Abstract
Women are found to be more religious than men and more likely to use religious coping. Only few studies have explored religious gender differences in more secular societies. This population-based study comprised 3,000 Danish men and women (response rate 45 %) between 20 and 40 years of age. Information about demographics, religiousness and religious coping was obtained through a web-based questionnaire. We organized religiousness in the three dimensions: Cognition, Practice and Importance, and we assessed religious coping using the brief RCOPE questionnaire. We found substantial gender differences in both religiousness and religious coping. Nearly, 60 % of the women believed in some sort of spirit or in God compared to 40 % of the men. Generally, both men and women scored low on the RCOPE scale. However, for respondents reporting high levels of religiousness, the proportion of men who scored high in the RCOPE exceeded the proportion of women in using positive and especially negative coping strategies. Also, in a secular society, women are found to be more religious than men, but in a subset of the most religious respondents, men were more inclined to use religious coping. Further studies on religious coping in secular societies are required.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ausker, N. (2008). Danske patienter intensiverer eksistentielle tanker og religiøst liv. Ugeskrift for Læger, 170(21), 1828–1833.
Bjorck, J. P., & Thurman, J. W. (2007). Negative life events, patterns of positive and negative religious coping, and psychological functioning. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 46(2), 159–167.
Christensen, K., Petersen, I., Skytthe, A., Herskind, A. M., McGue, M., & Bingley, P. (2006). Comparison of academic performance of twins and singletons in adolescence: Follow-up study. BMJ, 333(7578), 1095. doi:10.1136/bmj.38959.650903.7C.
Cotton, S., Puchalski, C. M., Sherman, S. N., Mrus, J. M., Peterman, A. H., Feinberg, J., et al. (2006). Spirituality and religion in patients with HIV/AIDS spirituality and religion in patients with HIV/AIDS. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21, S5–S13. doi:10.1111/j.1535-1497.2006.00642.x.
Flannelly, K. J., & Galek, K. (2010). Religion, evolution, and mental health: Attachment theory and ETAS theory. Journal of Religion and Health, 49(3), 337–350. doi:10.1007/s10943-009-9247-9.
Francis, L. (1997). The psychology of gender differences in religion: A review of empirical research. Religion, 27, 81–96.
Folkekirken. Folkekirken.dk [web page]. Den Danske Folkekirke. Available from http://www.folkekirken.dk/.
Gallup, G. J., & Lindsay, D. M. (1999). Surveying the religious landscape. Trends in the US. Harrisburg: Morehouse pub.
Gundelach, P. (2008a). Institutioner og mentaliteter. In: I hjertet af danmark (pp. 36–38). Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels forlag.
Gundelach, P. (2008b). European Values Study 2008: Denmark (EVS 2008). Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hayes, B. C. (1996). Gender differences in religious mobility in Great Britain. The British Journal of Sociology, 47(4), 643–656.
Iversen, H. R., & Højsgaard, M. T. (2005). Gudstro i Danmark (1st ed.). København: ANIS.
Johnson, W., Krueger, R. F., Bouchard, T. J, Jr, & McGue, M. (2002). The personalities of twins: Just ordinary folks. Twin Research: The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, 5(2), 125–131. doi:10.1375/1369052022992.
Koenig, L. (2011). The behavioral genetics of religiousness. Theology and Science, 9(2), 199–212.
Kraemer, B., Winter, U., Hauri, D., Huber, S., Jenewein, J., & Schnyder, U. (2009). The psychological outcome of religious coping with stressful life events in a Swiss sample of church attendees. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 78(4), 240–244. doi:10.1159/000219523.
Krageloh, C. U., Chai, P. P., Shepherd, D., & Billington, R. (2010). How religious coping is used relative to other coping strategies depends on the individual’s level of religiosity and spirituality. Journal of Religion and Health,. doi:10.1007/s10943-010-9416-x.
Krejci, M. J. (1998). Gender comparison of god schemas: A multidimensional scaling analysis. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 8(1), 57–66.
Maselko, J., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2006). Gender differences in religious practices, spiritual experiences and health: Results from the US General Social Survey. Social Science and Medicine, 62(11), 2848–2860. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.008.
Maynard, E. A., Gorsuch, R. L., & Bjorck, J. P. (2001). Religious coping style, concept of god, and personal religious variables in threat, loss, and challenge situations. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(1), 65–74.
Ozorak, E. W. (1996). The power, but not the glory: How women empower themselves through religion. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 35(1), 17–29.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New York: The Guildford Press.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519–543. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1097-4679(200004)56:4<519:AID-JCLP6>3.0.CO;2-1.
Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 710–724.
Petersen, I., Martinussen, T., McGue, M., Bingley, P., & Christensen, K. (2011). Lower marriage and divorce rates among twins than among singletons in Danish birth cohorts 1940–1964. Twin Research and Human Genetics : The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies, 14(2), 150–157. doi:10.1375/twin.14.2.150.
Tomassini, C., Juel, K., Holm, N. V., Skytthe, A., & Christensen, K. (2003). Risk of suicide in twins: 51 year follow up study. BMJ, 327(7411), 373–374. doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7411.373.
Warburg, M., & Jacobsen, B. (2007). Tørre tal om troen. Religionsdemografi i det 21. århundrede. Forlaget Univers. 1. udgave. 1. oplag.
World Values Survey. (2006). Available from http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/.
Zuckerman, P. (2008). Samfund uden Gud (trans: K. Bek-Pedersen). Univers.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by US National Institute on Aging grant NIA-PO1-AGO31719, the Health Insurance Foundation and the Aase and Ejnar Danielsen Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hvidtjørn, D., Hjelmborg, J., Skytthe, A. et al. Religiousness and Religious Coping in a Secular Society: The Gender Perspective. J Relig Health 53, 1329–1341 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9724-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9724-z