Abstract
Research has found that intergenerational transmission of religiosity results in higher family functioning and improved family relationships. Yet the Pew Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood. And 78% of the expanding group of those who identify as religiously unaffiliated (“Nones”) reported that they were raised in “highly religious families.” We suggest that this may be, in part, associated with religious parents exercising excessive firmness with inadequate flexibility (rigidity). We used a multiphase, systematic, team-based process to code 8000+ pages of in-depth interviews from 198 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families from 17 states in all 8 major religio-cultural regions of the United States. We framed firmness as mainly about loyalty to God and God’s purposes, and flexibility as mainly about loyalty to family members and their needs and circumstances. The reported findings provided a range of examples illustrating (a) religious firmness, (b) religious flexibility, as well as (c) efforts to balance and combine firmness and flexibility. We discuss conceptual and practical implications of treating firmness and flexibility as complementary loyalties in intergenerational faith transmission.
Highlights
Many religious parents desire to pass their own religious beliefs, practices, and commitments on to their children
Intergenerational transmission of religious belief is a well-established part of family studies (Bengtson et al 2013; Spilman et al 2013)
Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood (Pew Research Center 2009)
Summary
Many religious parents desire to pass their own religious beliefs, practices, and commitments on to their children. Given the American penchant for change, including religious change, perhaps it is not surprising that a 2009 study conducted by the Pew. Research Center found that 44% of Americans reported that they had left the religious affiliation of their childhood (Pew Research Center 2009). What may be surprising is that in a 2016 Pew Research. Reported that they were raised in “highly religious families” (Pew Research Center 2016). Nearly half of Americans do not retain the faith of their parents—and the great majority of those who have rejected institutional religion altogether were raised by parents who presumably highly valued religious identity and commitments.
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