12th PARIS International Conference on Marketing, Education, Humanities & Social Sciences (MEHSS-18) Sept.

17-19, 2018 Paris (France)

The Relationship between Religiosity and

Emotion Regulation among Christian High
School Students in Bangalore
Deepika Rachel R and Shambhavi Gundanna

 to produce religious persons who are capable of acting in

Abstract—The study aimed to examine the relationship between Christian (pro social) ways in everyday life (Groome, 1998).
Religiosity and Emotion Regulation among Christian High School Emotion regulation or regulation of emotion is the ability to
Students in Bangalore. The study involved 120 participants, residing respond to the ongoing demands of experience with the range
in India, studying in Christian Schools and belonging to the age
of emotions in a manner that is socially tolerable and
group of 13 to 16 years. The study employed a quantitative research
design and the sample was chosen using random sampling technique. sufficiently flexible to permit spontaneous reactions as well as
Religiosity was determined using The Centrality of Religiosity Scale the ability to delay spontaneous reactions as needed. Every
while Emotion Regulation was determined using the Emotion day, people are continually exposed to a wide variety of
Regulation Questionnaire. Results of the study were analyzed using potentially arousing stimuli. Inappropriate, extreme or
Independent Sample t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. unchecked emotional reactions to such stimuli could impede
The results of the study were that there is significant relationship
functional fit within society; therefore, people must engage in
between Religiosity and Emotion Regulation among Christian High
School Students. There is a significant difference in Religiosity some form of emotion regulation almost all of the time [3].
among Christian boys and girls. There is no significant difference in There are two emotion regulation strategies: reappraisal and
Emotion Regulation among Christian boys and girls. It was suppression [4].
concluded that there was a significant relationship between A study found that those who considered themselves as
Religiosity and Emotion Regulation among Christian High School religious were healthier, enjoying Subjective Well- Being, and
Students.
obtained lower scores on neuroticism (Ahmed M. Abdel-
Khalek 2009) [5]. Another study suggested that socialization
Keywords— Religiosity, Emotion Regulation, Adolescents,
Christian Students. through religious participation in a congregational setting may
also promote pro-social and adaptive qualities, elevating mood
I. INTRODUCTION and decreasing levels of distress. It was found girls were more
religious than boys. Religiousness is positively associated with
Religiosity plays a major part in the life of an individual.
pro-social values and behavior, and negatively related to
Previous studies have shown that the practice of religion has a
significant effect on happiness and overall sense of personal suicide ideation and attempts, substance abuse, premature
well-being and that there had been always positive associations sexual involvement, and delinquency (Michael J. Donahue,
between religion and mental well-being which eventually Peter L. Benson 1995) [6]. A research has suggested that
enhances general psychological functioning . There are various through self-regulation, religious individuals may be able to
types of religious practices, such as prayer, yoga and strive for high standards and simultaneously maintain high
meditation, which have a significant effect on psychological emotional well-being [7]. The results of the research suggest
well-being and over all functioning of the body [1]. To be that some seemingly irrational aspects of religion may have
religious is to be “excessively or sentimentally religious” or to important psychological benefits by promoting implicit self-
practice one‟s religion in a meddlesome way. Thus, religiosity regulation (Sander L. Koole et al. 2009)[8].
is characterized by excessive involvement in religious
activities. Religiosity usually entails extreme zeal outside of II. METHODOLOGY
and beyond the norms of one‟s faith. It is more than affection The study attempted to understand the relationship between
for religion; it is affectation in religion. Religiosity usually
Religiosity and Emotion Regulation among Christian high
reflects one‟s individual beliefs more than those of the
School Students. Immense amount of research has gone into
religious organization itself. Another term for religiosity,
understanding the current variables and this chapter deals with
though less common, is religiousness, “the state of being
superficially religious” [2]. The goal of religious education is the nature of the study, its objectives, the formulated
hypotheses as well as describing the procedure along with the
tools used for the current study in full. The aim of the study
was to determine the relationship between religiosity and
Deepika Rachel R, Jain University, India
Shambhavi Gundanna, Jain University, India
emotion regulation among school children in Bangalore.

https://doi.org/10.17758/EIRAI4.F0918413 71
 12th PARIS International Conference on Marketing, Education, Humanities & Social Sciences (MEHSS-18) Sept. 17-19, 2018 Paris (France)

The objectives of the study were to understand the III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
relationship between religiosity and emotion regulation of TABLE I (A)
students, to compare religiosity and emotion regulation of boys SHOWING T-TEST SCORES OF RELIGIOSITY OF BOYS AND GIRLS
and girls. Mean S.D Std. T
Null hypotheses were set because there has been a lack of Error
studies that demonstrate a relationship between both the Mean
variables within a study, especially in the Indian setting. So Score 65.95 6.45 0.833 2.886**
there is not much to base the direction of the hypotheses. 62.73 5.73 0.739 2.886
1. There is no significant difference in Religiosity **-significant at 0.01 level, *- significant at 0.05 level
between boys and girls.
2. There is no significant relationship between Religiosity To analyze if Religiosity differs among boys and girls, an
and Emotion Regulation among Christian High independent samples t-test was done. Table I (a) shows the
School Students. score of the sample in independent sample t-test. The mean
3. There is no significant difference in Emotion score of girls in Religiosity is 65.95, S.D is 6.45 and standard
Regulation between boys and girls. error mean is 0.833. The mean score of boys in Religiosity is
62.73, S.D is 5.73 and standard error mean is 0.739. The
The study is Correlational in nature, attempting to check for scores are significant at 0.01 levels which mean that there is
a relationship between Religiosity and Emotion Regulation significant difference between boys and girls. The results
among Christian High School Students. suggest that girls are more religious than boys. This finding is
The sample of the study consisted of 120 Christian High similar to the findings of the study by Michael J. Donahue,
School Students in Bangalore, India, within the age group of Peter L. Benson (1995) on Religion and the Well-Being of
13 to 16 years. The sampling method used was Random Adolescents. It was found that „girls were more religious than
Sampling. The Christian Schools that were a part of this study boys‟. One reason as to why women are more religious than
were Carmel Convent High School, Holy Spirit School and men throughout Christian history maybe because women are
St.Ann‟s School from Bangalore. The questionnaires were tended to spend more time than males in raising and nurturing
manually administered to all the participants. A brief children and also therefore participating more in church
description of the study was presented to all the students along activities because women then had flexible day schedules than
with the consent forms. The estimated time consumed to men therefore spending more time in the church especially
complete both the questionnaires was around 20 minutes. The during the week days. Hypothesis 1 was rejected on the basis
Centrality of Religiosity questionnaire was administered first. that there is significant difference in Religiosity between boys
It has a total of 15 questions with 5 points Likert-Scale. The and girls.
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was administered second. It
has a total of 10 statements with 7 points Likert-Scale. The TABLE I (B)
tools used for assessment were Consent Form, Socio- SHOWING T-TEST SCORES OF EMOTION REGULATION OF BOYS AND GIRLS
Demographic Form, The Centrality of Religiosity Scale and Mean S.D Std. T
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The Centrality of Error
Religiosity Scale was developed by Stefan Huber and Odilo Mean
W.Huber in 2012.It is a method of determination of the level Score 47.05 7.911 1.021 0.381**
of Religiosity. It has a total of 15 questions. In this tool, most 46.46 8.84 2.141 0.381
common are single item scales asking for a self report on the **-not significant at 0.01 level, *- not significant at 0.05 level
subjective importance of religion or the salience of religious
identity. These allow the most economical assessment of the To analyze if Emotion Regulation differs between boys and
general intensity of religiosity. Construct Validity: amounts to girls, an independent samples t-test was used. Table I (b)
0.83 in a students‟ sample and 0.73 in the international summarizes the result of independent sample t test. The mean
Religion Monitor .Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was score of girls in Emotion Regulation is 47.05, S.D is 7.911 and
developed by Gross and John in 2003.The tool is a 10-item standard error mean is 1.021. The mean score of boys in
scale designed to measure respondents‟ tendency to regulate Emotion Regulation is 46.46, S.D is 8.84 and standard error
their emotions in two ways: (1) Cognitive Reappraisal and (2) mean is 2.141. The scores are not significant at 0.01 levels
Expressive Suppression. Respondents answer each item on a which mean that there is no significant difference between
7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to boys and girls. The results suggest that there is no difference
7 (strongly agree)[10]. The measure has demonstrated between boys and girls in Emotion Regulation. One main
adequate to good internal consistency and temporal stability reason for there being no difference could be that the families
[11] (Gross and John, 2003; Sala et al., 2012; Batistoni et al., of children are encouraging them to be more open and regulate
2013), as well as sound convergent and discriminant validity their emotions better, especially in front of others. Children
(Gross and John, 2003; Balzarotti et al., 2010; Cabello et al., wouldn‟t want to express their sadness or cry in front of their
2012). peer group. Both boys and girls might have been raised in the

https://doi.org/10.17758/EIRAI4.F0918413 72
 12th PARIS International Conference on Marketing, Education, Humanities & Social Sciences (MEHSS-18) Sept. 17-19, 2018 Paris (France)

same way in regard to controlling and expressing their Hypothesis 3 is rejected on the basis that there is significant
emotions. Hypothesis 2 was accepted on the basis that there is relationship between Religiosity and Emotion Regulation.
no difference in Emotion Regulation between adolescent boys
and girls. IV. CONCLUSION
The study has found that there is a relationship between
TABLE I (C)
SHOWING THE RELATION BETWEEN VARIABLES OF RELIGIOSITY AND EMOTION
Emotion regulation and Religiosity among Christian
REGULATION Adolescents. Some of the implications of this study are that the
Religiosity Emotion study can be used to understand the various other emotional
Regulation benefits of being religious and provides scope for further
Religiosity .359** research on the areas of religiosity and how it affects a
.000 person‟s overall well being. This study can be used to
Emotion .359** 1 understand and to motivate schools and students to involve in
Regulation religious practices. The same study can be done on different
*Correlation is significant at 0.05 level. **Correlation is population and the result can be compared as many studies
significant at the 0.01 level suggest that the level of religiosity of a person changes
Table I (c) represents the results obtained on running a according to age. New studies can be done to understand the
Product Moment Correlation, to understand the relationship reason behind why school students are religious.
between Religiosity and Emotion Regulation.A Pearson‟s
product-moment correlation coefficient was computed to ACKNOWLEDGMENT
assess the relationship between Emotion Regulation and
Religiosity. This deals with the testing of hypothesis 3. Deepika Rachel R thanks Mrs. Shambhavi Gundanna,
The Correlational value obtained for Religiosity is 0.359 Assistant Professor, Jain University, for her constant guidance
(p=0.01). There is a positive significant relationship between and support for this study. Special thanks to the principals of
Emotion regulation and religiosity as the value obtained is Carmel Convent High School, Holy Spirit School and St.Ann‟s
significant at the 0.01 level. This means that being religious School, Bangalore, for permitting data collection from their
can increase emotion regulation of the individual. There can be Institutes.
various reasons as to why these two variables correlate. Being
religious can help individuals to reappraise Religious texts Deepika Rachel R
(The Holy Bible) says that suffering is good and even in bad “One who follows religious texts
situations one must stay positive. 2 Timothy 3:12 New might apply it in real life and
International Version (NIV) quotes “ In fact, everyone who suppress his emotions when there
wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”, are negative stimulations around
James 1:19 New International Version (NIV) quotes “ My dear him.”
brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be - Deepika Rachel R
quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry”.
These are some of the religious texts from the Holy Bible that
suggest that people should be positive even if in a negative
Shambhavi G Shambhavi G. MSc, MPhil, (PHD)
situation. Individuals who are religious and follow such
Has 13 years of experience in
religious texts might reappraise more and experience more
teaching. Her areas of interest are
positive emotions and less negative emotions and also express
Counseling, Psychotherapy, and
more positive and less negative emotions. Being religious can
Human Resource. She has
help individuals in Suppression (changing the way one
conducted various workshops
responds behaviorally to an emotion-eliciting event). Again
across the industry.
referencing texts from The Holy Bible, Matthew 5:38 quotes
“You have heard that it was said, „An eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth.‟ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who
is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him
the other also”. Romans 12:21 New International Version REFERENCES
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