Original scientific paper

Death in the Family and Religiosity

Goran MILAS orcid.org/0000-0002-7202-3338 ; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb

Abstract

In the paper the author analyses the connection between
religiosity and the loss of a close family member. Substantial
research has shown that people exposed to traumatic events,
such as the death of a close family member, turn to religion
as a way of coping. In case this assumption is confirmed, the
correlation between religiosity and the death of close family
members should be positive. The research was conducted by
means of a face-to-face interview on a probabilistic sample
of 1525 adult citizens of Croatia. Statistical analysis has
shown that the initial hypothesis is in part correct, i.e. that
the correlation between religiosity and the experience of the
death of a child is low but positive. The loss of other close
family members, a partner or a parent, is in no correlation
with religiosity. We assumed that religiosity had a
mediational role in coping with the death of a child, i.e. that
it contributed to the satisfactory result of coping. The
mediational analysis that was conducted could not refute this
hypothesis. It therefore represents a persuasive explanation
of the established correlations.

Keywords

death in the family; trauma; coping; religiosity

Hrčak ID:

52186

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/52186

Publication date:

1.5.2010.

Article data in other languages: croatian german

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