Ranking Spiritual and Religious Practices Strengthening Family Bonds
Keywords:
family spirituality, religious practices, family cohesion, moral alignmentAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to identify, categorize, and rank the most significant spiritual and religious practices that strengthen family bonds, integrating qualitative content analysis and quantitative prioritization to develop a multidimensional framework of family spirituality.
Methods and Materials: The study adopted a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design. In the first phase, a qualitative content analysis was conducted through an extensive literature review until theoretical saturation was reached. Extracted data were coded and analyzed using NVivo 14, producing six overarching themes of family spirituality. In the second phase, these categories were incorporated into a structured questionnaire and administered to 200 adult participants from Italy. Respondents rated the perceived importance of each spiritual and religious practice on a five-point Likert scale. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 26, applying descriptive statistics and Friedman’s test to rank the practices by mean scores and determine relative importance.
Findings: The results revealed six primary categories of family spirituality ranked as follows: shared religious rituals (M = 4.68), moral and ethical alignment (M = 4.51), emotional and relational spirituality (M = 4.32), community and social belonging (M = 4.09), meaning and purpose orientation (M = 3.88), and interfaith respect and inclusivity (M = 3.47). The Friedman test confirmed significant differences in perceived importance across categories (p < 0.001). The highest-ranked themes emphasized ritual participation and moral coherence as foundational mechanisms of family unity, while emotional, communal, and inclusive practices played complementary but secondary roles.
Conclusion: Spirituality strengthens family bonds through an integrated system of shared rituals, moral alignment, emotional connection, and social belonging.
Keywords: family spirituality; religious practices; family cohesion; moral alignment
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References
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