Cranney
Biographic Data
| ID | 27266 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cranney |
| FAMILY NAME | Cranney |
| SIGNATURE | CRANNEY |
| AFFILIATIONS | Baylor University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1379-5370 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 53 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 21 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Conservatism, Prayer, and Flourishing Among Catholic Priests
The literature on well-being and religiosity is extensive, but the research on well-being and religiosity among clergy in particular is less developed. Additionally, little research has investigated the role of theological orientation in well-being. This brief research note investigates the interrelationships among well-being (as measured by the Harvard Flourishing Index), theological orientation (as measured by self-identified level of theologic…
Sexual Minorities, Religion, and Self-Rated Health in the United States
While religiosity has generally been found to be associated with health, sexual minority individuals are a theoretically unique population in the literature. Because of sample size issues, the extent to which sexual minority individuals differ from nonsexual minority individuals in the health and religion relationship has been difficult to comprehensively test; additionally, the theoretically germane but often hypothesized distinction between aff…
Is the Catholic Church in America Experiencing Internal Secularization? Priests' Assessments of Pope Francis and the Condition of the Church
This study addressed internal secularization in the Catholic Church by testing the role of several factors in priests' assessments of the state of the Church in the United States, priests' views of whether the Church's situation is getting better or worse, and their attitudes toward Pope Francis. Comparisons with identical questions fielded in 2002 revealed a striking pessimistic turn among priests over the last two decades. In addition, regressi…
The ongoing conservative turn in the American Catholic priesthood
Surveys of Catholic priests in the United States dating back to the 1980s have shown that newer priests—and the priesthood in the aggregate—are becoming more conservative on moral, ecclesial, political, and theological issues. The present study examined whether this long-observed conservative shift has continued up to the present day using data from two surveys of Catholic priests: a 2002 Los Angeles Times survey of priests and the 2020–2021 Surv…
McCarrick, the Kingmaker: A Social Network Analysis of Episcopal Promotion in the Roman Catholic Church
The former Cardinal McCarrick was often dubbed as the “Kingmaker” for his power to influence episcopal promotion in the United States and even in the Vatican. However, most of the information to support this argument is often lacking in context, making the claim easy to downplay. The purpose of this study is to look at one of the networks of Catholic bishops in the United States and to provide empirical evidence of McCarrick as the “Kingmaker” us…
The Influence of Religiosity/Spirituality on Sex Life Satisfaction and Sexual Frequency: Insights from the Baylor Religion Survey
Prior literature has generally found either a null or positive association between sex life satisfaction and religiosity. However, different studies have used various measures of religiosity and have focused on different demographics along the dimensions of age, marital status, and gender, limiting what can be determined in terms of moderating and cross-demographic effects. This shortcoming is germane because it may explain the differing findings…
Hell anxiety as non-pathological fear
For religious people, a concept of Hell as a place of eternal torment for the wicked is pervasive. However, very little research has explored the mental health implications of this belief. We investigate this by developing the Hell Anxiety Scale (HXS) and testing its relationship with other well-established measures of psychological functioning. Surprisingly, Hell anxiety was not related to dogmatism, religious fundamentalism, or overall religios…
Varieties of Religious and Pornographic Experience: Latent Growth in Adolescents’ Religiosity and Pornography Use
The relationship between adolescent religiosity and pornography use has been longitudinally tested only in the United States. Given the social relevance of hypothesized mechanisms underlying the association, this study offers a three-wave longitudinal assessment of parallel latent growth in the two constructs carried out in a Southern European country. Using responses of 1,041 Croatian adolescents from the capital city (Mage = 16.14 years, SD = .…
Self-esteem among lesbian, gay, bisexual and same-sex-attracted Mormons and ex-Mormons
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and same-sex-attracted (LGB/SSA) individuals in conservative religions often experience stigma, shame, and psychological distress in reconciling their religious and sexual identities, yet religion can also provide existential comfort and social support. We investigated relationships among self-esteem, participation in the Mormon Church, and sexual identity acceptance among 348 LGB/SSA Mormons and ex-Mormons in 2013–2014 and…
Majority Rules: Gender Composition and Sexual Norms and Behavior in High Schools
Sex Life Satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Descriptive and Exploratory Analysis
Does Asexuality Meet the Stability Criterion for a Sexual Orientation
The LGB Mormon Paradox: Mental, Physical, and Self-Rated Health Among Mormon and Non-Mormon LGB Individuals in the Utah Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Much of the literature on mental and physical health among religious LGB individuals has relied on small-N convenience samples. This study takes advantage of a unique, large-N, population-based dataset to test the relationship between religious identity, religious activity, and health, with a specific emphasis on Utah Mormons. In a surprising finding, Mormon LGBs report better mental health than non-Mormon LGBs, while their self-rated and physica…
Desperate Housewives? Differences in Work Satisfaction Between Stay-At-Home and Employed Mothers, 1972-2012
Stay-at-home and employed mothers have been the subject of a wide range of both academic and popular discourse about roles, satisfaction, and meaning. However, no literature has examined time trends in relative satisfaction with being a stay-at-home versus a working mother. Here, we use pooled, yearly data from the General Social Survey to examine trends in how satisfied stay-at-home mothers are with their work relative to employed mothers. We fi…
Why Did God Make Me This Way? Religious Coping and Framing in the Virtuous Pedophile Community
Virtuous Pedophiles' (or VPs) have a sexual attraction to children but view child/adult sexual relations as wrong. Research on VPs is nascent but has theoretical importance for our understanding of sexuality, labeling, and extreme stigma. Their relevance is particularly acute in regard to religious coping and framing. As their primary stressor is a predisposition towards a highly stigmatized (or 'sinful') activity, religious VPs find themselves i…
Whosoever Looketh on a Person to Lust After Them”: Religiosity, the Use of Mainstream and Nonmainstream Sexually Explicit Material, and Sexual Satisfaction in Heterosexual Men and Women
While previous research has generally found that religiosity is associated with negative attitudes toward sexually explicit material (SEM) and a lower frequency of SEM use, no studies have examined the relationship between SEM type and religiosity. In addition, it is unknown how the interrelations between religiosity and type and frequency of SEM use influence the relationship between SEM use and sexual satisfaction. Here, associations among a mu…
The Temporal Stability of Lack of Sexual Attraction Across Young Adulthood
The Theoretical Potential for Selection on Determinants of Fertility to Cause Aggregate Fertility Increases in Human Populations
While prior literature on the genetics of human fertility outcomes and attitudes has generally yielded significantly positive results in developed-country contexts, the implications of this dynamic for the potential for intergenerational increases in fertility are rarely raised. Here the prior literature on the subject is discussed in light of its implications for future changes due to selection, equations traditionally used in human demography a…
Internet Pornography use and Sexual Body Image in a Dutch Sample
OBJECTIVES: A commonly attributed cause of sexual body image dissatisfaction is pornography use. This relationship has received little verification. METHODS: The relationship between sexual body image dissatisfaction and Internet pornography use was tested using a large-N sample of Dutch respondents. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: Penis size dissatisfaction is associated with pornography use. The relationship between pornography use and breast size dissatis…
The Association Between Belief in God and Fertility Desires in Slovenia and the Czech Republic
At least some of the connection between religiosity and fertility apparently is attributable to metaphysical beliefs. Future research on the effect of secularization on fertility decline should investigate the potentially distinct effects of different dimensions of religiosity
Do People Who Believe in God Report More Meaning in Their Lives? The Existential Effects of Belief
I conduct the first large-N study explicitly exploring the association between belief in God and sense of purpose in life. This relationship, while often discussed informally, has received little empirical attention. Here, I use the General Social Survey to investigate how form of and confidence in belief in God is related to sense of purpose in life, as measured by a Likert item level of agreement with the statement 'In my opinion, life does not…
The LGB Mormon Paradox: Mental, Physical, and Self-Rated Health Among Mormon and Non-Mormon LGB Individuals in the Utah Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Much of the literature on mental and physical health among religious LGB individuals has relied on small-N convenience samples. This study takes advantage of a unique, large-N, population-based dataset to test the relationship between religious identity, religious activity, and health, with a specific emphasis on Utah Mormons. In a surprising finding, Mormon LGBs report better mental health than non-Mormon LGBs, while their self-rated and physica…
Do People Who Believe in God Report More Meaning in Their Lives? The Existential Effects of Belief
I conduct the first large-N study explicitly exploring the association between belief in God and sense of purpose in life. This relationship, while often discussed informally, has received little empirical attention. Here, I use the General Social Survey to investigate how form of and confidence in belief in God is related to sense of purpose in life, as measured by a Likert item level of agreement with the statement 'In my opinion, life does not…
Does Asexuality Meet the Stability Criterion for a Sexual Orientation
The Temporal Stability of Lack of Sexual Attraction Across Young Adulthood
The ongoing conservative turn in the American Catholic priesthood
Surveys of Catholic priests in the United States dating back to the 1980s have shown that newer priests—and the priesthood in the aggregate—are becoming more conservative on moral, ecclesial, political, and theological issues. The present study examined whether this long-observed conservative shift has continued up to the present day using data from two surveys of Catholic priests: a 2002 Los Angeles Times survey of priests and the 2020–2021 Surv…
Varieties of Religious and Pornographic Experience: Latent Growth in Adolescents’ Religiosity and Pornography Use
The relationship between adolescent religiosity and pornography use has been longitudinally tested only in the United States. Given the social relevance of hypothesized mechanisms underlying the association, this study offers a three-wave longitudinal assessment of parallel latent growth in the two constructs carried out in a Southern European country. Using responses of 1,041 Croatian adolescents from the capital city (Mage = 16.14 years, SD = .…
Is the Catholic Church in America Experiencing Internal Secularization? Priests' Assessments of Pope Francis and the Condition of the Church
This study addressed internal secularization in the Catholic Church by testing the role of several factors in priests' assessments of the state of the Church in the United States, priests' views of whether the Church's situation is getting better or worse, and their attitudes toward Pope Francis. Comparisons with identical questions fielded in 2002 revealed a striking pessimistic turn among priests over the last two decades. In addition, regressi…
Whosoever Looketh on a Person to Lust After Them”: Religiosity, the Use of Mainstream and Nonmainstream Sexually Explicit Material, and Sexual Satisfaction in Heterosexual Men and Women
While previous research has generally found that religiosity is associated with negative attitudes toward sexually explicit material (SEM) and a lower frequency of SEM use, no studies have examined the relationship between SEM type and religiosity. In addition, it is unknown how the interrelations between religiosity and type and frequency of SEM use influence the relationship between SEM use and sexual satisfaction. Here, associations among a mu…
Conservatism, Prayer, and Flourishing Among Catholic Priests
The literature on well-being and religiosity is extensive, but the research on well-being and religiosity among clergy in particular is less developed. Additionally, little research has investigated the role of theological orientation in well-being. This brief research note investigates the interrelationships among well-being (as measured by the Harvard Flourishing Index), theological orientation (as measured by self-identified level of theologic…
Sex Life Satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Descriptive and Exploratory Analysis
Desperate Housewives? Differences in Work Satisfaction Between Stay-At-Home and Employed Mothers, 1972-2012
Stay-at-home and employed mothers have been the subject of a wide range of both academic and popular discourse about roles, satisfaction, and meaning. However, no literature has examined time trends in relative satisfaction with being a stay-at-home versus a working mother. Here, we use pooled, yearly data from the General Social Survey to examine trends in how satisfied stay-at-home mothers are with their work relative to employed mothers. We fi…
Why Did God Make Me This Way? Religious Coping and Framing in the Virtuous Pedophile Community
Virtuous Pedophiles' (or VPs) have a sexual attraction to children but view child/adult sexual relations as wrong. Research on VPs is nascent but has theoretical importance for our understanding of sexuality, labeling, and extreme stigma. Their relevance is particularly acute in regard to religious coping and framing. As their primary stressor is a predisposition towards a highly stigmatized (or 'sinful') activity, religious VPs find themselves i…
Sexual Minorities, Religion, and Self-Rated Health in the United States
While religiosity has generally been found to be associated with health, sexual minority individuals are a theoretically unique population in the literature. Because of sample size issues, the extent to which sexual minority individuals differ from nonsexual minority individuals in the health and religion relationship has been difficult to comprehensively test; additionally, the theoretically germane but often hypothesized distinction between aff…
The Influence of Religiosity/Spirituality on Sex Life Satisfaction and Sexual Frequency: Insights from the Baylor Religion Survey
Prior literature has generally found either a null or positive association between sex life satisfaction and religiosity. However, different studies have used various measures of religiosity and have focused on different demographics along the dimensions of age, marital status, and gender, limiting what can be determined in terms of moderating and cross-demographic effects. This shortcoming is germane because it may explain the differing findings…
Majority Rules: Gender Composition and Sexual Norms and Behavior in High Schools
Do People Who Believe in God Report More Meaning in Their Lives? The Existential Effects of Belief
I conduct the first large-N study explicitly exploring the association between belief in God and sense of purpose in life. This relationship, while often discussed informally, has received little empirical attention. Here, I use the General Social Survey to investigate how form of and confidence in belief in God is related to sense of purpose in life, as measured by a Likert item level of agreement with the statement 'In my opinion, life does not…
Internet Pornography use and Sexual Body Image in a Dutch Sample
OBJECTIVES: A commonly attributed cause of sexual body image dissatisfaction is pornography use. This relationship has received little verification. METHODS: The relationship between sexual body image dissatisfaction and Internet pornography use was tested using a large-N sample of Dutch respondents. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: Penis size dissatisfaction is associated with pornography use. The relationship between pornography use and breast size dissatis…
The Association Between Belief in God and Fertility Desires in Slovenia and the Czech Republic
At least some of the connection between religiosity and fertility apparently is attributable to metaphysical beliefs. Future research on the effect of secularization on fertility decline should investigate the potentially distinct effects of different dimensions of religiosity
Whosoever Looketh on a Person to Lust After Them”: Religiosity, the Use of Mainstream and Nonmainstream Sexually Explicit Material, and Sexual Satisfaction in Heterosexual Men and Women
While previous research has generally found that religiosity is associated with negative attitudes toward sexually explicit material (SEM) and a lower frequency of SEM use, no studies have examined the relationship between SEM type and religiosity. In addition, it is unknown how the interrelations between religiosity and type and frequency of SEM use influence the relationship between SEM use and sexual satisfaction. Here, associations among a mu…
The Temporal Stability of Lack of Sexual Attraction Across Young Adulthood
The Theoretical Potential for Selection on Determinants of Fertility to Cause Aggregate Fertility Increases in Human Populations
While prior literature on the genetics of human fertility outcomes and attitudes has generally yielded significantly positive results in developed-country contexts, the implications of this dynamic for the potential for intergenerational increases in fertility are rarely raised. Here the prior literature on the subject is discussed in light of its implications for future changes due to selection, equations traditionally used in human demography a…
Self-esteem among lesbian, gay, bisexual and same-sex-attracted Mormons and ex-Mormons
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and same-sex-attracted (LGB/SSA) individuals in conservative religions often experience stigma, shame, and psychological distress in reconciling their religious and sexual identities, yet religion can also provide existential comfort and social support. We investigated relationships among self-esteem, participation in the Mormon Church, and sexual identity acceptance among 348 LGB/SSA Mormons and ex-Mormons in 2013–2014 and…
Majority Rules: Gender Composition and Sexual Norms and Behavior in High Schools
Sex Life Satisfaction in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Descriptive and Exploratory Analysis
Does Asexuality Meet the Stability Criterion for a Sexual Orientation
The LGB Mormon Paradox: Mental, Physical, and Self-Rated Health Among Mormon and Non-Mormon LGB Individuals in the Utah Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Much of the literature on mental and physical health among religious LGB individuals has relied on small-N convenience samples. This study takes advantage of a unique, large-N, population-based dataset to test the relationship between religious identity, religious activity, and health, with a specific emphasis on Utah Mormons. In a surprising finding, Mormon LGBs report better mental health than non-Mormon LGBs, while their self-rated and physica…
Desperate Housewives? Differences in Work Satisfaction Between Stay-At-Home and Employed Mothers, 1972-2012
Stay-at-home and employed mothers have been the subject of a wide range of both academic and popular discourse about roles, satisfaction, and meaning. However, no literature has examined time trends in relative satisfaction with being a stay-at-home versus a working mother. Here, we use pooled, yearly data from the General Social Survey to examine trends in how satisfied stay-at-home mothers are with their work relative to employed mothers. We fi…
Why Did God Make Me This Way? Religious Coping and Framing in the Virtuous Pedophile Community
Virtuous Pedophiles' (or VPs) have a sexual attraction to children but view child/adult sexual relations as wrong. Research on VPs is nascent but has theoretical importance for our understanding of sexuality, labeling, and extreme stigma. Their relevance is particularly acute in regard to religious coping and framing. As their primary stressor is a predisposition towards a highly stigmatized (or 'sinful') activity, religious VPs find themselves i…
Hell anxiety as non-pathological fear
For religious people, a concept of Hell as a place of eternal torment for the wicked is pervasive. However, very little research has explored the mental health implications of this belief. We investigate this by developing the Hell Anxiety Scale (HXS) and testing its relationship with other well-established measures of psychological functioning. Surprisingly, Hell anxiety was not related to dogmatism, religious fundamentalism, or overall religios…
Varieties of Religious and Pornographic Experience: Latent Growth in Adolescents’ Religiosity and Pornography Use
The relationship between adolescent religiosity and pornography use has been longitudinally tested only in the United States. Given the social relevance of hypothesized mechanisms underlying the association, this study offers a three-wave longitudinal assessment of parallel latent growth in the two constructs carried out in a Southern European country. Using responses of 1,041 Croatian adolescents from the capital city (Mage = 16.14 years, SD = .…
The Influence of Religiosity/Spirituality on Sex Life Satisfaction and Sexual Frequency: Insights from the Baylor Religion Survey
Prior literature has generally found either a null or positive association between sex life satisfaction and religiosity. However, different studies have used various measures of religiosity and have focused on different demographics along the dimensions of age, marital status, and gender, limiting what can be determined in terms of moderating and cross-demographic effects. This shortcoming is germane because it may explain the differing findings…
McCarrick, the Kingmaker: A Social Network Analysis of Episcopal Promotion in the Roman Catholic Church
The former Cardinal McCarrick was often dubbed as the “Kingmaker” for his power to influence episcopal promotion in the United States and even in the Vatican. However, most of the information to support this argument is often lacking in context, making the claim easy to downplay. The purpose of this study is to look at one of the networks of Catholic bishops in the United States and to provide empirical evidence of McCarrick as the “Kingmaker” us…
Is the Catholic Church in America Experiencing Internal Secularization? Priests' Assessments of Pope Francis and the Condition of the Church
This study addressed internal secularization in the Catholic Church by testing the role of several factors in priests' assessments of the state of the Church in the United States, priests' views of whether the Church's situation is getting better or worse, and their attitudes toward Pope Francis. Comparisons with identical questions fielded in 2002 revealed a striking pessimistic turn among priests over the last two decades. In addition, regressi…
The ongoing conservative turn in the American Catholic priesthood
Surveys of Catholic priests in the United States dating back to the 1980s have shown that newer priests—and the priesthood in the aggregate—are becoming more conservative on moral, ecclesial, political, and theological issues. The present study examined whether this long-observed conservative shift has continued up to the present day using data from two surveys of Catholic priests: a 2002 Los Angeles Times survey of priests and the 2020–2021 Surv…
Conservatism, Prayer, and Flourishing Among Catholic Priests
The literature on well-being and religiosity is extensive, but the research on well-being and religiosity among clergy in particular is less developed. Additionally, little research has investigated the role of theological orientation in well-being. This brief research note investigates the interrelationships among well-being (as measured by the Harvard Flourishing Index), theological orientation (as measured by self-identified level of theologic…
Sexual Minorities, Religion, and Self-Rated Health in the United States
While religiosity has generally been found to be associated with health, sexual minority individuals are a theoretically unique population in the literature. Because of sample size issues, the extent to which sexual minority individuals differ from nonsexual minority individuals in the health and religion relationship has been difficult to comprehensively test; additionally, the theoretically germane but often hypothesized distinction between aff…
Psychology (17 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (10 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Religiosity (9 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Demography (7 works) · Population (7 works)