Date

12-2011

Department

Counseling Department

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Chair

Jeanne Brooks

Primary Subject Area

Psychology, General; Psychology, Clinical

Abstract

Nearly 60 percent of America's children will spend part of their childhood in a single parent family in one form or another. Past research has examined correlations between spirituality and mental as well as physical health. In addition, there is a marginal amount of study regarding the parental influence of faith on child outcomes in two-parent families. A quantitative study utilizing a cross-sectional design was employed. Data analysis was completed employing a series of multiple regressions to ascertain the correlations of the aforementioned constructs. The study revealed that parental religious commitment to faith was significantly correlated with the development of morality in their offspring for both single and two-parent families. It was also found that family structure significantly correlated with academic attainment, with two-parent offspring having a significantly higher GPA than single parent offspring. However, when the single and two-parent data was separated out and the same analyses ran, it was found that single parent participants faith scores were significantly correlated with both morality and resiliency and marginally with academic attainment. The most significant outcome of this study is that it provides new insights regarding the influence of spiritually (faith) as a mediating factor that could be instilled into current literature and research for the benefit and encouragement of single and two-parent families alike.

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