Religious Transmission Versus Religious Formation: Preadolescent-Parent Interaction

Abstract

Religiousness on the part of youth can result from transmission across generations and it can stem from a nurturant parent-child relationship. Interaction could occur between these variables. These relationships were tested using data from 2724 adolescents in grades 4-8 in intact families in southern Minnesota. The dependent measure involves five items measuring religious attendance, belief, and devotional practice. Both parental religiousness and support were significant predictors of preadolescent religiousness, with the former the better predictor. There was no significant interaction between these two predictors, and this finding is discussed in the context of a culture supportive of religion. Females were more religious than males. Paternal and maternal measures were similar in their abilities to predict religiosity, although a significant interaction existed between sex of preadolescent and material religiousness, with sons scoring especially low on religion when their mothers also scored low.In studying both the trends of religiousness over time and the process by which individuals become religious, researchers have often focused on youth. Despite shifts on the part of the American public in their religious behavior over the past 20 years, American institutional religion still enjoys greater levels of religious practice than exist, €or example, in England or Sweden (Gallup, 1965;Tomasson, 1970). One important source of the religiousness of the American public is the religious transmission and formation that might occur in childhood and preadolescence. This is the subject of this article.In their studies of the acquisition of religious concepts, sociologists and especially psychologists have considered the images youths and adults hold of their parents and of God: For the most part these studies have had a psychological assumption, namely, projections of parental love or power in the formation of God concepts. Only more recently have researchers speculated about the twin processes of transmission of values (Potvin, 1977:51) or the cultural roots of God images (Spilka et al., 1975: 164) and the projection from parent-child interaction. The present study examines parental characteristics as perceived by a sample of preadolescents and the relationships of these with preadolescent religiosity. Studies on the Transmission of ReligiosityWeigert and Thomas (1970) assessed the effects of parental support and control on adolescent religiosity using cross-cultural, including American, data. They ex-01980 by The Sociological Quarterly. All rights reserved.

Maternal Depression and the Intergenerational Transmission of Religion

“…Previous research has shown that the optimal conditions of religious transmission are parental nurturance, acceptance, support, and close relationship (Litchfield et al, 1997;Nelsen, 1980;Ozorak, 1989;Thomas, 1988;Wan-Ning et al, 1999). Family conflict, on the other hand, either between parent and child or between the spouses, has been shown to inhibit transmission of religious values (Clark and Worthington, 1987).…”

“…Children who reported their parents (who were religious) to be more nurturing were more religious on dimensions of attendance, belief, and devotional practice (Nelsen, 1980). Maternal transmission of religiousness (church attendance, religious denomination, and the concept of G-d) is greater when the adolescent perceives the parent as accepting and supportive (Wan-Ning et al, 1999).…”

Parental Influence and Adolescent Religiosity: A Study of Church Attendance and Attitude Toward Christianity Among Adolescents 11 to 12 and 15 to 16 Years Old

“…The first group of studies explored the religious attitudes and practices of parents alongside those of their offspring (Acock & Bengston, 1978, 1980Clark, Worthington, & Danser, 1988;Dudley & Dudley, 1986;Hoge et al, 1982;Kieren & Munro, 1987). The second group of studies explored the religious attitudes and practices of the younger generation alongside their perceptions of parental religiosity (De Hart, 1990;De Vaus, 1983;Erickson, 1992;Francis & Brown, 1991;Hoge & Petrillo, 1978;Nelsen, 1980Nelsen, , 1981Ozorak, 1989).…”

A felekezeti oktatás új negyedszázada

“…Abban a kérdésben azonban, hogy ez az együttjárás mennyire szoros és milyen tényezők befolyásolják az erősségét, nincsen konszenzus a kutatók körében. A család típusának és a szülők nevelési módszereinek szignifikáns hatásait egyes esetekben sikerült kimutatni (Myers 1996), míg máskor ez a tényező nem bizonyult meghatározónak (Nelsen 1980). A magyar társadalom olyan sajátosságait figyelembe véve, mint a házasságon belüli vallási homogámia vagy a földrajzi mobilitás alacsony szintje, előzetesen azt feltételeztük, hogy kutatásunk során szignifikáns kapcsolatot fogunk találni a szülők és gyermekeik vallásossága között.…”