Vjera i sport – odnosi i perspektive

Religion (faith) plays a very important role in the lives of manyindividuals and therefore, in the last few decades, it has becomeincreasingly frequent in research, both in general population andin clinical environment. In social researches, religion (faith) is oftendefined as the power of religious beliefs or as intrinsic religiosity.This paper presents the often used measures of faith, such as theSanta Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire, of the authorsPlante and Boccaccini, 1997, and the Duke University ReligionIndex, of the authors Koenig and Bussing, 2010. Because of themultiple culturality of western society in which these questionnaireshave originated, they are most often constructed to measure religiosityin persons who may belong to different denominations within areligion and to different religions. The basic findings of the establishedrelationships between the measures of religiosity and variouspsychological constructs in general and in some clinical populations,especially in the athletes and youth population, are presented.There was a positive correlation between the power of religiosity andself-esteem of the examinees as well as between the power of religiositywith perceived coping, with hope and optimism as the measuresof positive psychology. The results of various studies conducted inthe Croatian society were also presented. Guidelines, as well as thepossible research issues for the implementation of future researches,are proposed.