Tara Carleton, Ralph L. Piedmont, Ph.D.
Impact of Spirituality/Religiousness on Sense of Coherence and Abortion Attitude among Women with an Unintended Pregnancy Stressor
Abstract
In the psychological literature, religious and spiritual practices have been seen
as positive coping mechanisms in times of stress (e.g., Bonelli, Dew, Koenig, Rossmarin,
& Vasegh, 2012). Sense of coherence, which is focused on aspects that promote health
and relates to coping with different stressors, has been seen to have a positive impact
on stress as well (Antonovsky, 1993). Unintended pregnancies, which include mistimed and unwanted pregnancies, have been seen as “an additional stressor during pregnancy” (Maxson & Miranda, 2011,
p. 1215) for some women. The first facet of the twofold purpose of this study focused
on spirituality, religiosity, and sense of coherence among women with a past unintended
pregnancy. The second facet of the study focused on religiosity, spirituality, and
attitude toward abortion among the sample. Religion has been seen as a prime aspect
to consider when exploring attitudes toward abortion, and religious individuals have
been seen to have a negative attitude toward abortion (e.g., Bartkowski, Ramos-Wada,
Ellison, & Acevedo, 2012). Participants were sought at a support center, as well as through a convenience sample
using a snowball sampling approach. Sixty-eight women of a variety of ages, races, and religious orientations, who had
experienced an unintended pregnancy stressor, completed a pencil and paper questionnaire that contained the following: self-report
short form of the Assessment of Spirituality and Religious Sentiments (ASPIRES, Piedmont
et al., 2008); International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-50); Sense of Coherence Scale
short form (Antonovsky, 1987), single-item Attitude Toward Abortion Scale; and a demographic
questionnaire. Based on the literature, it was hypothesized that spirituality would
predict sense of coherence and positive attitude toward abortion better than religiousness;
religiousness would predict negative attitude toward abortion better than spirituality; educational attainment would moderate the relationship
between religiousness and attitude toward abortion; and age would moderate the relationship
between religiousness and attitude toward abortion. Hierarchical multiple regression
analyses were conducted, controlling for personality, in accordance with Piedmont’s
(2005) call to advance the field via incremental validity studies. Contrary to the
hypotheses, spirituality did not predict sense of coherence or attitude toward abortion
better than religiousness. Religious involvement predicting negative attitude toward abortion, however, was supported;
the variable evidenced incremental validity explaining 43% of the additional variance
over and above the 17% explained by personality factors, β = .71, t(60) = 6.58, p < .001, ΔR2 = .43. Linear regression analyses were performed as well and included the respective interaction terms. In both analyses, there was a significant
main effect for religiosity, but contrary to the hypotheses, neither educational attainment nor age moderated the relationship
between religiosity and attitude toward abortion. Findings suggest the importance
of counselors exploring religion for clients with an unintended pregnancy stressor
who may be contemplating an abortion. In addition, findings also signal exploring
the religion of clients who are seeking healing post-abortion.
Keywords: spirituality, religiousness, sense of coherence, attitude toward abortion, unintended
pregnancy
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