In this study, we investigated how religion and spirituality were associated with internal and external attributions for the causes of poverty. Such attributions are important as they may shape the types of policies and interventions that individuals support to alleviate poverty. Across two studies with samples of Christian students from a Catholic university in the Midwest (Study 1: n = 189) and a large public Midwestern university (Study 2: n = 646), hierarchical regression analyses revealed that a religious variable, religious conservatism, was positively associated with internal poverty attributions. A spirituality variable, universality (i.e., a sense of shared connection and interdependence with others), was positively associated with external poverty attributions. These findings were present while controlling for demographic variables, political conservatism, and the Protestant work ethic and were consistent across Study 1 and Study 2. Overall, this shows the unique ability of religious and spiritual variables to predict these different types of poverty attributions, and that spirituality was a unique predictor for external poverty attributions over-and-above religious variables. These findings suggest the importance of considering both religion and spirituality when working with individuals and religious communities to alleviate poverty. Limitations and directions for future research and for working with religious and spiritual communities are discussed.

中文翻译：

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宗教和精神信仰独特地预测了贫困归因

在这项研究中，我们调查了宗教和灵性如何与内部和外部归因于贫困的原因相关联。这种归因很重要，因为它们可能会形成个人支持减轻贫困的政策和干预措施的类型。在两项研究中，样本来自中西部一所天主教大学的基督徒学生（研究1：n  = 189）和一所大型中西部公立大学（研究2：n） = 646），层次回归分析表明，宗教变量宗教保守主义与内部贫困归因呈正相关。灵性变量，普遍性（即与他人共享的联系和相互依赖的感觉）与外部贫困归因成正相关。这些发现是在控制人口统计学变量，政治保守主义和新教徒的职业道德的同时出现的，并且在研究1和研究2中是一致的。总的来说，这表明宗教和精神变量具有预测这些不同类型贫困归因的独特能力，并且灵性是超越宗教变量的外部贫困归因的唯一预测因子​​。这些发现表明，在与个人和宗教团体合作减轻贫困时，必须同时考虑宗教和灵性。讨论了未来研究以及与宗教和精神团体合作的局限性和方向。