Parent and child antisocial problems: Moderation by emerging adult religiosity and gender

Parental antisocial problems have a strong influence upon their children's antisocial problems but studies suggest that personal religiosity can serve as a protective factor. No studies have yet examined personal religiosity in connection to parental and child antisocial problems. The current study asked 435 emerging adults aged 18 to 25 years attending a large Southern United States university to report upon the antisocial problems of their parents via the Antisocial Problems DSM subscale of the Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL), and their own antisocial problems on the Antisocial Problems DSM subscale of the Adult Self-Report (ASR) and religiosity on the Stearns-McKinney Assessment of Religious Traits (SMART). Structural equation modeling was used to measure whether personal religiosity and gender (parent and participant) moderated the relationship between perceived parental and child antisocial problems. Results indicated that emerging adult religiosity was associated with a weaker the association between maternal and emerging adult antisocial problems for sons and daughters; however, emerging adult religiosity was associated with a weaker association between paternal and emerging adult antisocial problems only for daughters. For male participants, emerging adult religiosity served as a stronger moderator between maternal and emerging adult antisocial problems than paternal and emerging adult problems, indicating a 3-way interaction by parental gender.