The influence of parents’ religious practices on young adults’ divorce attitudes

Abstract

This study investigates the intergenerational transmission of parents’ religious views and divorce attitudes, paying particular attention to the effect of parent–child closeness. We use structural equation modeling to examine a national longitudinal data set containing information from 455 married individuals and their adult offspring. We find that parent religiosity influences young adults’ views of divorce via two pathways: by affecting offspring’s religiosity and parents’ views of divorce. More religious offspring are less tolerant of divorce, but offspring who do not share their parents’ religious practices are nonetheless influenced by their parents’ religiously-influenced divorce attitudes. While parent religiosity has no effect on parent–child closeness, religious offspring report having been closer to their parents, suggesting that their current religious practices may affect their perceptions of the parent–child relationship.