authority figure, (c) religion in families may involve accepting and refusing actions, (d) religion in families may include religious expectations and relational compensators, (e) religion in families may generate and address relational struggles, (f) religion in families may be relationally divisive and unifying, (g) religion in families may bring perplexing mysteries and profound meanings, and (h) religion in families may be a transforming and a maintaining influence. We discuss how these dualities lead to outcomes that help and harm families. Throughout history and across faiths and cultures, religion has led to both good and evil-to peace and war, to liberation and slavery, to
Religions
Islam is a major world religion and the Muslim population is one of the fastest growing religious... more Islam is a major world religion and the Muslim population is one of the fastest growing religious populations in the Western world, including in the United States. However, few research studies have examined the lived religious experience of U.S. Muslim families. Much of the attention on Islam among researchers and the media tends to be on controversial aspects of the religion. The purpose of this paper is to examine the unique religious practice of the month-long fast of Ramadan, especially its perceived role on marital and familial relationships from an insider’s perspective. Content analysis of in-depth, qualitative interviews of twenty diverse Shia and Sunni Muslim families living in the United States (N = 47 individuals) yielded several emergent themes. This study presents and explores data on the focal theme: “fasting brings us closer together.” These data suggest that Ramadan serves a sacred, unifying, and integrating purpose for many of the 47 practicing Muslim mothers, fath...
Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 1987
Qualitative family scholar Kerry Daly has called for more theory addressing understudied dimensio... more Qualitative family scholar Kerry Daly has called for more theory addressing understudied dimensions including religion, everyday experiences, and time. Herein we address all three of these dimensions as we empirically examine and theorize on relational struggles among religious families. We also explore what we term experiential immediacy-defined as the personal and temporal proximity to participantreported lived experience. Based on qualitative analyses of in-depth interviews with 198 highly religious families (N ϭ 476 individuals), we identified four types of relational struggles created by religious involvement: burdens, disunities, abuses, and offenses. We also offer a conceptual framework of experiential immediacy grounded in the findings and explore how personal and temporal immediacy of remembered, present, and possible experiences and quality of experience relate to relational struggles created by religious involvement. We also suggest implications for research based on our findings and concepts.
From a positive family psychology perspective, this study explores identity-centered religious ca... more From a positive family psychology perspective, this study explores identity-centered religious calling, being, and action among parents of youth, that is, what religious parents believe they are called to be and to do in relation to their adolescent children. Twenty-nine Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families of youth (N ϭ 58 participants) were asked what they considered most important for them "to be" and "to do" as parents of faith. Qualitative analyses were conducted to determine major themes of responses. Parents indicated they believed they were called to be (A1) an example, (A2) authentic, and (A3) consistent; called to provide their children with (B1) support, (B2) love, and (B3) help; and called to teach their children (C1) religious values, (C2) the faith tradition, and (C3) the importance of religious identity. This study emphasizes the potential of identity-centered calling, being, and action as valuable constructs in religious/spiritual formation. Implications are discussed regarding how religious and secular education may benefit from reconstructing emphasis on developing one's being. AQ: au AQ: 1 tapraid5/rel-rel/rel-rel/rel99917/rel0321d17z xppws Sϭ1 4/7/17 12:23 Art: 2015-0376 APA NLM DOLLAHITE, MARKS, KEAR, LEWIS, AND STOKES AQ: 2 AQ: 3 tapraid5/rel-rel/rel-rel/rel99917/rel0321d17z xppws Sϭ1 4/7/17 12:23 Art: 2015-0376 APA NLM DOLLAHITE, MARKS, KEAR, LEWIS, AND STOKES AQ: 15
The present article provides a deep and more focused look at the utility, meaning, processes, and... more The present article provides a deep and more focused look at the utility, meaning, processes, and power involved in a specific, family-level, sacred practice or ritual from Judaism: Shabbat (Sabbath). Content analysis of in-depth interviews with 30 diverse, marriage-based Jewish families living in the United States (N = 77 individuals) yielded three emergent themes: (a) "Shabbat brings us closer together"; (b) How Shabbat brings the family together; and (c) The Power of Blessing the Children. These themes will be discussed respectively, along with related verbatim data from participants' in-depth qualitative interviews.
Prayer is a widely practiced religious behavior. Research has associated prayer with various phys... more Prayer is a widely practiced religious behavior. Research has associated prayer with various physical, psychological, and relational benefits. This study used in-depth, interview-based qualitative methods to explore how prayer may foster improvement in married individuals as well as in couples' relationships in a richly diverse sample of 184 religious couples (N = 368 individuals). Qualitative data analyses revealed the following related themes: (a) prayer is a catalyst for change; (b) prayer facilitates humility and positivity; (c) prayer facilitates communication and understanding among couples; and (d) prayer unifies couples and helps in resolving conflict. Illustrative and supportive primary data are presented in connection with each theme. Implications of the findings are discussed.
The present study used self-determination theory to examine adolescents' motivations to engage in... more The present study used self-determination theory to examine adolescents' motivations to engage in charitable donating and community volunteering and to abstain from sexual intercourse and marijuana use. The sample consisted of 419 late adolescents recruited from across the country through an online survey panel. Participants completed online measures of motivations to engage in donating and volunteering, motivations to abstain from sex and marijuana, and single-item indexes of the four behaviors. Variable-centered analyses (correlation and regression) found evidence for a general motivational factor, motivational specificity by behavioral domain (positive and negative behaviors), motivational specificity by particular behavior (charitable donating, volunteering, sexual risk-taking, and marijuana use), and a stronger relative role for autonomous motivations than controlled motivations. Person-centered analyses (cluster analysis) found four motivation profiles (low motivation, medium motivation, high motivation, and mixed motivation) for all four behaviors and suggested that level of autonomous motivation was a key factor differentiating the groups on levels of behavior. The findings suggest different levels of motiva-tional specificity and highlight the importance of autonomous motivations in predicting behaviors as compared to controlled motivations. Further, similar patterns were found for motivations to engage and to abstain.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate lay conceptions of religious influence. Speci... more The purpose of the present study was to investigate lay conceptions of religious influence. Specifically, we explored adolescents' and parents' perceptions of the ways in which their religious beliefs and practices had impacted them and their life. The sample included 419 adolescents and 282 parents recruited from across the United States through an online survey panel. Participants were asked to list three different ways that religion had influenced their lives. Responses were coded using grounded-theory qualitative methods.
Leading scholars of marital processes strongly recommend supplementing the current focus on marit... more Leading scholars of marital processes strongly recommend supplementing the current focus on marital conflict to include research on transformative processes. This qualitative study examines the connection between religion and the transformative processes of commitment and coping in marriage. The sample for this study includes 184 married couples (N = 368 individuals), making it far larger than most in-depth, qualitative interview-based studies. Participants included Christians, Jews, and Muslims with an over sampling of minorities and immigrant families living in all eight regions of the United States. For several decades studies have shown a largely positive correlation between (a) religiosity and marital commitment and (b) religiosity and (generally) positive coping, but with little explanation regarding how and why. Findings of this study indicate that there are specific religious beliefs and practices related to how these couples approach their marriages—including several that relate to the two transformative processes of commitment and coping.
1 We sincerely appreciate insightful and constructive comments from Roy Bean and two anonymous re... more 1 We sincerely appreciate insightful and constructive comments from Roy Bean and two anonymous reviewers on a previous draft. We are especially grateful to Rajalakshmi Sriram for very helpful feedback and guidance on the literature on arranged marriage in India.
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Papers by David Dollahite