Parental Religiosity Research Articles

Attitude toward Christianity, sexual orientation, and parental religiosity in a sample of Italian adolescents

Literature suggests that several demographic variables are linked with religiosity in adolescence, such as gender, age and parental religiosity. The sample consisted of 910 young people (53% female) between 14 and 19 years of age, attending secular secondary schools in Rome, Italy. They self-identified as heterosexual adolescents (91.6%), and lesbian/gay (LG) adolescents (8.4%). High scores of positive attitudes toward God, Jesus, the Bible, prayer and church were associated with female gender, higher father’s religiosity, and higher mother’s religiosity, but not with age of the participants. As expected, heterosexual orientation was associated with a more positive attitude toward Christianity, controlling for sex, age, and parental religiosity.

Perceived parental religiosity and emerging adult psychological adjustment: Moderated mediation by gender and personal religiosity.

Perceived parental religiosity and emerging adult psychological adjustment: Moderated mediation by gender and personal religiosity.

“Holy anorexia”—relevant or relic? Religiosity and anorexia nervosa among Finnish women

Since medieval times, an association between religiosity and anorexia nervosa has been suggested, but few systematic studies exist. This study examines in a nationwide setting whether personal or family religiosity is associated with lifetime anorexia nervosa among women in adolescence and early adulthood. Women (N = 2,825) from the 1975 to 1979 birth cohorts of Finnish twins were screened for lifetime DSM-5 anorexia nervosa (N = 92). Parental religiosity was assessed by self-report when the women were aged 16 years. The women self-reported their religiosity at ages 16 and 22 to 27 years. Parental religiosity did not increase the risk of lifetime anorexia nervosa, and neither did religiosity of the women themselves in adolescence. In early adulthood, a J-shaped curve was compatible with the data, indicating increased risk both at low and high levels of religiosity, but this result was statistically non-significant. Religiosity was weakly negatively correlated with body dissatisfaction. There was some suggestive evidence for socioregional variation in the association of religiosity with lifetime anorexia nervosa. In this first population study to directly address religiosity and anorexia nervosa, no evidence was found for a significant association of religiosity with anorexia nervosa either at the personal or family level. Some regional differences are possible. A modest protective association of religiosity with body dissatisfaction is also possible. Despite compelling case descriptions of "holy anorexia," religiosity does not appear to be a central factor in the development of anorexia nervosa in Finland, a highly secularized Christian country.

Individual- and County-Level Religious Participation, Corporal Punishment, and Physical Abuse of Children: An Exploratory study.

Parental religiosity has been associated with corporal punishment. However, most of this research has focused exclusively on Christians and has not examined physical abuse. In addition, little is known about how the larger religious environment might be associated with discipline behaviors. In this exploratory study, we examine how individual- and county-level religious attendance are related to corporal punishment and physical abuse. We sampled and surveyed 3,023 parents of children aged 12 and younger from 50 mid-sized California cities. We used weighted Poisson models to calculate the frequency of corporal punishment and physical abuse in the past year. Parents who attend religious groups used corporal punishment more frequently than parents who did not attend religious groups. However, those who lived in counties with greater rates of religious participation used corporal punishment less frequently than those living in counties with lower rates of religious participation. There were no effects for religious participation on physical abuse at the individual or county level. This exploratory study suggests that parents who attend religious groups may be more likely to use some types of physical discipline with children. Religious groups could be imparting parenting norms supporting corporal punishment at the individual level. More research examining specific doctrines and faiths is needed to validate the study findings.

A qualitative study of coping with religious minority status in public schools

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore coping and impacts of religious difference and discrimination among a sample of 50 middle and high school Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Universalist Unitarian adolescent public school students. Content analysis employing grounded theory strategies resulted in 7 themes: 1) Importance of religious affiliation and community; 2) Influence of parental religiosity; 3) Parents as advocates and expert consultants; 4) To have or not to have friends from other religions; 5) Response to negative incidents; 6) Perceptions of teachers; and 7) The school culture needs to change. Implications for interventions aimed at promoting resilience and positive religious identity are discussed in addition to recommendations for making schools a welcoming and safe place for students of all religious backgrounds.

Impacts of Migration on Marriage Arrangement: A Comparison of Turkish Families in Turkey and Western Europe

This study addresses parental involvement in spousal choice and the impacts of migration. Individual and parental characteristics are analyzed as determinants of arranged versus couple-initiated marriages in Turkish families in Turkey and abroad. Analyses are based on the 2000 Families study “Migration Histories of Turks in Europe” and indicate a strong decline of arranged marriages over the past four decades. Arranged marriages are less frequent among migrants in Western Europe than among stayers in Turkey. The difference is largest for second-generation children. This pattern can only partly be explained by their higher educational attainment. Moreover, lower-educated parents are more involved in spousal choice, whereas parental religiosity does not make any difference. Parents strongly transmit their own marriage patterns to their children, but transmission is weaker in migration. Results suggest migration-specific intergenerational adaptation processes in times of general global social and cultural change.

Parental Religiosity and Youth Religiosity: Variations by Family Structure

Many studies have explored the links between family structure, parental religiosity, and youth religiosity, but results across studies have been inconsistent and have largely ignored new diverse family forms. Using data on 2,320 youth and their parents from the National Study of Youth and Religion, this study focused on whether and why religious transmission from parents to youth varies among diverse family structures. Results suggest that family structure is not directly related to youth religious outcomes, but that the influence of parental religiosity on religious participation and religious salience (but not closeness to God or private religious practices) was weaker for youth raised in stepfamilies, never-married single-parent families, and cohabiting families than for those raised by married biological/adoptive parents. Results also suggest that less effective religious transmission within nontraditional families compared with traditional families is due (at least in part) to less effective religious socialization within these families.

Attitudes Towards Intergroup Dating Among Brussels Adolescents: The interaction of gender and ethnicity and its determinants

ABSTRACTAttitudes towards intergroup dating and their determinants are important to comprehend group boundaries of multicultural societies. Our contribution investigates gender and ethnic differences in intergroup dating approval among 18 year olds from 11 ethnic groups in Belgium. We observe ethnic differences in the level of approval of intergroup dating. However, these ethnic disparities are largely explained by the degree of sexual liberalization, parental control and religiosity. Moreover, the associations of parental control, sexual liberalization and religiosity with attitudes towards intergroup dating differ for girls and boys. We conclude by highlighting the relevance of the interaction of gender and ethnic origin in shaping attitudes towards intergroup dating.

Inheritance of Religiosity Among Muslim Immigrants in a Secular Society

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of religiosity within Muslim immigrant families who live in the Netherlands, a rather secular society. We studied whether transmission of religiosity within immigrant families is influenced by warm family relations on the one hand, and integration into the host country on the other hand. Two analyses were carried out on a nationally representative sample of Turkish and Moroccan first- and second-generation immigrants aged 15–45, in the Netherlands. The findings support the hypotheses to some extent: warm family ties are found to facilitate religious transmission but transmission is stronger when parents have different national backgrounds. A stronger transmission is found within families that are stronger embedded in religious communities; however there are large differences between men and women. Our research shows that the influence of parental religiosity cannot be ignored in the study of immigrants’ religiosity.

Teachers and the religious socialization of adolescents: Facilitation of meaningful religious identity formation processes

This study investigated the effects of religious education on student religious identity over and above parent religiosity by examining student perceptions of two aspects of teacher functioning: teacher caring and teacher as role-model. We posited that effects of these variables on students' religious identity are mediated by student perceptions that the school provides a non-alienating religious atmosphere and meaningful religious studies. Participants were 2691 male and female students (grades 9–12) in 152 classes of 25 schools from the Jewish public-religious sector in Israel. Results indicate that in addition to their parents' religiosity, adolescents' perceptions of their teachers as role models and their religious studies as meaningful are important variables affecting their religious identity. Moreover, this research suggests that religious identity formation processes flourish in an educational environment which students perceive as accommodating religious exploration.

Culture, Religiosity and Female Labor Supply

Does culture affect female labor supply? In this paper, we address this question using a recent approach to measuring the effects of culture on economic outcomes, i.e. the epidemiological approach. We focus on migrants, who come from different cultures, but who share a common economic and institutional set-up today. Controlling for various individual characteristics including parental human capital as well as for current economic and institutional setup, we find that female employment rates in 1970 in a female migrant’s province of origin affects her labor supply behavior in 2008. We also show that it is the female employment rates and not male in the province of origin in 1970 that affects the current labor supply behavior. We also extend the epidemiological approach to analyze the effects of religion on female labor supply. More specifically, we use a proxy of parental religiosity, i.e. share of party votes in 1973 elections in Turkey to study female labor supply in 2008. Our findings indicate that female migrants from provinces that had larger (smaller) shares of the religious party votes in 1973 are less (more) likely to participate in the labor market in 2008. An extended model where both cultural and religiosity proxies are included shows that culture and religiosity have separately significant effects on female labor supply behavior.

Bereavement and Religion Online: Stillbirth, Neonatal Loss, and Parental Religiosity

Stillbirth and neonatal death often trigger immense and long‐lasting grief in parents. These life‐altering losses both call upon and call into question parents’ religious beliefs and practices. This qualitative research examines the impact of stillbirth and neonatal death on parental religiosity, broadly conceived to include personal spirituality and any religious affiliation, including atheism. It examines religion online, a nontraditional but important social context for grief, especially regarding statistically rare tragedies such as stillbirth and neonatal death. Content analysis of postings on a hub website for “babyloss” parents yields four major themes: religious disorientation, religious reorientation, changed relationships with others, and a quest for meaning.

Emerging adult perceptions of parental religiosity and parenting practices: Relationships with emerging adult religiosity and psychological adjustment.

Emerging adult perceptions of parental religiosity and parenting practices: Relationships with emerging adult religiosity and psychological adjustment.

Parent-child dynamics and emerging adult religiosity: Attachment, parental beliefs, and faith support.

Parental religiosity has been shown to predict child and adolescent religiosity, but the role of parents in emerging adult religiosity is largely unknown. We explored associations among emerging adult religiosity, perceived parental religiosity, perceived similarity to mother’s and to father’s religious beliefs, parental faith support, and parental attachment. Participants were 481 alumni of two Christian colleges and completed surveys online. Emerging adult religiosity (measured by Christian orthodoxy and intrinsic religiosity) was high and similar to parents’ religiosity. Perceived similarity to parents’ religious beliefs, faith support, and attachment to fathers predicted emerging adult religiosity. However, parental religiosity alone was a weak predictor and functioned as a negative suppressor variable when combined with similarity to parents’ beliefs and faith support. Findings underscore the importance of parental support and parent– child relationship dynamics more than the level of parental religiosity and point to possibly unique roles for mothers and fathers in emerging adult religiosity.

2192 – The relationship between parental religiosity and mental health of preadolescents in a community sample: the trails study

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between parental religiosity, parental harmony on the subject of religiosity, and the mental health of pre-adolescents. In a community-based sample of 2,230 pre-adolescents (10-12 years), mental health problems were assessed using self-report (Youth Self-Report, YSR), parental report (Child Behavior Checklist, CBCL) as well as teacher report (Teacher Checklist for Psychopathology, TCP). Information about the religiosity of mother, the religiosity of father and religious harmony between the parents was obtained by parent report. The influence of maternal religiosity on internalizing symptoms depended on the religious harmony between parents. This was particularly apparent on the CBCL. Higher levels of internalizing symptoms were associated with parental religious disharmony when combined with passive maternal religiosity. Boys scored themselves as having more externalizing symptoms in case of religiously disharmonious parents. The levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms in pre-adolescents were not influenced by parental religiosity. Religious disharmony between parents is a risk factor for internalizing problems when the mother is passive religious. Religious disharmony is a risk factor on its own for externalizing problems amongst boys. Parental religious activity and parental harmony play a role in the mental health of pre-adolescents.

Parent−adolescent relationships, religiosity, and the social adjustment of Indonesian Muslim adolescents.

Parent-adolescent relationships invariably occur within a complex cultural context that in some populations include strong religious influences. Using data from multiple sources that were analyzed using structural equation modeling, we found that parental warmth and parental religiosity predicted adolescent religiosity in a sample of 296 Indonesian 15-year-old adolescents. The significant interaction of parental warmth and parent religiosity indicated that parental warmth moderated the relation between parent religiosity and adolescent religiosity. We expanded this model to predict externalizing and prosocial behavior where direct paths from adolescent religiosity to outcomes were significant for prosocial but not antisocial behavior; parental warmth, parent religiosity, and their interaction did not predict either outcome. Adolescent religiosity was found to be a mediator of these relations between predictor and outcomes for prosocial but not antisocial behavior. These results suggest that, in Indonesia and perhaps other highly religious cultures, parent-adolescent relationships and social competence may be interconnected with religion.

Incorporating religiosity into a developmental model of positive family functioning across generations.

This study evaluated a developmental model of intergenerational continuity in religiosity and its association with observed competency in romantic and parent-child relationships across 2 generations. Using multi-informant data from the Family Transitions Project, a 20-year longitudinal study of families that began during early adolescence (N = 451), we found that parental religiosity assessed during youths' adolescence was positively related to youths' own religiosity during adolescence, which, in turn, predicted their religiosity after the transition to adulthood. The findings also supported the theoretical model guiding the study, which proposes that religiosity acts as a personal resource that will be uniquely and positively associated with the quality of family relationships. Especially important, the findings demonstrate support for the role of religiosity in a developmental process that promotes positive family functioning after addressing earlier methodological limitations in this area of study, such as cross-sectional research designs, single informant measurement, retrospective reports, and the failure to control for other individual differences.

Parental Divorce, Parental Religious Characteristics, and Religious Outcomes in Adulthood

Parental divorce has been linked to religious outcomes in adulthood. Previous research has not adequately accounted for parental religious characteristics or subsequent family context, namely whether one's custodial parent remarries. Using pooled data from three waves of the General Social Survey, we examine the relationships among parental divorce, subsequent family structure, and religiosity in adulthood. Growing up in a single-parent family-but not a stepparent family-is positively associated with religious disaffiliation and religious switching and negatively associated with regular religious attendance. Accounting for parental religious characteristics, however, explains sizable proportions of these relationships. Accounting for parental religious affiliation and attendance, growing up with a single parent does not significantly affect religious attendance. Parental religiosity also moderates the relationship between growing up with a single parent and religious attendance: being raised in a single-parent home has a negative effect on religious attendance among adults who had two religiously involved parents.

Religious Values and Tuition Vouchers: An Empirical Case Study of Parent Religiosity as a Factor of School Choice

This study was designed to determine whether parent religiosity is a statistically significant school choice factor. The Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) was administered to 215 parents in an urban, PreK–12 religious private school that participated in the Ohio Educational Choice (EdChoice) voucher program. The null hypothesis that there was no statistically significant difference in parent religiosity between parents who paid private tuition and parents who utilized state-funded tuition vouchers was supported. As an empirical case study, no statistically significant difference in parent religiosity suggests that parents who choose religious private schools for their children would do so if they were financially able, because their choice is based, at least in part, on their own religiosity. Tuition vouchers make that choice possible.

A Religious Experience? Personal, Parental, and Peer Religiosity and the Academic Success of Sexual-Minority Youth Using Nationally Representative Samples

Using nationally representative transcript data, this study is the first to include a discussion of religiosity in the context of sexual-minority students’ academic achievement. This study examines the issue in three capacities: first, by comparing school success of sexual-minority youth to a non-sexual-minority reference group; second, by examining multiple facets of religiosity—including personal, parental, and peer factors—and their associations with the schooling success of sexual-minority youth and their heterosexual counterparts; and third, by exploring these issues across the three definitions of sexual-minority youth for both genders. The results indicate that whereas non-sexual-minority females with higher personal, parental, and peer religiosity tend to have higher grade-point averages (GPAs), sexual-minority males’ school success is unrelated to the religiosity of their environments.