The Effect of Religious Participation on Aggression Over One’s Lifetime and Across Generations

D uring the past decade, there has been a burgeoning interest in the role of religiosity in family functioning and child and adolescent adjustment (e.g., bridges & moore, 2002; mahoney, Pargament, swank, & Tarakeshwar, 2001) and as a resource for adults coping with stress (Pargament, 1997, 2007). The focus of this chapter is on the role of religiosity across the life span in predicting adulthood aggressiveness. we use data from a 40-year prospective longitudinal study to examine (1) the extent to which parental religiosity when a child is 8 years old is related to the child’s religiosity at ages 19, 30, and 48, and the grandchild’s religiosity; and (2) the extent to which grandparental, parental, and child religiosity act as long-term protective factors against aggressive behavior in childhood, youth, and adulthood.