engleski

Effects of religiosity and spirituality on gender roles and homonegativity in Croatia and Slovenia

Modern societies are characterised by deep social changes, with religion and gender relations also being affected by them. Various studies show that many people identify as “spiritual” rather than “religious” (Heelas & Woodhead, 2005). In addition, religiosity is correlated with more conventional gender roles, sexist attitudes, and homonegativity (Brajdić Vuković & Štulhofer, 2012 ; Frieze et al., 2003 ; Sanchez & Hall, 1999), whereas empirical studies on the relation between spirituality and gender roles or homonegativity are scarce. The goal of this study was to explore whether gender and religiosity/spirituality affected beliefs about gender roles and same-sex relations in Slovenia and Croatia. Data were gathered on the national representative samples from Croatia (N=1201) and Slovenia (N=1065) from the International Social Survey Programme (module Religion 2008). In line with previous studies, women in Croatia and Slovenia had less traditional beliefs about gender roles and were less homonegative than men. As expected, secular individuals (i.e. those who identified as both non-religious and non-spiritual) held the most egalitarian gender role beliefs and were the least homonegative compared to other groups regarding religiosity and spirituality in both countries. Individuals, who identified as spiritual but not religious, were more egalitarian and less homonegative than religious individuals (either spiritual or non-spiritual) only on the Slovenian sample, whereas results obtained on the Croatian sample were more complex. It seems that in Croatia, individuals who identified as spiritual but not religious, are to some extent similar to religious individuals in their beliefs on gender roles and sexual orientation. Characteristics of each group of individuals regarding their identification as religious and/or spiritual are also described. Question that should be further discussed in future studies is how spirituality (versus religiosity) is understood in each of these countries.

religion, religiosity, spirituality, gender roles, homonegativity

Recenzentice: dr. Anja Zalta, University of Ljubljana, dr. Helena Motoh, University of Primorska. Prijevod: Petra Berlot Kužner.