PARENT RELATION AS A FACTOR IN THE FORMATION OF RELIGIOUS IDENTITY

Abstract

The article presents the results of an empirical study of the influence of individual indicators of parental relations on the formation of their children's religiosity. The research involves the study of subjective perceptions of respondents on the question of parental attitudes about the features in the formation of their religiosity. Methods: Focus group and individual interviews (2009-2013); survey (2014-2015). Sample: 180 representatives of the young people (full-time students of first and second years at one of the Volgograd Oblast' universities); 82 of which are Orthodox Christians, 55 respondents identified themselves as Muslims, and 43 have atheistic worldview. The study of interpersonal relations in a family revealed two types of parental relationships: subjective interaction and objective influence of parents on a child. In families with subjective interaction parents respecting the attitude of a child create an environment for cooperation and partnership, including in the development of religious worldview of a child. The respondents while revealing their personal experience of becoming religious spoke with great emotional warmth about this part of their lives and often referred to a particular relative who was their guide to the world of religion (a mother, a father, a grandmother, an uncle, or a godmother). In families with objective attitudes towards children parents influence their children with various degrees of activity and interest (a child is an object of their educational activity) based on their own philosophical worldviews and ideals. The respondents when talking about their experiences of religious enculturation said that their parents showed violence in the process of translation of religious worldviews: they forced them to go to a church, to pray, and to follow the religious rituals. Another indicator of parental attitudes towards children, which has an impact on the formation of a child's religious worldviews, is the degree of activity of parents in the process of religious enculturation. Some participants of the research emphasized that their parents were actively involved in the formation of their religiosity. Other participants described the experience of religious enculturation in which their parents were passive: they simply ignored the topic of religion in the process of raising children. It is significant to note that some of the respondents, who faced with such an ignoring attitude, as they grew up, started to study religion and to look for its place in their worldview by their own or with the help of other people. The identified indicators of parental relations: subjectivity or objectivity; activity or passivity are not absolute in determining the effectiveness of the formation of religious identity. The synthesis and the intercrossing of these indicators of parental relations create certain conditions for the formation of religious identity.