Link found between fathers’ religious affiliations, amount of time spent with children

A sociological study of parenting patterns indicates religious dads spend more time with their children than fathers with no ties to faith.

“My research shows that evangelical Protestant and Catholic fathers are, on average, more involved with their children than fathers who have no religious affiliation,” said W. Bradford Wilcox, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

“Evangelical Protestant fathers, including Southern Baptists, are very involved with their children, which I found surprising, given their tendency to embrace traditional gender attitudes.”

Wilcox’s work was based on data on more than 1,000 fathers in the National Survey of Families and Households. The results of his work appeared in an article titled “Religion, Convention and Paternal Involvement” in the August issue of The Journal of Marriage and Family.

He examined one-on-one activities such as private talks and working on a project or playing together, dinner with families, and involvement in youth-related activities. He found conservative Protestants were more involved in one-on-one activities than mainline Protestant and unaffiliated fathers, and Catholic fathers fell somewhere in between.

In an average year, conservative Protestant dads had roughly 27 more dinners with their families than dads who were unaffiliated. Catholics and mainline Protestant fathers dined with their families less often than evangelical Protestants but more than unaffiliated dads.

Wilcox thinks his work could trigger more research on connections between religion and child well-being.

“This study suggests that religion- measured by affiliation and church attendance- may be indirectly linked to child outcomes through its association with paternal involvement,” he said.

(RNS)