The relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith: An empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old students

This study explores the relationship between psychological health and attitude toward theistic faith among 2,067 13- to 15-year-old students attending secondary schools across Wales, building upon existing empirical research which examines the association between Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality (a measure of psychological health), and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (a measure of affective religiosity). The participants completed the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith together with the abbreviated Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-A). The data indicated that a positive attitude toward theistic faith was associated with neither higher nor lower neuroticism scores, but was associated with lower psychoticism scores. There is no evidence, therefore, to link a positive view of theistic faith with poorer levels of psychological health (in terms of higher neuroticism or higher psychoticism) among young people in Wales, and some evidence to associate a positive view of theistic faith with better levels of psychological health (in terms of lower psychoticism).

The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in Irish Theatre: A Cultural Study of O’Casey’s The Drums of Father Ned

While Irish theatre assures that it reflects Irish reality and aims at building a national identity in which religion is a significant marker, the plays of O’Casey contradict with this tendency. This study aims at discussing the conflict between an anti- Christian and pagan beliefs and Christian values in favor of anti- Christianity over Christianity. In this article, the researcher takes O'Casey’s The Drums of Father Ned as an example. The study discussed the tension between the pagan and Christian values as represented in the conflict between the pagan and religious characters, represented by Father Fillfogue who is the representative of Christianity; while The Celtic god Angus represents Pagan Celtic anti-Christian religion. Finally, the study proved that O'Casey presented a skeptical attitude toward Christianity and favored pagan Irish local, regional beliefs.

Monitoring attitude toward Christianity among year 5 and year 6 students attending Church in Wales primary schools

This study argues that assessment of student attitudes provides insight into the culture and climate of schools. The Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was employed to explore the Christian culture and climate of Anglican church primary schools within the state-maintained sector across Wales. The analysis drew on responses from 1,899 students from year 5 and year 6. The data demonstrated that the majority of students held a positive attitude toward Christianity, that female students held a more positive attitude than did male students, and that a significant decline in positive attitude toward Christianity took place over the two year groups.

Personality and religion among female university students in France

The short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was completed by 462 female university students between the ages of 18 and 30 in France, together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The findings are consistent with those from a series of studies employing the same measure of religiosity among school pupils and adults in England and Wales, thus adding to the cross-cultural evidence concerning the stability of the association between personality and religion. According to these findings there is an inverse relationship between psychoticism and religiosity, while neither neuroticism nor extraversion is either positively or negatively related to religiosity. These findings are discussed in terms of Eysenck’s theory relating personality to social attitudes and in light of discrepant findings proposed by other studies conducted among adult samples. Personalidad y religión entre los estudiantes del sexo femenino en universidades de Francia Resumen: 462 jóvenes francesas de entre 18 y 30 años cumplimentaron la forma abreviada y revisada del cuestionario de personalidad de Eysenck junto con la escala de actitudes hacia el Cristianismo de Francis. Los resultados son equivalentes a una serie de resultados de estudios utilizando la misma escala de religión entre estudiantes y adultos en Inglaterra y Gales. Según estos resultados, existe una relación inversa entre el psicoticismo y la religión, aunque ni el neuroticismo ni la extraversión tienen una relación positiva o negativa con la religión. Se habla de estos resultados en términos de la teoría de Eysenck que relaciona la personalidad con las actitudes sociales y teniendo en cuenta los resultados discrepantes propuestos por otros estudios con muestras adultas.