Eighty-five percent of parents surveyed believe they are most responsible for teaching their children about religious matters, but a majority of them do not spend any time in a typical week discussing such topics with them.
Bama Research Group reports that 85 percent of parents of children younger than 13 believe they are primarily responsible for teaching their children about spiritual matters, while 11 percent say their church has top responsibility and 1 percent say their child’s school is most responsible.
An even higher percentage of such parents – 96 percent- say they are most responsible for teaching values to their children.
Two out of three parents of children 12 or younger, however, attend religious services at least monthly and usually take their children with them.
Researchers found that parents generally have no plan for their children’s spiritual development and have little or no training on nurturing their child’s faith. They determine that 19 percent of parents of children younger than 13 have been spoken to or personally contacted by a church leader to discuss parental involvement in the spiritual development of their children.
The research data was based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,010 adults in late January and early February and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.
“This is one of the most significant and fertile mission fields in the nation, yet the very people who claim responsibility for the spiritual growth of those children are doing little about it beyond dropping their kids off at church,” said George Barna, president of Bama Research Group, in a statement.
(RNS)
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