Does family process mediate the effect of religiosity on adolescent deviance? Revisiting the notion of spuriousness

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the nature of the relationship between both religiosity and family process with deviance. There are few studies, however, that investigate the interplay among religiosity, family process, and deviance. The current study sought to examine whether family process mediates the relationship between religiosity (conceptualized as ritualistic participation and relational practice) and deviance. High school students (N = 865) responded to survey questions dealing with religiosity (two scales), family process (six scales for both mothers and fathers), and deviance (seven subscales and a total deviance scale). A structural equation modeling (SEM) analytic approach was used. Results indicated that family process did not mediate the relationship between religiosity and deviance. Relational practice was found to be a more robust predictor of deviant behavior than ritualistic participation. Future research in this area should seek to improve methods of data collection (e.g., multimethod) and to develop better scalar measures of religiosity.