Family of origin antecedents of religious vocation, community experience, and life satisfaction of active and contemplative religious women

Through examination of specific family of origin dimensions and the same dimensions in religious community, differences between active and contemplative religious women are postulated and examined. Because of major cultural changes since Vatican II, differences between women who entered religious life prior to 1966 and women who entered within the last 15 years are also examined.;The subjects were 107 contemplative nuns and 132 active religious sisters from across the United States. Each completed the Family Assessment Device (Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983), a Community Assessment Device which was derived from the FAD, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). Differences emerged between the active and contemplative groups on both the family measurement and the community measurement. For the recent and persisting groups, no differences were detected on the two instruments.;Satisfaction with life was examined through the use of a subjective well-being instrument, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, & Larson, 1985). No significant differences were found between the active and contemplative groups or between the recent and persisting groups. Their levels of satisfaction corroborates the positive correlation of religiosity and life satisfaction found in previous studies.;The greatest predictor of life satisfaction was community health. In an analysis that explored that dimension more closely, the elements that surfaced and contributed to life satisfaction were the Community Assessment Device Roles subscale with more than 21% of the variance. CAD Affective Involvement and FAD Role subscales each added another 2% to the equation.;The results of this study suggest that there are differences between active and contemplative religious women. These differences in family of origin and in community experience support the idea that a vocation to a contemplative life is different from a vocation to an active religious life. The results suggest the possibility of replication of family of origin dynamics in later community functioning. Results also suggest that religious women report life satisfaction that is similar to other groups.