The effects of religiousness on parenting stress and practices in the African American family

Despite numerous anecdotal assertions and budding empirical evidence, the profession of social work continues to ignore the influence of religiousness on parenting practices in the African American family. This study expands on what is already known and asks two related questions: Does religiousness influence parenting practices, and does religiousness influence parenting stress in the African American family? Moreover, this study uses a multidimensional measure of religiousness, allowing for an analysis of what specific aspects of religiousness (service attendance, private worship, or subjective/intrinsic religiousness) influence parenting. Results reveal that private worship and intrinsic religiousness (i.e., spirituality) positively influence parenting practices, but that attendance at religious services was not related to parenting. Moreover, religiousness had no influence on parenting stress.