Challenges and Solutions
Substance Dependence Among the LGBTQ+ Community in the Religious and Rural Southern United States
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hannah Ash Hannah
My work considers why substance abuse and dependence may be higher in the rural southern United States. I look specifically at Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and less popular sects of religion to evaluate spaces held for members of the LGBTQ+ community within these religious groups. Additionally, the study may provide solutions for sobriety and harm reduction practices in the rural southern United States for special groups, like the LGBTQ+ community, My paper takes an intersectional view of the aforementioned issues in terms of religion, class, race, and sexuality.
Buffering the Effects of Religious Incongruence on Adolescent-parent Connectedness: An Intergenerational Solidarity Perspective View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Emily Taylor
American adolescents are leaving shared family religions at record levels. This trend threatens to divide families because when parents and children experience religious differences, their relational satisfaction tends to decrease, conflict increases, and family connection may weaken. Based on the theory of intergenerational solidarity theory, we explored how dynamic changes in religious congruence (consensual solidarity) between parent and adolescent might lead to decreased social connection (affectual solidarity). We hypothesize that adolescent empathy and parenting style might buffer the negative effects of religious incongruence on adolescent-parent connection. The sample featured 500 families drawn from Waves 3-5 of the nationally-representative Flourishing Families data set. We operationalized religious incongruence between parents and children as independent variables, creating three absolute value religious incongruence variables for prayer, religious importance, and worship service attendance. We ran three models of regressions for the three religious incongruence variables of prayer, religious importance, and worship service attendance. As expected, empathy and authoritative parenting style did increase adolescent connection despite religious incongruence. However, we identified several interactions between religious incongruence variables and our moderators. Differing levels of prayer interacted with adolescent empathy to buffer the effects of religious discord. In contrast, authoritarian or coercive parenting styles interacted at Wave 5 with both religious importance and worship service attendance incongruence to decrease connection. The present study is among the first to study the role of adolescent empathy in buffering the effects of decreased adolescent religiosity on family connection.
Featured The Women’s Burden: Iranian Theocracy and the Case of Mahsa Amini View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Melanie Rae Perez
Over the past few weeks, there has been an overwhelming amount protests and outcry following the murder of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Islamic Religious Police. Amini’s murder was preceded by her arrest due an incorrect hijab according to the morality laws in place. This has led to many Muslim feminists and activists to speak out against the government as well as question the foundations in which their society is built. The murder of Mahsa Amini, while connected to the hijab law, has served as a catalyst and symbol of the authoritarian theocracy. This paper argues how such laws are only part of a repressive regime that have inevitably oppressed women and therefore, a whole society. Through an investigation of the history and religious doctrine that supports morality laws and the over-policing of women in Iran, this paper hopes to connect the murder of Mahsa Amini to an unjust system that violates women’s rights, human rights, and international law.
