Religiousness and aggression in adolescents: The mediating roles of self‐control and compassion

Although people have used religion to justify aggression, evidence suggests that greater religiousness corresponds with less aggression. We explored two explanations for the religion–aggression link. First, most major religions teach self‐control (e.g., delaying gratification, resisting temptation), which diminishes aggression. Second, most major religions emphasize compassionate beliefs and behavior (i.e., perspective taking, forgiveness, a broader love of humanity) that are incompatible with aggression. We tested whether self‐control and compassion mediated the relationship between religion and aggression (direct and indirect) in a longitudinal study of 1,040 adolescents in the United States. Structural equation analyses revealed that self‐control and compassion together completely mediated the religion–aggression relationship for both types of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 9999:1–14, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Source: Aggressive Behavior - July 23, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: James A. Shepperd, Wendi A. Miller, Colin Tucker Smith Tags: Research Article Source Type: research