Religious Identity in a Proximate Social Structure: Mothers, Fathers, and the Religious Socialization of Their Children

Abstract

How do parents pass on who they are—their beliefs and values, norms and habits, and the social groups with which they identify—to their children? This complex process, called socialization, is a route by which parents, family members, friends, and others in the family’s community influence children’s identity development, including the development of their religious identities. This research novelly integrates socialization processes into identity theory, illustrating intergenerational transmission of identity, using the religious identity as an example. The study uses a clustered sample of resident mothers, fathers, and their adolescent children to investigate the connections between parents’ and children’s religious identities. Models estimate the influence of mothers’ and fathers’ religious identity prominence (the affective value parents place on their religious identities) and salience (the likelihood of enacting the religious identity across situations, religious and otherwise) and their behavior in the religious identity on those of their children. Reverse paths from children’s religious identities to those of their parents are also estimated. Findings suggest that mothers’ religious identities have a strong influence on those of their children but the influence of fathers’ religious identities are more limited. Finally, children’s religious identities have limited influence on those of their parents.KeywordsReligious socializationReligious identity developmentIntergenerational transmission of identityReligious identity prominenceReligious identity salience