Religiosity/spirituality and life satisfaction in Korean American adolescents

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate how multiple dimensions of religiosity/spirituality are related to life satisfaction in Korean American adolescents. The participants were 174 Korean American adolescents (91 boys, 83 girls) attending Korean Catholic churches in the Northeast Coast of the United States. The adolescents completed the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality and the Brief Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses were run to examine the contribution of eight dimensions of religiosity/spirituality (six positive and two negative aspects) to the prediction of life satisfaction, controlling for demographic variables. The results showed that when analyzed individually, all the positive aspects of R/S except the frequency of attending organizational religious activities were significant in predicting life satisfaction, while the negative aspects of R/S were insignificant. Also, when analyzed simultaneously, the three R/S dimensions of Daily Spiritual Experiences, Forgiveness, and Congregational Support remained significant and explained 33.6% of the variance in life satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2013 APA, all rights reserved.