Why Are Parents the Crucial Players?

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-92
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Amy Adamczyk
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Religious Socialization ◽  
Anthony Giddens ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Religious Transmission ◽  
Powerful Mechanism

This chapter considers why parents are—and increasingly have become—the central players in their children’s religious socialization. It theorizes historical transformations of the American religious field and of family life that are crucial for understanding intergenerational religious transmission, particularly the centrality of parents talking to children about religion as a most powerful mechanism of socialization in religious faith and practice. It suggests that the “reflexive imperative” theorized by Anthony Giddens and Margaret Archer creates a culture that situates parents and talk with children at the center of religious transmission. It provides a big-picture interpretation of the transformation of American religion in recent decades as one from religion as communal solidarity project to personal identity accessory, which sheds light not only on the dynamics of religious socialization but also changes in the macro religious field.

scholarly journals Transmission of Faith in Families: The Influence of Religious Ideology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Smith
Keyword(s):  
Young Adulthood ◽  
National Study ◽  
Religious Socialization ◽  
Religious Ideology ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Family ◽  
Primary Finding ◽  
Religious Transmission ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Parenting Approaches

Abstract The family and denominational factors influencing intergenerational religious transmission have been examined in a substantial body of work. Despite research identifying religious ideology as a salient aspect of American religion, however, its role in religious transmission remains unexplored. In this study, I use the National Study of Youth and Religion to test whether children’s worship attendance and centrality of faith in young adulthood differ based on whether their parents identify as religiously liberal, moderate, conservative, or none of these. I further test whether the strength of the relationship between parent and child religiosity differs between ideological groups. The primary finding is that religious transmission is stronger among children of religious conservatives than for any other group, while the other groups do not differ significantly from one another. These differences in transmission are largely explained by religious conservative parenting approaches, congregational involvement, and most importantly, more intensive religious socialization.

Stage of Religious Faith and Reactions to Terminal Cancer

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford H. Swensen ◽  
Steffen Fuller ◽  
Richard Clements
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Terminal Cancer ◽  
Marital Intimacy ◽  
Diagnosis Of Cancer ◽  
Stages Of Faith ◽  
The Impact

This study focused on the impact of terminal cancer on the lives of patients and their spouses as a function of the stage of religious faith of the subjects. Patients at more complex stages of faith reported higher overall quality of life; higher quality of socioeconomic life, family life, and psychological and spiritual life; and greater marital intimacy than patients at simpler stages of faith. Patients, regardless of stage of faith, reported the most important factor in their quality of life was their personal relationships, and this importance increased after the diagnosis of cancer. The spouses’ quality of life seemed mostly related to the state of the patients’ health.

Religious Parenting

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Bridget Ritz ◽  
Michael Rotolo
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Models ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Traditional Religion ◽  
Religious Socialization ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Professionals ◽  
Family Types ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Religious Transmission ◽  
Depth Interviews

How do American parents pass their religion on to their children? At a time of overall decline of traditional religion and an increased interest in personal “spirituality,” this book investigates the ways that parents transmit religious beliefs, values, and practices to their kids. We know that parents are the most important influence on their children's religious lives, yet parents have been virtually ignored in previous work on religious socialization. The book explores American parents' strategies, experiences, beliefs, and anxieties regarding religious transmission through hundreds of in-depth interviews that span religious traditions, social classes, and family types all around the country. Throughout we hear the voices of evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, mainline and black Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist parents and discover that, despite massive diversity, American parents share a nearly identical approach to socializing their children religiously. For almost all, religion is important for the foundation it provides for becoming one's best self on life's difficult journey. Religion is primarily a resource for navigating the challenges of this life, not preparing for an afterlife. Parents view it as their job, not religious professionals', to ground their children in life-enhancing religious values that provide resilience, morality, and a sense of purpose. Challenging longstanding sociological and anthropological assumptions about culture, the book demonstrates that parents of highly dissimilar backgrounds share the same “cultural models” when passing on religion to their children.

Marysia’s Voice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Wrazen
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Tatra Mountains ◽  
Marriage And Family ◽  
Southern Poland ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
Happy Marriage ◽  
The Tatra Mountains ◽  
Sense Of Home

This chapter examines the life and career of Marysia Mąka. She spent her childhood and early adulthood in the Podhale region in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland as a Górale or Highlander, singing with local groups. In 1992, at age twenty-nine, she migrated to Toronto, Canada, where singing enabled her to sustain and renew her sense of personal identity in relation to motherhood and ethnicity. Within a framework of dislocation, local contexts, and a happy marriage and family life, Marysia creates community through her singing and compositions, using her voice to maintain connections to landscape, people, a sense of home, and language.

scholarly journals The Stickiness of Non-Religion? Intergenerational Transmission and the Formation of Non-Religious Identities in Childhood

Sociology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 1094-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Strhan ◽  
Rachael Shillitoe
Keyword(s):  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
School Context ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Rapid Rise ◽  
Religious Socialization ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
The Family ◽  
Religious Transmission

The rapid rise of those identifying as ‘non-religious’ across many countries has prompted growing interest in the ‘religious nones’. A now burgeoning literature has emerged, challenging the idea that ‘non-religion’ is the mere absence of religion and exploring the substantive beliefs, practices and identities that are associated with so-called unbelief. Yet we know little about the micro-processes through which this cultural shift towards non-religion is taking place. Drawing on data from an ethnographic study, this article examines how, when, where and with whom children learn to be non-religious, and considers the different factors that are implicated in the formation of non-religious identities. While research on religious transmission has demonstrated the importance of the family, our multi-sited approach reveals the important role also played by both school context and children’s own reflections in shaping their formation as non-religious, suggesting a complex pattern of how non-religious socialization is occurring in Britain today.

The Big Picture of American Religious Parenting

2021 ◽  
pp. 93-116
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Amy Adamczyk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Socialization ◽  
University Of Virginia ◽  
Advanced Study ◽  
Religion And Ethics ◽  
Big Picture ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The University ◽  
American Families

This chapter zooms out to explore findings from two other nationally representative surveys of American parents about their priorities for, expectations about, and practices to influence their children’s religious futures. The surveys analyzed are the Culture of American Families survey conducted in 2012 by the Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture at the University of Virginia; and the Faith and Family in America survey conducted in 2005 for Religion and Ethics Newsweekly by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, Inc. Findings explore American parents’ beliefs about, values of, and strategies for the religious socialization of their children.

How Family Life Shapes Religious Parenting

2021 ◽  
pp. 161-190
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Amy Adamczyk
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
Physical Presence ◽  
Similarities And Differences

When parents think about how they want to pass on their religion to their children, they often consider their own experiences as children, as well as the individuals with whom their children spend a lot of time. These people include their own parents, grandparents, and, of course, partners. This chapter explores how these other people, both their physical presence as well as childhood memories of them, affect how they try to transmit religion to their offspring. The chapter examines general similarities and differences between adult children and their parents in their childrearing style. It also considers the extent to which adult children draw upon childrearing approaches learned from their parents. The role of grandparents is discussed, as well as the important influence of partners in shaping religious faith transmission. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the different processes married parents and those who are divorced or single engage.

Conclusion

2019 ◽  
pp. 263-278
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Bridget Ritz ◽  
Michael Rotolo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Cultural Approach ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Social ◽  
Religious Transmission ◽  
Opening Up

This concluding chapter reviews, highlights, and elaborates on some key points. Many scholars in the social sciences and the humanities study various aspects of religion. Despite it being a question of huge importance for religion and family life, however, extremely few scholars have studied how and why religious parents raise their children to pass on to them their religious practices and beliefs. This chapter engages this question of intergenerational religious transmission by taking a cultural approach, in the hope of further opening up this area for additional study and providing helpful answers and greater understanding. In the process, the chapter discusses some important things about the nature and workings of culture generally. But it notes that much more research on both religious parenting and cultural models is needed beyond what has been accomplished here.

scholarly journals Analysis of Religious Socialization Based on Interviews Conducted with Young Adults

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Pusztai ◽  
Zsuzsanna Demeter-Karászi
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Religious Socialization ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Religious Transmission

The term religious socialization has become a pressing issue in the context of religious socialization research. It also raises the question whether religious transmission can be interpreted through the reproduction or constructivist approach. Previously, the reconstruction models determined the approach of studying religious socialization. According to these models, socialization meant the adoption of the patterns of religious practice in the family. In this sense, socialization is periodical. The constructivist and the social network models of sociology significantly changed our conception of religious socialization. The earlier model was replaced by a model which rests on activity, correlation and open-endedness. In this paper, 18 qualitative interviews were analyzeanalyzed. Because religiosity is a multidimensional phenomenon, we wanted to analyze development in each dimension, which is why we relied on Glock and Stark’s model. Based on our results, seven types emerged and these findings have strengthened the constructivist approach.

Préférence pour le mariage non-mixte parmi les Amidistes « Shin » du bouddhisme japonais

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-20
Author(s):  
Kiyomi Morioka
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Social Background ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Mixed Marriage ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Back Ground

This study seeks to identify the factors influencing the marked reli gious endogamy among Shin-Amidists and was conducted in a village where this tendency was clearly evident ; there being only 5 cases of mixed marriage recorded between 1870 and 1952. The author first looks at the social background. Do Shin-Amidists not marry Shingonists because of differing social status ? But in fact, the two groups are represented in the same proportion in the social pyramid. Neither can differences in profession, family life or locality be show to be significant. The author then turns to the religious back ground, but finds little support for this practice in doctrine, he did discover though, that the Shin-Amidists do hold at regular intervals religious meetings whose function is, in part, to encourage marriages between the families, and similar meetings are held by the Shingonists. A mixed marriage would therefore run counter to the object of these gatherings and undermine their aim. The author looks again at the question of social class as endogamy is hard to find among the upper class, but he concludes this is due to their small numbers. In the author's opinion therefore endogamy is a sign of the inte gration of their religious faith into the daily life of the Shin-Amidists.

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