Carolyn McNamara Barry

Religion and Immigrant-Origin Youth: A Resource and a Challenge

For immigrant-origin groups, the context of religion often promotes bonding, purpose, and community, yet has received scant scholarly attention. This cross-sectional, qualitative study of ethnically and religiously diverse immigrant- origin adolescents and young adults (Nu2009=u2009114) afforded multiple perspectives on the role of religion, and found that religion and religious contexts served as challenges and resources for immigrant-origin youth with respect to: (a) the extent of support amidst the larger U.S. context; (b) heritage and/or liturgical language; and (c) contribution and volunteering. These findings have implications for researchers and providers who serve immigrant-origin youth and their families.

Associations among body dissatisfaction, gender, and three latent profiles of religiosity

ABSTRACT Body dissatisfaction is a too-common issue for young women in the US. Body dissatisfaction is a rising issue with young men too, although their average body dissatisfaction remains lower than young women’s. Religiosity has been negatively linked to body dissatisfaction for women, but the relation for men is unclear. The current study (Nu2009=u20095104) built upon a previous latent profile analysis of a large, diverse sample of US. college students Multi-Site University Study of Identity and Culture (MUSIC). We examined whether body dissatisfaction scores were related to three religious classes, when depressive symptoms were controlled for, and whether gender moderated that potential relation. Body dissatisfaction scores were significantly related to religious class. Gender had a main effect although not a moderating effect: men had better body dissatisfaction than women did, and their religious class similarly affected their body dissatisfaction scores. Religiosity appears important for emerging adult men’s body dissatisfaction, like for emerging adult women.

Emerging Adults' Psychosocial Adjustment: Does a Best Friend's Gender Matter?

COPYRIGHT 2013 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 18, NO. 3/ISSN 2164-8204) *Faculty mentor Friendships are advantageous to psychosocial development throughout the lifespan, but may become increasingly important during the third decade of life as individuals turn to friends instead of parents for support, advice, and companionship (Fehr, 2000). Indeed, due to demographic shifts that have delayed marital and parenthood timing and increased the pursuit of higher education, Arnett (2011) contended that the years from 18 to 29 are characterized by identity explorations, instability (e.g., changing roommates, love partners, jobs, educational directions), self-focus, feeling in-between adolescence and adulthood, and possibilities. As emerging adults experiment with romantic partners, they simultaneously forge close friendships in support of what Erikson (1968) called the young adulthood psychosocial crisis of emotional intimacy versus isolation. Because the majority of best friendships are with members of the same gender1 (Demir & Özdemir, 2010), much of this research on friendships has focused on these relationships and their contribution to psychosocial adjustment; consequently, less is known about the association of other-gender friendships with well-being (c.f., Monsour, 2002). Other-gender friendships provide opportunities for intimacy, companionship, perspective into the world of the other gender, and sexual exploration (among heterosexuals). Significant gender differences exist in emerging adults’ same-gender friendships, such that women tend to focus more on the intimacy aspects of friendships, although men focus mainly on agency (Ruble, Martin, & Berenbaum, 2006). Thus, othergender friendships might impact adjustment differentially for men and women. In this study, we examined emerging adults’ gender and the role of their friends’ gender on psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-worth, identity, friendship quality, and social physique anxiety). ABSTRACT. Friendship quality has been associated with psychosocial adjustment throughout the lifespan. Although emerging adults’ friendships differ by gender, little is known about how the gender of emerging adults and their friends are related to their psychosocial adjustment. Undergraduate students from 4 U.S. universities (N = 792) completed an online study. Women reported higher levels of self-worth, identity commitment, social physique anxiety, and friendship quality than did men, F(5, 779) = 10.12, p < .001, η2 = .06. A gender x friend’s gender interaction was found, F(5, 779) = 3.22, p = .007, η2 = .02, such that women with male friends reported lower levels of self-worth and more social physique anxiety compared to those with female friends, and men with female friends reported lower levels of self-worth compared to those with male friends. Thus, gender differences existed in emerging adults’ psychosocial adjustment, but the gender of friends also aided in explaining that adjustment. Emerging Adults’ Psychosocial Adjustment: Does a Best Friend’s Gender Matter?