Religious Practice and Orthodoxy among Catholic Students as a Function of Parents' Beliefs and Religious Training

Abstract

of the student. The religious orthodoxy items for the student were repeated in Items 47 to 52 for the student's father and in Items 53 to 58 for the student's mother. Orthodoxy scales for the parents were used so that a measure of the similarity berween the students' and their parents' strength of opinion about the teachings of the Catholic church and Catholic doctrine could be developed. Five additional items had to do with religious practices of both the student and his or her parents before the smdent entered college, and the remaining items dealt with family background factors, number and ages of siblings, doubts about religion, fraternity and sorority membership, the frequency of visits home, and the frequency of visits to the campus Catholic Student Center. For these students there was a significant relationship between agreement of college students and their parents on orthodoxy scores and their religious practices scores (x2 = 7.41, df = 1, p < .01). Similarity of orrhodoxy scores of students and parents was positively related to frequency of interaction with both mother (X2 = 5.50, df = 1, p < .02) and father (x9 = 5.14, df = 1, p < .05). Parents who were both Catholic (homogamous with respect to religion) were perceived to be more satisfied with their marriage than parents who were not both Catholic (x' = 9.20, df = 1, p < .01) and parents who were similar in their degree of orthodoxy were perceived to be more satisfied with their marriage than parents who were divergent (X2 = 8.41, df = 1, p < .01). Religious homogamy of the parents was marginally related to religious importance scores of the respondents (xa = 3.03, df = 1, p < .lo). Also, a positive relationship was found between attendance at the Catholic Student Center and previous attendance at a parochial grade or high school (xa = 5.08, df = 1, p < .05). These results suggest a somewhat strong familial influence upon religious beliefs and behaviors among Catholic students.