Teachers at faith schools in England and Wales : state of research

This study begins by distinguishing between three kinds of ‘faith schools’ (known as schools with a religious character) within England and Wales: faith schools that operate within the state-maintained sector and had their origin in voluntary church-related initiatives prior to the Education Act 1870; ‘traditional’ independent faith schools, many of which had their roots in or before the nineteenth century; and ‘new’ independent faith schools, particularly Christian and Muslim schools, following the Rochester initiative in 1969. Second, this study draws attention to and summarises a quantitative research tradition established in 1982 concerned with identifying the attitudes and values of teachers working specifically within Anglican faith schools within the state-maintained sector, and with modelling the influence of personal and religious factors in shaping their attitudes. Third, this study reanalyses a new database profiling the views of subject leaders in religious education across a broad range of primary schools with a religious character in England. These new analyses demonstrate the different priorities given to different aims of religious education by teachers in this sector, and illustrates the relative influence of personal factors (age, sex and church attendance), professional factors (years teaching, qualifications, and continuing professional development) and contextual factors (type of school)

Prayer, purpose in life, and attitudes toward substances: a study among 13- to 15-year-olds in England and Wales

This study set out to examine the association between prayer frequency, purpose in life and attitude toward substances, among a sample of 2,563 13- to 15-year-old secondary school pupils in England and Wales. Multivariate models controlling for sex, school year and personality (as defined by the Eysenkian dimensional model) demonstrated that higher levels of purpose in life are associated with greater prayer frequency, and that more proscriptive attitudes toward substances are associated with both higher levels of purpose in life and greater prayer frequency. These findings are consistent with a model suggesting that prayer frequency promotes a more negative view of substances both directly and indirectly through cultivating a greater sense of purpose in life

Still worlds apart: The worldviews of adolescent males attending Protestant and Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland

This study draws together two research traditions: John Greer's pioneering research among pupils in Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and Leslie J. Francis's research concerning teenage religion and values in England and Wales. A sample of 1,585 13- to 15-year-old male pupils attending Catholic schools (n = 712) and Protestant schools (n = 873) completed the Teenage Religion and Values Survey. The present analyses highlight the significant differences in world views between the Catholic and Protestant adolescents across eight domains defined as: religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, church-related attitudes, attitudes toward sex and family life, law-related attitudes, school-related attitudes, locality-related attitudes, and personal anxiety and depression. These data confirm that in many key ways young people growing up in these two religious communities are still living worlds apart

The relationship between denominational affiliation and spiritual health among weekly-churchgoing 13- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

THIS PAPER DRAWS on John Fisher’s formative definition of spiritual health as comprising good relationships within four domains (the personal, the communal, the environmental and the transcendental) and uses the operationalization of these constructs proposed by Francis and Robbins (2005). Comparisons are made between the responses of five groups of 13- to 15-year-olds who report weekly church attendance: 1,549 Anglicans, 1,458 Roman Catholics, 830 members of one of the Free Churches, 212 members of one of the Pentecostal churches, and 212 Jehovah’s Witnesses. The data demonstrate significant variations in the levels of spiritual health reported by weekly churchgoers according to denominational affiliation. The conclusion is drawn that denominational affiliation needs to be taken into account alongside frequency of church attendance in constructing a view of the relationship between Christian practice and spiritual health during the adolescent years

Work-related psychological health among Church of England clergywomen : individual differences and psychological type

Using the balanced affect model of work-related psychological health proposed and measured by the Francis Burnout Inventory, this paper set out to assess the work-related psychological health of a sample of 874 stipendiary parochial clergywomen working within the Church of England to examine the association between work-related psychological health and psychological type as assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrate that these clergywomen experience a high level of emotional exhaustion often off-set by a high level of satisfaction in ministry, but that these levels are roughly consistent with those reported by clergymen and clergywomen working in other cultural and denominational contexts. In terms of psychological type theory, the data demonstrate that extraverts and feelers enjoy a better level of work-related psychological health in comparison with introverts and thinkers. This finding is consistent with the view that introverted thinking clergywomen may find themselves operating in ministry for long periods with their less preferred orientation of extraversion and their less preferred judging function of feeling. Suggestions are offered to help introverted and thinking clergy to deal more effectively with the stresses of ministry

The perceiving process and mystical orientation : an empirical study in psychological type theory among participants at the parliament of the world's religions

A sample of 580 participants attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona 2004 completed the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale together with a measure of psychological type (the Francis Psychological Type Scales) in order to test the thesis based on Christopher Ross’ work that intuitive types would record significantly higher scores of mystical orientation in comparison with sensing types. The data supported Ross’ theory, and also added to the growing body of evidence supporting the relevance of psychological type theory for shaping testable hypotheses within the empirical psychology of religion

The affective dimension of religion and personal happiness among students in Estonia

A sample of 150 students in Estonia (119 from a secular university and 31 from a Lutheran theological institute) completed the Oxford Happiness Measure and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data show no significant correlation between these two variables; thus the findings challenge the generalizability to Estonia of the general findings from studies conducted in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Israel that consistently reported a positive association between the affective dimension of religion and personal happiness

Happiness as stable extraversion : internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire among undergraduate students

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) was developed by Hills and Argyle (2002) to provide a more accessible equivalent measure of the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI). The aim of the present study was to examine the internal consistency reliability, and construct validity of this new instrument alongside the Eysenckian dimensional model of personality. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was completed by a sample of 131 undergraduate students together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (alpha = .92) and good construct validity in terms of positive association with extraversion (r = .38 p < .001) and negative association with neuroticism (r = −.57 p < .001). The kind of happiness measured by the OHQ is clearly associated with stable extraversion

Psychological type profile of Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom

This study set out to examine the psychological type profile of Lead Elders within the Newfrontiers network of churches in the United Kingdom and to compare this profile with the established profile of clergymen in the Church of England. A sample of 134 Lead Elders completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The study shows that Newfrontiers Lead Elders display slight preferences for extraversion over introversion, for sensing over intuition, and for thinking over feeling, and a strong preference for judging over perceiving. These findings contrast with the profile of Church of England clergymen who prefer introversion over extraversion, intuition over sensing, and feeling over thinking, but who also display a less pronounced preference for judging over perceiving. Within the Newfrontiers leadership the most frequently reported types were ISTJ (16%) and ESTJ (13%), while among Church of England clergymen the most frequently reported types were INTJ (11%) and ISTJ (10%). The implications of these findings are discussed for the distinctive strengths, challenges and opportunities facing the leadership within the Newfrontiers network of churches

Women priests in the Church of England : psychological type profile

This study employed psychological type theory and measurement to explore the psychological profile of women priests ordained in the Church of England. A sample of 83 Anglican clergywomen in England completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The data demonstrated clear preferences for introversion (63%) over extraversion (37%), for intuition (60%) over sensing (40%), for feeling (76%) over thinking (24%), and for judging (55%) over perceiving (45%). In terms of dominant types, 37% were dominant feelers, 31% dominant intuitives, 23% dominant sensers, and 8% dominant thinkers. These findings are discussed to illuminate the preferred ministry styles of Anglican clergywomen in England and to highlight the significant differences between the psychological type profile of clergywomen and the UK female population norms