
Annette MahoneyBowling Green State University | BGSU · Department of Psychology
Annette Mahoney
PhD
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113
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
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August 1994 - present
Publications
Publications (113)
This cross-sectional study involved 470 Polish, Catholic (90%),
married (67%), or unmarried cohabiting (33%) individuals (237
women and 233 men) and is the first to examine whether and
how two dimensions of individual religiousness (inclusion vs.
exclusion of transcendence (IT) and symbolic vs. literal interpre-
tation (SI)) as assessed by the Post...
This study examined the associations between spiritual intimacy and the quality of dating relationships. Spiritual intimacy refers to partners vulnerably disclosing their religious/spiritual experiences, doubts, and/or struggles to one another and empathically listening to such disclosures. Regression analyses were conducted with 207 midwestern sta...
A Spiritual Renaissance of Psychological Science has arrived: an explosion of rigorously derived, foundationally new models of human experience. The collective vision of psychological science in the second edition of the OUP Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality advances psychological research beyond 20th-century radical materialism and mechanism...
Embedded within the sociocultural context of romantic relationships are features such as race, culture, neighborhoods, the legal system, and governmental policy. Due to the inherent difficulties with studying large structures and systems, little work has been done at the macro level in relationship science. This volume spotlights the complex interp...
Introduction: Sexual minorities who are current/former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) report high levels of depression and risk for suicide. Objective: Examine potential cross-sectional and longitudinal effects of affirming and non-affirming LDS beliefs on depression and suicide risk. Methods: Using two independent...
THE SCIENCE OF CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT by Annette Mahoney. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 86 pages. Paperback; $20.00. ISBN: 9781108812771. *The Science of Children's Religious and Spiritual Development by Annette Mahoney is a recent addition to the Cambridge Elements Child Development series. Between an int...
Utah ranks fifth in the nation for suicide and has experienced a rapid increase in youth deaths by suicide over the last decade. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth in Utah may be at heightened risk, given the major presence and stances of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding LGBTQ identitie...
This Element provides a comprehensive yet concise account of
scientific research on children’s religious and spiritual (RS) development
up to age 12. After providing a historical sketch of definitional issues in
the science of RS, the first section reviews basic descriptive information
on children’s RS development as well as wholistic theoretical m...
Starting with a study on the sanctification of marriage (Mahoney et al., 1999), Pargament and Mahoney developed two psychological scales to assess whether viewing an aspect of life as a manifestation of God (i.e., theistic sanctification) and/or imbued with sacred qualities (i.e., nontheistic sanctification) was tied to better psychosocial function...
This study examined cross-sectional links of the theistic and non-theistic sanctification of marriage and positive and negative religious coping with marital adjustment for 316 married Muslims (women = 157, men = 159) from Iran. Perceiving marriage to be a manifestation of God (i.e. theistic sanctification) and reflective of sacred qualities (i.e....
Current research suggests that sexual minorities living in Utah may be at higher risk for experiencing suicidal/self-harming thoughts and suicide attempts than heterosexuals in Utah. However, to date no research has been conducted examining potential reasons sexual minorities living in Utah may be at higher risk. Using two representative samples of...
Background:
Social support is believed to be important for fostering adolescent resilience following sexual abuse. Caregiver support is often examined as a source of support for adolescents, but divine support (support from God or a higher power) has received scant research attention.
Objective:
This study examines relations of caregiver support...
Dyadic discussions that directly tap into spouses' views on spirituality and religiousness (S/R) represent an understudied but important facet of marital functioning that may be tied, for better or worse, to marital conflict and resolution processes. This study used longitudinal data gathered from 164 married couples across the transition to parent...
Objective
We sought to be the first published article to report differences in population-representative prevalence of suicidal thoughts and attempts by sexual orientation.
Method
Data from Utah’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) collected for 2016 (N = 10,988) and 2017 (N = 10,251) were examined to determine differences in the p...
There is a growing need for culturally specific information regarding the intersections of religion, spirituality, and various sexual orientations/attractions. In this article, we attempt to provide clinicians, scholars, advocacy groups, and religious organizations with salient information regarding the psychological and interpersonal functioning o...
Marital and family issues are key predictors of the course and severity of a wide variety of mental health disorders. To that end, it is noteworthy that a substantial volume of research ties spirituality and religion (S/R) to emotional closeness of family relationships for many couples, parents, and children. In this chapter, we efficiently summari...
Objective: The present research consists of two studies examining the link between divine spiritual struggles—questions, doubts, and distress about one’s relationship to God or a higher power—and psychological adjustment among adolescents who have been sexually abused. Method: Study 1 was conducted with 102 adolescents (M = 13.53 years; 90% female)...
This study examined the extent to which 164 married heterosexuals’ reports of the sanctification of marriage and spiritual intimacy during pregnancy predicted the trajectory of the couples’ observed intimacy skills during late pregnancy and when their first child was 3, 6, and 12 months old. At each time point, couples were videotaped in their home...
This chapter discusses ways family psychologists can overcome barriers that may discourage them from working with religious leaders (e.g., rabbis, priests, ministers, imams) and form bridges with religious organizations to promote the well-being of diverse families. First, the chapter highlights obstacles that psychologists, marriage and family the...
Research attending to the role of religion and spirituality in enhancing sexuality in marriage is virtually absent. In response to this scarcity, this longitudinal study examined sanctification of marital sexuality among newly married, heterosexual individuals (N = 67; married 4-18 months at Time 1). Greater sanctification of marital sexuality earl...
This study investigates a potential causal effect of mothers' perceptions of the fairness of infant care on their postpartum depression. Based on the tenets of equity theory, it is hypothesized that, net of controls, mothers who see infant care as fairly apportioned between themselves and their husbands will be less depressed than others. We utiliz...
This paper examines some of the contributions psychology is making to the study of the sacred and its role in human functioning. The focus here is not on the ontological reality of the sacred, but rather perceptions of the sacred. We suggest that psychological theory and research on this topic offers: a clarification of the meaning of the sacred; n...
This chapter reviews the growing research on sanctification, one aspect of spirituality that involves perceiving a deeper dimension in life. Sanctification can be defined as individuals interpreting aspects of life as having sacred qualities and/or as being a manifestation of God(s)/higher power(s). Various dimensions of life can be seen through th...
How is the perceived fairness of infant care affected by spouses' relative contributions to it and to other domains of their relationship? Longitudinal data on 178 couples expecting the birth of their first child were collected during a period spanning approximately the first year of the child's life. Overall, wives were more likely than husbands t...
Considerable research has examined reciprocal ties between religiosity/spirituality (R/S) and parenting within families headed by heterosexual married and single parents (Mahoney, 2010). Yet, no systematic studies have explored interlinkages between parenting and R/S within families headed by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) i...
Aggression against siblings has been associated with a number of negative outcomes within community samples of children and adolescents, but little is known about this phenomenon within clinical samples. The current study empirically identified subtypes of sibling aggression, assessed prevalence within a clinic-referred sample of children and adole...
This article examines contemporary research regarding the connection between religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and family structure and functioning. Religion and family are strongly connected, and religious institutions and beliefs influence the formation of families, fertility, childrearing behaviors, divorce, and coping with family co...
Recent national surveys show that older youth who have experienced parental divorce tend to disengage from organized religion but feel as close to God as peers from intact families. In this paper, we offer a conceptual model and concrete guidelines to help adults engage in sensitive, yet direct, dialogues with older youth about the spiritual dimens...
We offer a model for mental health professionals based on research on the effects of spiritual and religious coping when a woman is currently in a relationship marked by situational interpersonal violence. The scant empirical research on the role of spirituality in shaping how women cope with being the target of physical aggression at the hands of...
This special section on faith and family life presents 5 studies that each offer novel insights into the complex web of linkages between a target family member's religious and/or spiritual (R/S) functioning and parental or family factors that may influence the target family member's psychological or R/S functioning. The outcome domain of interest i...
This quantitative study examined the intersecting roles of sexual activity and religion/spirituality in college students’ adjustment to nonmarital romantic breakups. Four hundred forty-five undergraduate students (72% female) who had experienced the dissolution of an exclusive romantic relationship (M = 11.96 months in duration, SD = 12.61; M = 15....
In light of the ongoing salience of spirituality and religion for individuals across the globe, this special section presents four rigorous empirical studies that tie conceptually based and potentially malleable spiritual constructs to better marital functioning. These studies exemplify an emerging subfield called Relational Spirituality, which foc...
Extant literature suggests that religiousness is inversely related to adolescent substance use; yet, no systematic investigation has examined whether religiousness may be a protective factor against substance use in the presence of risk factors. We examined whether religiousness moderates the links between parents' psychological and physical aggres...
A growing literature supports the importance of understanding the link between religiosity and youths' adjustment and development, but in the absence of rigorous, longitudinal designs, questions remain about the direction of effect and the role of family factors. This paper investigates the bidirectional association between adolescents' relationshi...
We examined whether 164 heterosexual, married couples' reports of the sanctification of their marriage and their spiritual intimacy predicted their observed behavior across the transition to parenthood, using highly conservative statistical strategies to control for time-invariant factors and time-varying factors (marital love, collaborative commun...
Despite numerous studies on adolescent well-being, longitudinal research on the influence of religion on well-being is lacking, and limited studies have looked at how family and religion may work in conjunction with one another to influence adolescent well-being. This study addresses these limitations by using longitudinal data on 5,739 youth to ex...
Using a culturally informed risk-protective framework, the purpose of this study was to examine spiritual well-being (existential, religious) as a moderator (protective factor) in the relation between neighborhood disorder (risk factor) and parenting stress in a high-risk sample of low-socioeconomic status (SES) African American women (N = 144). Th...
The family is the principal context for religious and spiritual socialization. Although religion remains a central force in the lives of most African Americans, research has failed to explore the role and impact of family on religious socialization within this population. This study addresses that gap in the literature by 1) exploring adults’ perce...
Several decades of research have demonstrated a link between marital, parenting, and child domains. The present study examined the nature of these links by testing the moderating effect of the parent–child relationship on the association between the parenting alliance and internalizing and externalizing problems in 324 dual-parent families of 2-to-...
The goals of this study were first, to delineate the co-occurrence of parental severe physical aggression and verbal aggression toward clinic-referred adolescents, and second, to examine the interactive effects of parental severe physical aggression and verbal aggression on adolescent externalizing and internalizing behavior problems. This research...
Objective: This study examines the relationship between religious and spiritual coping with pregnancy and individual and marital adjustment of married first-time parents. Background: Pregnancy can be a time of heightened stress for fathers and mothers. To cope with these stressors, parents can turn to positive and negative forms of religious and sp...
This study investigated the associations between fathers' contributions to housework and childcare and both spouses' parenting aggravation. It was hypothesized that greater father contributions to domestic labor would be associated with more paternal aggravation but less maternal aggravation. Data are from a four-wave study of 178 married couples u...
This study of 164 married couples examined longitudinal links between parents' perceptions of coparenting support and undermining by spouse at 6 months postpartum and infant behaviour problems at the age of 12 months after controlling for marital quality, individual parenting, and infant temperament. Multiple methods (i.e. parent reports and direct...
Given the growing pluralism in family structures within western societies,
this chapter highlights the role of religion and spirituality in the formation and maintenance of diverse types of families. We outline commonalities and differences that exist among major world religions about how to form and sustain family relationships. Consistent with th...
This study applied religious coping theory to examine the relationship between participants' perceptions that lesbian and gay (LG) individuals desecrate Christian values (the stressor) and anti-LG attitudes (the response) and whether religious coping influences the relationship between these variables. Greater agreement with desecration messages wa...
To the founding fathers of psychology, spiritual phenomena represented critically important topics for psychological study. Since the early part of the twentieth century, however, psychologists have tended to (a) ignore spirituality; (b) view spirituality as pathological; or (c) treat spirituality as a process that can be reduced to more basic unde...
With the introduction of a theory of spirituality, a new line of research has emerged that can facilitate a more in-depth understanding of religion and prejudice. Central to this line of research is the concept of desecration, or perceived violations of what the individual holds sacred. Empirical studies of desecration have consistently shown that...
This study represents the first longitudinal effort to use a spiritual stress and coping model to predict adults' psychosocial adjustment following divorce. A community sample of 89 participants completed measures at the time of their divorce and 1 year later. Though the sample endorsed slightly lower levels of religiosity than the general U.S. pop...
Research on the intersection of sexuality, religion, and spirituality has primarily examined whether global levels of religiousness (e.g., service attendance) deter premarital and extramarital sexual activity. Virtually no empirical work has addressed whether specific spiritual beliefs about sexuality enhance marital sexuality. Using a community sa...
Considerable debate exists regarding whether religiousness promotes or impedes greater father involvement in parenting. Our study addresses this issue using a Midwestern longitudinal dataset that tracks the transition to first parenthood for 169 married couples. We focus on performance of the "messier" tasks of infant care. We find little evidence...
The meaning-making process can be crucial to individuals as they adjust to their divorce.Demonization is a negative coping response (also known as spiritual struggle) that involves appraising someone or something as related to demonic forces. Individuals may cognitively frame a divorce as the work of Satan in order to understand suffering while mai...
Pargament's (1997) religious coping theory was used to examine the methods of coping with stressful interpersonal events experienced by 138 Muslims living in the United States following the 9/11 attacks. The large majority of participants reported experiencing at least one stressful interpersonal event after the 9/11 attacks related to being Muslim...
This study evaluated the efficacy of a spiritually integrated treatment (SIT) for subclinical anxiety in the Jewish community.
One hundred and twenty-five self-reported religious Jewish individuals with elevated levels of stress and worry received SIT (n=36), progressive muscle relaxation (PMR, n=42), or a waitlist control condition (WLC, n=47). SI...
This review examines the role of religion, for better and worse, in marital and parent-child relationships according to peer reviewed studies from 1999-2009. A conceptual framework labeled "relational spirituality" is used to: (a) organize the breadth of findings into the three stages of the formation, maintenance, and transformation of family rela...
Theory suggests that relationship inequity will be associated with less marital and personal distress among the more religious, and that this interaction effect will be stronger for women than men. Data are from 178 married couples experiencing the third trimester of pregnancy of their first biological child. Five outcome variables were assessed fo...
Young adults (N = 274; mean age = 18.9) recalled their spiritual responses to their parents’ divorce (M = 4.2 years ago). After controlling for general religiousness and spirituality, participants who had appraised the divorce as a sacred loss or desecration and experienced spiritual struggles over the divorce reported higher current depression, an...
This study examined the role of three spiritual responses to divorce for psychological adjustment: appraising the event as a sacred loss/desecration, engaging in adaptive spiritual coping, and experiencing spiritual struggles. A sample of 100 adults (55% female) was recruited through public divorce records. Most appraised their divorce as a sacred...
Although social scientists have convincingly demonstrated relationships between religious beliefs/practices and mental health, almost none of the empirical findings or related theory apply specifically to Jews. To address this limitation, we investigated the role of Jewish religiousness in anxiety, depression, and happiness, in a large Jewish commu...
Physical aggression directed toward parents by their adolescents is a serious issue both practically and scientifically. In contrast to the extensive literature on other forms of aggression within families (e.g., marital violence, child physical abuse) as well as youth aggression construed broadly, a major gap exists in our knowledge of youth-to-pa...
Religion is important to most U.S. families, but is often overlooked in research on children's development. This study examined parental religious beliefs about the sanctification of parenting, parental disciplinary strategies, and the development of young children's conscience in a sample of 58 two-parent families with a preschool child. Fathers w...
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A 60-item Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR) was developed in three stages: (a) Domains of Islam relevant to physical and mental health were identified via theory and semistructured interviews with 25 Muslims; (b) an initial version of PMIR was pilot tested with 64 Muslims from the United States and Israel; and (c) desirable psyc...
This study examined links between the appraisal that Muslims desecrate Christian values and teachings, religious coping methods, and anti-Muslim attitudes. Of the 192 Christian undergraduate participants, between 13.7% and 28% perceived Muslims as a threat to Christian values and teachings. After controlling for demographic and personological varia...
The authors reviewed 94 studies published in journals since 1980 on religion and marital or parental functioning. Meta-analytic techniques were used to quantify religion–family associations examined in at least 3 studies. Greater religiousness appeared to decrease the risk of divorce and facilitate marital functioning, but the effects were small. G...
In this paper, we offer a way to understand the spiritual dimension of clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse. Spirituality is defined as a search for the sacred--a process of discovery, conservation, and transformation that evolves over the lifespan. We describe the ways in which clergy-perpetrated sexual abuse impacts negatively on the individual's sear...
This study examines the role of spiritual disclosure within older adolescent-mother relationships. Spiritual disclosure is defined as mutual disclosure of personal religious and spiritual beliefs and practices. Three hundred 18- to 20-year-old college students and 130 of their mothers reported on spiritual disclosure in their relationships. Accordi...
Adults (N = 89; 59% female) recruited from divorce records reported levels of turning to God to forgive (TGF) themselves, their ex-spouse, and God for their divorce when it occurred (Time 1, Tl) and one year later (Time 2, T2). Seventy-five percent of participants reported TGF. T1 TGF predicted higher levels of T2 positive spiritual emotions, T2 ve...
Between 2004 and 2006, we conducted a three-stage program of research with the aim of developing and validating a measure of Islamic practices and beliefs that could be utilized in mental health research. The outcome of these efforts was a Psychological Measure of Islamic Religiousness (PMIR) that possesses desirable psychometric properties. In thi...
Drawing on religious coping theory, we examined whether the appraisal that Jews desecrate Christian values (the stressor) is linked to anti-Semitic attitudes (the response). Further, we considered whether religious ways of understanding and dealing with this stressor (religious coping) mitigate or exacerbate the ties between religious appraisals of...
A meta-analysis was conducted on the role of social relationships in adults' post-divorce adjustment. Twenty-one studies were coded and rich information was gained by comparing “specific relationships” (one-on-one contact with a specific person, such as a friend) with “network relationships” (being part of a group, such as a support group or church...
Prior to graduating from high school, the vast majority of youth in the United States will take part in at least one community service activity. Although it is frequently assumed that community service is inherently beneficial to those that take part, the activities and processes of youth service programs tend to be unsystematic and vary widely. In...
A growing body of research has examined links between religious beliefs and parenting practices. This study used the theoretical construct of sanctification to examine the degree to which parenting holds spiritual significance and meaning for parents and whether sanctification is related to parenting behaviors. Seventy—four mothers completed questi...
This article discusses how religion can substantively influence the manifestation and resolution of conflict in marital and parent-child relationships. Religious systems of meaning are proposed to influence conflict by promoting which goals and values should be sought in family life and the appropriate means to achieve these ends. Conflict can be a...
This study applies the construct of sanctification to college students' perceptions of their bodies. Students (N = 289) completed measures on the extent to which they viewed their bodies as being a manifestation of God (e.g., "My body is a temple of God") and as characterized by sacred qualities (e.g., holy, blessed, sacred). Greater levels of both...
This study examines the intersection between spirituality and premarital sexuality. College students from a Midwestern university (N = 151) completed measures of their beliefs about the sanctification of sexual intercourse in loving, nonmarital relationships. A subsample of 65 participants completed parallel measures regarding current sexual relati...
Most adults in a community sample (N = 150; ages 25-56) perceived their top 10 strivings as being connected to God (theistic sanctification) and having sacred, transcendent qualities (nontheistic sanctification), with highest ratings given to religious goals, family relationships, altruistic endeavors, and existential concerns. Greater sanctificati...
In this study, we proposed that people understand major life events in terms of spiritual as well as psychological, social, and physical dimensions. Specifically, we examined the possibility that life events that are perceived to be sacred losses or violations of the sacred (i.e., desecrations) have significant implications for the health and well-...
We use Pargament's (1997) definition of religion-"the search for significance in ways related to the sacred"-as a framework to understand spiritual conversion. Like other life-changing transformations, spiritual conversion alters the destinations that clients perceive to be of greatest importance in life (significance) and the pathways by which cli...
We developed and validated a measure that would comprehensively capture religious coping strategies used by Hindus in the United States (U.S.). Based on qualitative interviews with Hindus (N = 15) and existing religious coping measures, a Hindu religious coping scale was constructed. After a pilot test of this scale among Hindus in the Midwest (N =...
The authors examined religious practices of Hindus in the United States and developed measures of their religious pathways. Based on reviews of the psychology of religion, Hindu literature, and interviews with Hindus (N=15), 4 religious pathways were identified: devotion, ethical action, knowledge, and physical restraint/yoga. Items reflecting thes...
This study examined the interplay of marital and severe parental physical aggression, and their links to child behavior problems, in 232 families of clinic-referred adolescents. Combined reports from mothers and adolescents indicated that two thirds of adolescents exposed to marital aggression in the past year had also experienced parental aggressi...
This study examined the interplay of marital and severe parental physical aggression, and their links to child behavior problems, in 232 families of clinic-referred adolescents. Combined reports from mothers and adolescents indicated that two thirds of adolescents exposed to marital aggression in the past year had also experienced parental aggressi...
Despite ample evidence that global indexes of religiousness are linked to family functioning, the mechanisms by which religion uniquely influences family dynamics are not well understood or empirically documented. To advance the scientific study of religion's role in families, we delineate how the construct of sanctification applies to marital and...
Psychology after World War II became a science largely devoted to healing. It concentrated on repairing damage using a disease model of human functioning. This almost exclusive attention to pathology neglected the idea of a fulfilled individual and a thriving community, and it neglected the possibility that building strength is the most potent weap...
The authors reviewed 94 studies published in journals since 1980 on religion and marital or parental functioning. Meta-analytic techniques were used to quantify religion-family associations examined in at least 3 studies. Greater religiousness appeared to decrease the risk of divorce and facilitate marital functioning, but the effects were small. G...
We examined the association of two distinct religious forces, sanctification of nature and theological conservatism, with environmental beliefs (humans take precedence over the environment and human actions hurt nature), willingness to sacrifice personal funds for the environment, and behaviors (participation in green activities) among three sample...
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