The family home is a key factor in children retaining faith as adults, research says

A new study that examines how parents can effectively strengthen the faith of their children found that the family home is the most important factor in determining whether a child keeps his faith into adulthood.

In a new study titled “Passing the Light: How Faith Travels Through the Generations,” the Institute for Family Studies and Communio looked at adults raised in Christian families to identify the parenting behaviors most associated with lasting faith.

The study found that parents who attend church regularly, pray daily, talk about their faith with their children, and build strong family bonds are more likely to raise children who remain faithful into adulthood.

When it comes to religious behavior, adults who said their parents attended church weekly were twice as likely to attend church weekly in their 30s and 40s (26% versus 12%) compared to those whose parents did not attend weekly. The study also found that church attendance was more likely in adulthood if a child attended church weekly with both parents than with one parent, resulting in a 41% chance of being an adult attender compared to 29%.

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Small spiritual practices integrated into daily family life can have a big impact, the study found. Children from families that regularly say grace before meals were three times more likely to attend church weekly than young adults, with attendance increasing from 7% to 22%. A similar pattern emerged in households that often pray together without meals and church services, such as at bedtime. Children from those families were 52% as likely to pray daily as adults.

Regular conversations about faith also seemed to make a big difference. Children raised in homes where religion was discussed several times a week or more were twice as likely to attend church weekly, pray daily and view religion as very important as adults. And they were about 20 percent more likely to identify as Christians and to believe that Jesus Christ is God.

Growing up in a family with strong and loving bonds was another important factor in the faith continuing successfully into adulthood.

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New research suggests that parents play an important role in passing on faith to the next generation. (Photos by Monkeybusiness/Getty Images)

“Research suggests that the quality of the parent-child relationship does not drive religiosity itself, but creates the relationship conditions in which transmission becomes more likely,” the study notes.

This study found that children raised by two married parents are generally more likely to keep their faith as adults. However, the quality and stability of that relationship was also important.

Adults who reported having a “very good” relationship with both parents while growing up were the most likely to remain religious as adults. Compared to those with less positive relationships, they are more likely to attend church weekly, pray daily, read the scriptures, place more importance on religion and believe in God.

Fathers who had strong relationships with their children also had a greater spiritual influence on their children. Adults who reported having a “very good” relationship with their father while growing up were 58% more likely to attend church weekly, 45% more likely to pray daily and 73% more likely to believe in God compared to those who had a conflicted or distant relationship with their father.

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A new study found that children raised in families who pray together regularly are more likely to continue their faith into adulthood. (Stock)

Happiness at home had a long-term effect on children’s spiritual lives: children whose parents had the happiest marriages showed a 46% predicted chance of praying daily as adults, compared to 41% for those from unhappy homes. Parents who described themselves as “completely satisfied” in their marriages had about five faith-related conversations a week with their children, compared to fewer than four among less satisfied couples.

Media habits also influenced religious commitment in adulthood. When parents carefully monitored their children’s television time and Internet use, those children grew up to be more likely to pray daily, identify as Christians, view religion as very important and believe in Jesus as adults, a study found.

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A new study finds that open discussions about faith at home strongly predict the course of faith in adulthood. (Jacob Wackerhausen/Getty Images Plus)

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However, the authors of this report say that parents cannot do it alone. While the family home is the primary driver of lasting faith, strong church communities help strengthen those beliefs by providing training, friendships, volunteer opportunities, and youth programs that keep children connected to their faith as they grow.

The study focused on US adults aged 25 and older who were raised in a Christian culture. To reach the conclusions, the researchers analyzed data from four large national longitudinal studies representing tens of thousands of Americans: the Global Flourishing Study, the Communio Nationwide Study on Faith & Relationships, the Add Health study and the National Study of Youth and Religion.

Study authors Jesse Smith, Ph.D., and Jane Lankes Smith, Ph.D., emphasize that the study highlights how parents must be involved in passing on faith to their children.

“In a culture where religion is no longer reinforced by society as a whole, parents cannot imagine that faith will simply ‘take away’ their children,” said the Smiths. “The families that are most successful in passing on the faith are those that do it openly, talk about it often, and build it into everyday life.”

JP De Gance, founder and president of Communio, a nonprofit that trains churches to strengthen marriages and families, said the findings come at an important time as religious participation continues to decline in the United States.

“The decline of faith in the United States over the past 40 years is one of the biggest social challenges we are facing in the 250th year since its founding,” De Gance said in a statement. “Its decline is associated with higher mental illness, more suicide, less happiness, and less mobility. This report sheds new light on the most important factor shaping the faith of older adults—all from our family of origin.”

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“The number of marriages, the health of those marriages, the quality of a parent’s relationship with their children, and the types of conversations we have with our children are all major factors affecting the future of faith in America,” he added. “Here’s the good news: many of these factors are under the parents’ control. This study shows that the family really is the best small group ever created.”