Identity Status as a Moderator of the Relationship between Belonging to Religious Communities and Religious Coping in a Group of Young Polish Catholic Girls and Boys

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

A well-done introduction showing the state of previous research, based on it correctly derived research questions and hypotheses. Correctly designed and conducted study and clearly presented results. 

The only shortcoming I see is the lack of clear conclusions. The text should be supplemented with conclusions.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, thank you for appreciating our work. As recommended, the conclusions have been refined to increase clarity of manuscript.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Congratulations on doing quantitative research. The article itself, is not always easy to read. In general I would like to see more of a logical flow in your article where your research questions take the lead.

- You are talking about identity style, status and formation interchangebly but ofcourse this is not correct. Be more precise in the description of your constructs.

- Within the introduction you describe your RQ's at the end. Suddenly, 'gender' is an important part of your RQ while you did not discuss it before.

- Make sure that the reader is informed about your hypotheses of your RQ's.

- RQ2 is not clear either, you just descripte strategies for coping with stress' but you only looked into religious ways of coping with stress.

- 'materials and methods': Please make more paragraphs: for example before 'the study group consisted of...' 'the study used a purposive sampling procedure', 'the study used moderation analysis'.

- 'the selection criteria were age and belonging to a religious community'. You just described that study participants were divided in two groups: both those within and not within religious communities.

- did you actually use a moderation analysis? In the result section I only see MANOVA's being used.

- why did you focus on early adulthood? Would you expect results to be different for other agegroups? It should be indicated in your abstract as well that you targeted this agegroup.

- 'using prc strategied differs significantly beteen groups of peolple belonging to and not belonging to a religious community'. Ofcourse, since the RCOPE questionnaire also explicitly incorporates how much the feel supported by a religious community. This should be mentioned, at least in a limitation section

- please add a limitation section.

- please explain figure 2 more. What are those numbers at the left ranging from 10 to 110 under 'positive strategies'?

- the discussion section is not clear at all. Make sure your RQ's and hypotheses lead the discussion. I like the link with practice.

- 'this indicates that men explore earlier than women': I did not understand this sentence since you did not do longitudinal research and can not make assumptions over time.

- add a conclusion to sum up your main findings.

 

 

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

thank you for your comments and we would like to improve our work. We have made changes to make the article more readable and logical in its message.

-Two identity-related terms were used in the paper: the dimensions of identity and the identity statuses established on their basis (according to K. Luyckx's theory). Any other terms may have been the result of an introduced translation and/or oversight, for which we sincerely apologize.

-The test has been supplemented, according to a noted comment,  with suggested sentences, for example, about gender. It makes it, in our opinion, more coherent and logical.

-Research questions have been traced and corrected, especially RQ2, where there was an error in generalizing the question.

-In the section on materials and methods, subtitles were addend to make this more readable.

-The selection of participants for the study group was refined.

-The presence of a significant moderator was checked using MANOVA analysis, additionally, a regression model was built. The model was fitted to the data and the variance of the explained variable was explained using multiple regression.

-The focus on people in adolescence and early adulthood is related to the intensity of the multifaceted changes that occur during this time. A key developmental task in this period precisely is the development of identity, and the crisis of faith among the young, which we are currently observing in Poland, also encourages the analysis of this issue precisely among young Catholics. Moreover, the religiosity of elderly Poles varies greatly by gender, hence the desire to explore these differences among young Catholics.

-As recommended, limitations of the study were added too and the conclusions.

-The legibility of the descriptions of figures 2 and 3 has been improved.

-The sentence 'this indicates that men explore earlier than women' was clarified, referring to the theory and indicating this as a hypothesis and an area for further research.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This study is carried out very well, but the manuscript needs quite a few adaptations. Especially in the introduction important information is missing. The introduction is well-written and gives a very good insight into the concepts of belonging, identity and religious coping. However, the introduction does not provide insight into why this three research questions were studied. There need to be information on why the researchers want to research this, why this research is needed to be done, and if this moderation model or parts of the moderation model have already been tested in previous research. For example, why are you interested in gender differences? Why do you think that is important to research? Gender differences is also part of the tile of this study, but it is unclear why the researchers think this is important. In the section on materials and methods, subtitles are needed to make this more readable. In the discussion, the stereotypes when looking to gender differences should be reflected on. There is also a section missing on limitations of the study and conclusion

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

thank you for appreciating our work. The test has been supplemented with suggested sentences, for example, on previous research on similar topics. It makes it, in our opinion, more coherent and logical. In the section of materials and methods, subtitles were added to make this more readable. As recommended, limitations of the study were added too and the conclusions have been refined to increase clarity of manuscript.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Thanks for your updates.

Unfortunately, the overall flow, research hypotheses and conclusions are still not clear. You added a few clarifying sentences but actually I think the whole introduction needs to be rewritten.

- It might be an option I think to choose either to focus on the relationship between belonging to religious communities and religious strategies for coping with stress and identity status as a moderator. Either focus on the gender differences. It's a lot now for one paper and you are not able to properly describe your hypotheses. All the different cope strategies and identity statuses are already a lot to explain and be able to follow as a reader. 

If you would like to keep the focus on gender, which can be interesting, you have to describe your hypotheses better. You can not just write 'gender differences have been recognized regarding strategies for coping with stress but so far little is known about these differences in relation to religious coping'. You have to elaborate on that and give hypotheses on why maybe women/men would use religious coping strategy x more or less than y.

- small remark: you describe in one of the first sentences that 'religious communities are paradoxically becoming more and more popular'. This might be the case in Poland but certainly not all over Europe. Contextualize this sentence.

- in the conclusion section you should not just write that there are differences but really explain them and give one or several possible explanations for these differences. The conclusion must be able to read on its own. 

- you must describe inclusion and exclusion criteria within the participants in the study. Please also define what you mean by 'belonging to a religious community' - just attending liturgy sometimes or really being involved? Or did they self-define?

- please rewrite your abstract. Just as the conclusions as a reader you need to be able to read only that and already grasp the main rationale behind your article and  your main conclusions. It must be clear as welll that you focused on adolescents in Poland.

Good luck!

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

My English is not perfect either but I would recommend to ask for an extensive review by a native speaker who is confident with statistics and academic language. Your write for example a few times 'recognized' result x or y but I'm not sure if that's correct. I would write 'found'.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

we sincerely thank you for your comments and would like to address them in the following paragraphs:

1. The issue of the role of religious community membership on the frequency of use of religious coping strategies and their relationship to identity in members of these communities has not been studied so far. The issue of gender differences from the perspective of the psychology of human development, and other subdisciplines of psychology, including cultural psychology, is relatively often addressed, and yet many issues remain unresolved. This paper focuses on identifying differences in religious coping strategies and identity differences found in young Catholics - including their gender. (In this paper, we do not wish to consider the issue of gender (or type), which in some cultural circles is highly emotive). We would like to thank you for your comment concerning the title (in its previous version), which could raise expectations in some readers for in-depth analyses in the field of the psychology of individual differences and gender psychology. We have therefore modified the title of the article. However, the omission of the gender factor from the study - in our view - would give a false, or at least incomplete, picture of the relationship. We would very much like to ask the reviewer to accept the model of the research - the model of the relationships studied. We would very much like to show the moderation model in the context of gender differences.
2. The religious crisis is also noticeable in Poland, especially after the death of John Paul II. Although data from recent reports show an increase in the number (and activity) of religious groups in Poland - compared to the earlier period (second half of the 20th century up to the turn of the 21st century) - one can see syndromes of a break in the upward trend. However, religious groups such as prayer communities, church music groups and others are still very popular in Poland.
3. As indicated by the reviewer, the conclusion has been rewritten.
4. In the description of the study participants, it was added that the criterion for the selection of the sample was the declaration of belief in God. The criterion for inclusion in the group of people involved in religious communities was the indication of the section in which they are active and the amount of time spent on religious practices. Those involved in the life of the communities functioned within the following sections: prayer formation, musical groups and liturgical service. On average, they devoted no less than 5 hours per week to religious practices.
5. The abstract has been revised and information on the context of the research carried out has been added.
6. The text has been proofread by a professional translator.

 

Many thanks to the reviewer for his efforts in analyzing the text and for his valuable guidance!

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Not all of my remarks are answered/taken into account

Please check again: 

Comments:

Title:

-          The fact that there are only young people included in this study (13-18y old) needs to be mentioned

-          The title suggests that there will be a big discussion on gender differences, but while reading the introduction, there is little information about the gender differences. Or this has to be included in the introduction, or has to be removed from the title

In the era of postmodernity, when there is an increasing tendency to isolate oneself from the social environment (Bauman, 1996), religious communities are paradoxically becoming more and more popular, which in turn may contribute to the intensification of identity conflicts among their members (Cohen-Malayev et al., 2009).

-          Is this the case all around the world that religious communities become more popular? In West-Europe for example, the amount of people being in the church or belonging to a religious community is decreasing every year. This has to be specified for which part of the world this is true and not true.

The literature indicates that identity style is a predictor of religious orientation (Afzal et al., 2020), and religious identity and orientation are important for the development of religious c

-          Can you illustrate this with an example? Otherwise it remains vague

There are two main approaches to the topic of identity in psychology, including humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology (cf. Cierpka, 2013)

-          But this is not further explained this two approaches? Or is Marcia’s approach one of these?

The author's research focused on obtaining answers to three research questions regarding: (1) gender differences in the frequency of using religious strategies for coping with stress and the intensity of identity processes depending on belonging to religious communities; (2) the relationship between identity development and strategies for coping with stress and (3) the importance of identity status for the relationship between belonging to religious communities and religious strategies for coping with stress in a group of Polish Catholics.

-          You explain the aim of the study very well, but when reading the introduction, we don’t know if there is already research done in this area or not. Is it the first time testing this model? Or are there parts of the model that has already been tested? What’s the rationality for choosing this aims?  

Sometimes words as ‘the’ or ‘own’ are crossed out by the authors, but not removed.

Materials and methods:

-          This has to be reorganized and put into subtitles

-          There is a part on the measurements, and a part on the sample size, and a part on the procedure, and a part on data analysis: has to be distinguished from each other

-          How many answers were missing? The RCOPE questionnaire consists of 105 statements, did everyone completed all questions?

-          How did you manage the missing data in the analysis of the moderation model?

Tables:

-          Table 1 and 4 and 5 is not clear: the left column (table 4, column effect) is unclear: use space between titles, use lines between ‘status’ and ‘error’ etc.

Discussion:

-          Add a little introductory part to the discussion repeating first the main findings and then discuss them

-          According to the gender differences, it should be noted that some of the possible explanations given by the researchers is stereotyping men and women.

There is a section missing on:

-          Limitations

-          Conclusion

Author Response

Dear reviewer, we sincerely thank you for your comments and would like to address them in the following paragraphs:

1. In the title of the paper, information about the age of the subjects was introduced by indicating the developmental period they were in. A note about the age of the participants was also added to the abstract. Detailed information can be found in the methodology chapter, in the section describing the study participants (age frame, mean, median).
2. In the title, it was decided to remove the second sentence, which read: "discussion of gender differences" in favour of a slightly different description of the study group. In addition, the passages on gender were expanded in the text - with content that is potentially relevant to the research issue and the explanation of the results.
3. The religious crisis is also noticeable in Poland, especially after the death of John Paul II. Although data from recent reports show an increase in the number (and activity) of religious groups in Poland - compared to the earlier period (second half of the 20th century up to the turn of the 21st century) - one can see syndromes of a break in the upward trend. However, religious groups such as prayer communities, church music groups and others are still very popular in Poland.
4. Regarding the sentence: "The literature indicates that identity style is a predictor of religious orientation (Afzal et al. 2020), and religious identity and orientation are important for the development of religious coping strategies (Cruz et al. 2015)," we ensured greater clarity by clarifying, splitting the sentence into parts and giving an example.
5. The sentence "There are two main approaches to the topic of identity in psychology, including humanistic psychology and cognitive psychology (Cierpka 2013)." was decided to be removed because a detailed description would limit the clarity of the presentation. This item was also removed from the bibliography.
6. No information about studies testing a similar model was found anywhere, which may indicate the innovation of the studies analyzed. The proposed model has also not been tested before in other cultural-historical contexts. Any research findings found on the empirical verification of the part of the model are described in the text.
7. Crossed-out words have been removed from the text. We apologize for this oversight.
8. Many thanks to the reviewer for his comment about the structure of the methodological part. In the methodological part, the subheadings have been separated, a subsection on participants and procedure has been added and the part of the article covering the statistical analysis has been structured. In this way, this part of the article can be more easily perceived by the reader.
9. 17 people returned incomplete sheet packs (probably due to the rather complex analysis model) - all data obtained from these people were deleted and were not included in the statistical analysis. Due to the anonymity of the surveys, it is not possible to identify the exact reason for discontinued responses. Information on this has been added in the methodology section.
10. As indicated by the reviewer - the table was edited by adding vertical borders.
11. The discussion has been rewritten according to the reviewer's suggestions - an introductory section (main findings and description) has been added.
12. The discussion was supplemented with references to gender stereotypes.

Thank you very much for your kind response and all your guidance!