Youth Matters
Featured Religious Education and Empathy: A Review of Empirical Research on Adolescents View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Evita Rentzi, Marios Koukounaras Liagkis
The social dimension of the human brain is a topic that has particularly concerned the scientific community in recent years. Empathy is the human ability to maintain social bonds, through understanding the situation of people belonging to the same group. Research shows that the skill of empathy promotes effective healthy social interaction. Developing empathy in the classroom leads to greater understanding of another's perspective and students are more likely to imitate empathic behaviors they observe in the classroom. The purpose of the research is to investigate whether the Religious Education, with didactic interventions based on experiential learning, contributes to the development of empathy in adolescent students (15-16 years old).
What is the Relationship between Religiosity, Childhood Attachment, and Childhood Trauma in Adulthood? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ashley Sainvil
The present study explores the relationship and possible effects of religiosity on both adverse childhood experiences and childhood attachment. Furthermore, to explore the idea that adult religiousness may play as a protective role, specifically protecting adults with a past of adverse childhood experiences and an insecure childhood attachment from reporting depression. Analyses are based on 57 participants (N= 57, 32.1% of ages 18-22; 70.2% female, 28.1% male, 1.8% other). In the form of an online Qualtrics survey through questionnaires, childhood attachment, adverse childhood experiences, sense of religiosity, and depression were measured. While not significant at conventional levels, there was no direct relationship between adverse childhood experiences, insecure childhood attachment, and sense of religiosity, and when assessing age for the relationship in later adulthood, there was no significance. Positive childhood experiences of feeling protected, love, and special had a direct relationship with a positive image and sense of closeness to God. Results highlight the importance of positive childhood experiences, secure childhood attachment quality relationship, such as trust, communication for positive health outcomes, such as less depression.
