A study of youth and religion find that early adolescents whose families are very involved in matters of faith report that their parents have good relationships.
The report, “Family Religious Involvement and the Quality of Parental Relationships for Families with Early Adolescents,” was released Oct. 22 by sociologists involved with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researchers looked at family religious activity, parental worship service attendance and parental prayer.
They found that 11 percent of 12-to-14-year-olds are part of families heavily involved in religious activity during the week.
An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth found that these youngsters are much more likely than youth whose families do not engage in religious activities throughout the week to report better relationships between their fathers and mothers.
An executive summary of the study stated that the reasons for the results could relate to three different factors: religion influencing parental relationships, parents who already have strong relationships choosing to become more religiously involved or reduction of family religious practices as parental relationships fall apart.
“What is clear in this report’s findings, however, is that, for whatever reasons, early adolescents living in religiously involved families in the United States are more likely to report stronger, more positive relationships between their parents than do adolescents in families that are not religiously active,” the summary stated.
(RNS)
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