From Prayer to Practice

Children's Religious Understanding and Outgroup Prosocial Behaviours

Bibliographic Data

ID6434080
AuthorsIsabelle Zammit (0000-0003-0223-0742, School of Psychology, Henry Newman Building University College Dublin Dublin Ireland, corresponding author), Eilis Hennessy (0000-0002-5826-6667, School of Psychology, Henry Newman Building University College Dublin Dublin Ireland), Islam Borinca (0000-0003-2994-0998, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences University of Groningen Groningen the Netherlands), Laura K Taylor (0000-0002-2353-2398, School of Psychology, Henry Newman Building University College Dublin Dublin Ireland)
Year2024
Volume35
Issue1
Publication date2024-12-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Community & Applied Social Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1052-9284 • E-ISSN: 1099-1298
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/casp.70023
OpenAlexW4405232745
LanguageEN
References cited71

In a religiously diverse world, understanding how young children perceive and interact with peers from other religious groups is pivotal for promoting harmony from an early age. The study examines how children's understanding of an outgroup religion is associated with their prosocial behaviours towards children from that religion. Conducted with 210 children aged 3–6 years (mean = 4.19 years; 50.7% boys) from the majority religion (Catholic) in state schools in Malta, we assessed children's religious understanding through identification of ingroup religious symbols, and prayer. Additionally, we measured children's outgroup (i.e., Muslim) religious understanding through outgroup prayer. Children's prosocial behaviours were assessed through their costly giving of stickers to outgroup children. Findings indicate that outgroup religious understanding moderated the link between children's religious understanding and outgroup giving. Specifically, outgroup religious understanding dampened the association between ingroup religious understanding and outgroup giving for children with higher ingroup religious understanding. Implications of children's outgroup religious understanding on prosocial behaviours are discussed

Outgroup · Prayer · Prosocial behavior · Theology · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Religious Education and Schools · Social Psychology