The impact of religiosity on the well-being of young adult African American males raised with a stepparent

In this investigation, survey questions from the National Survey of Black Americans, Waves 1-4, 1979-1980, 1987-1988, 1988-1989, 1992 were analyzed to determine the degree to which religiosity and wellbeing were related for African American males raised in either a step-parent household or a traditional household. Only survey questions that were responded to by African American males in the age range of 18 to 29 years of age were analyzed. Because of the very low sample sizes of African American males between the ages of 18 and 29 in each of the four waves, data were examined across the four survey waves, rather than separately for each survey wave.
With respect to the first research hypothesis, “Religiosity is significantly higher among young adult African American males raised in a step-parent household in comparison to African American males raised in a traditional nuclear household”, the results of the statistical analysis did not support this hypothesis. Regarding the second research hypothesis, “Religiosity will significantly increase for young adult African American males raised in a step-parent household in comparison to when they were in their youth”, results were supportive of this hypothesis. Concerning the third research hypothesis, “Emotional Wellbeing will be significantly higher among young adult African American males raised in a step-parent household who had higher levels of religiosity in comparison to African American males with lower levels of religiosity”, results of the statistical analyses were not supportive of this hypothesis. Based upon the results of this investigation, being raised in a stepparent household for African American males appeared to be unrelated to their religiosity being higher than their counterparts who were raised in a traditional household and unrelated to their wellbeing. Results were supportive, however, a connection between African American males raised in a stepparent household and their degree of religiosity increasing over time.