Working across religions, cultures, settings, and development: Protocol for wave 2 data collection with children and parents by the developing belief network
Abstract
The Developing Belief Network is a global research collaborative studying religious development in diverse social-cultural settings, with a focus on the intersection of cognitive mechanisms and cultural beliefs and practices in early and middle childhood. The current manuscript describes the study protocol for the network’s second wave of data collection, which aims to further explore the development and diversity of religious cognition and behavior using a multi-time point approach. This protocol is designed to investigate three key research questions—how children represent and reason about religious and supernatural agents, how children represent and reason about religion as an aspect of social identity, and how religious and supernatural beliefs are transmitted within and between generations—via a set of eight tasks for children between the ages of 5 and 13 years and a survey completed by their parents/caregivers. This study is being conducted in 41 distinct cultural-religious settings, spanning 16 countries and 12 written languages. In this manuscript, we provide detailed descriptions of all elements of this study protocol, and give a brief overview of the ways in which this protocol has been adapted for use in diverse religious communities. As one example of how this protocol has been implemented outside of the United States, we present Arabic- and English-language study materials for children being raised in one of the following religious traditions in Lebanon: the Druze faith, Maronite Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, Shia Islam, or Sunni Islam. We end with reflections on the challenges of developing and implementing large-scale, multi-site, multi-time point studies of child development; our approach to navigating these challenges; and our suggestions for how future researchers might learn from our experiences and build on the work presented here.
Article Details
Authors (93)
Allison J. Williams-Gant
Kara Weisman
Tamer G. Amin
Maliki E. Ghossainy
Ghadir Soueidan
Jenny Nissel
Praveen Kenderla
Marwa Abdel-Hak
Florencia K. Anggoro
Samantha Bangayan
Emily R. R. Burdett
Emily Chau
Eva E. Chen
Jallene Chua
Lezanie Coetzee
John D. Coley
Audun Dahl
Jocelyn B. Dautel
Elizabeth L. Davis
Helen Elizabeth Davis
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Adine DeLeon
Gil Diesendruck
Denise Evans
Aidan Feeney
Frankie T. K. Fong
Xuqing Foo
Alison Garcia
Isabela Gonzalez-Rubio
Elena Guerrero Galaz
Michael Gurven
Department of Anthropology, University of California
Ying Hu
Keila Huachorunto
Komang Indrawati
Benjamin D. Jee
Michael Kahwa
Unity Kahwa
Ringking Korah
Hannah J. Kramer
Tamar Kushnir
Natassa Kyriakopoulou
Shitshembiso Lebepe
Hea Jung Lee
Kirsten A. Lesage
Patricia Leshabana
Dandan Li
Pearl Han Li
Jessica Tacza Llacua
Vongani Maluleke
Ashley Marin
Julia Marshall
Nthabiseng Masebe
Katherine McAuliffe
Abby McLaughlin
Anthea McMullan
Caitlin McShane
Casey Min
Mike Mutegeki
Olive Namara
Shaun Nichols
Department of Philosophy, Cornell University
Ageliki Nicolopoulou
Mark Nielsen
Emily Otali
Katerina Parise
Xiomara Alicia Paucar
Ayse Payir
Sakina Poonawalla
Bolivar Reyes-Jaquez
Sophie Riddick
Peter C. Rockers
Justin K. Ruiz
Rifah Sanjidah
Laura Shneidman
Irini Skopeliti
Mahesh Srinivasan
Jessa Stegall
Joanna Stephens
Megan G. Stutesman
Jiayue Sun
Amanda Tarullo
Laura K. Taylor
Itangishatse Theogen
Desiree Toong
Esra Nur Turan-Küçük
Patrick Tusiime
Estefany Pizarro Ventura
Jingyi Xu
Nina Ye
Yue Yu
Meltem Yucel
Wenzhuo Zhang
Xin Zhao
Kathleen H. Corriveau
Rebekah A. Richert