"And Thy Neighbor as Thyself": Self-Esteem and Faith in People as Correlates of Religiosity and Family Solidarity among Middletown High School Students

Abstract

findings. The model tested in this paper suggests that church attendance and other dimensions of religiosity affect both self-esteem and attitudes toward other people. The dependent variables are Rosenberg's Self Esteem and Faith in People (misanthropy) scales. Independent variables include parental social class, family solidarity, measures of personal school achievement, church attendance, and religious preference. Data were collected in 1977 as part of a replication of surveys of the midwestern community of Middletown done by Robert and Helen Lynd in the 1920s. Subjects were randomly selected high school students (Total N = 1,673, but because there were alternate forms of the instrument the actual N for testing the proposed model is about 500). Findings reveal little relationship between religiosity and self-esteem, but church attendance is significantly related to faith in people. This paper explores the relationship between religiosity, as reflected in denominational identity and church attendance, and the attitudes one has toward other people and toward the self. As such, it falls into the category of research on the religion-personality nexus, which as recently as 1979 was described as a neglected area in which studies of self-esteem and religious variables were particularly scarce (Smith et al., 1978: 51). The proposition to be tested is a simple one: it is that religiosity, however measured, has a positive effect on self-esteem and attitudes toward others.