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This study explored the relationships between psychological wellbeing, religiosity and religious coping amongst adolescent students attending post-primary schools in Ireland. The current paper reports on the quantitative data and findings arising from a mixed-methods study. Participants were post-primary school students (N = 110) aged between 15 and 19 years, who completed online questionnaires measuring their psychological wellbeing, religiosity and religious coping. Correlation, comparative and regression analyses using SPSS were used to analyse the data. The results revealed that religiosity was not significantly correlated with psychological wellbeing; however, religious beliefs were a predictor of enhanced psychological wellbeing amongst theist participants. Positive religious coping methods were associated with enhanced purpose in life. Conversely, use of negative religious coping mechanisms was linked to lower levels of overall psychological wellbeing. The findings demonstrate that adolescents’ religion has the potential to impact their mental wellbeing positively or negatively, depending on the type of religious coping methods used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For historical reasons, the vast majority of primary schools in the Republic of Ireland are under the patronage of the Catholic church. Patronage involves a number of responsibilities, including the provision of a Patron's Programme. Traditionally in the form of Religious Education (RE), such programmes should satisfy the curricular requirement for religious/ethical education and act as an expression of school ethos. In order to meet this responsibility, the Irish Episcopal conference in 2015 published its first curriculum in Religious Education, which forms the basis for the Grow in Love programme for pupils from Junior Infants to Sixth Class in all Catholic primary schools. However, effective teaching and learning of RE is dependent on the 'buy in' of those teaching it. The religious beliefs, understandings, and practices of those teaching RE are influential in this regard. Drawing from the data of a large-scale, multi-phase study, this paper describes the religious identity and beliefs of first-year students entering an Initial Teacher Education programme in Ireland—in this case, the Bachelor of Education (BEd) degree—to qualify as primary-level teachers. It situates the data in the wider context of religious identity and beliefs in Ireland and goes on to explore how the religious profiles of these students fit with the required understanding, knowledge and ability to teach Religious Education in Catholic schools. Findings indicate that the majority of these students identify as Catholic and believe in God. For most, God is important in their lives. However, there is a complexity to these beliefs, with a significant number who do not know what to think. This paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for the teaching of Religious Education and for the patrons of Catholic schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]