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RELIGIOSITY, PURPOSE IN LIFE, AND OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO FAMILY SUCCESS: A NATIONAL STUDY

TIMOTHY SCOTT RAMPEY, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship of religiosity, purpose of life, and personal values and characteristics with family success among a sample of 341 parents and 289 offspring. All parents had at least two children between the ages of 25 and 35 but no child over 35. All offspring were between 25 and 35 with at least one sibling between these ages but none over 35. The sample was predominately white, middle class, and well educated. Scales employed included four independent religiosity measures developed by Hoge, and King and Hunt; the Purpose in Life Test; and the Family Success Scale (FSS). The FSS was developed for the present investigation. Good reliability and validity were reported. Several statistical procedures were used to analyze the data. Statistical significance was established at the p < .001 level. Analysis of variance indicated (a) parents tend to be more religious than offspring, and (b) parents tend to have more perceived purpose in life than offspring. Computation of Pearson correlations revealed that (a) parents and offspring who are more religious tend to perceive greater purpose in life; (b) some types of religiosity have little or no relationship to the degree of success a family experiences both for the parent generation and the offspring generation; (c) at least one aspect of religiosity, involvement in the activities of religious organizations, is related to the degree of success a family experiences for both parents and offspring; and (d) having more purpose in life is related to greater family success. Numerous single-items measuring personal values and characteristics were factor analyzed and the derived factors correlated with family success. Several significant correlations were found and reported. Step-wise multiple regression analysis revealed that 31% of total FSS variance could be explained for the parent group and 43% for the offspring group. Purpose in life was the best predictor of family success of the several variables examined, accounting for 20% and 18% of the total FSS variance for parent and offspring groups, respectively.

Subject Area

Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology

Recommended Citation

RAMPEY, TIMOTHY SCOTT, "RELIGIOSITY, PURPOSE IN LIFE, AND OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO FAMILY SUCCESS: A NATIONAL STUDY" (1983). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8412319.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8412319

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