Parental Influence and Intergenerational Transmission of Religious Belief, Attitudes, and Practices: Recent Evidence from the United States

Abstract

A traditionally salient topic of empirical investigation in the sociology of religion, this paper seeks to offer a recent investigation into the intergenerational transmission of religion and the parental forms of religious engagement that predict adult engagement with religion. The study of this paper explores the intergenerational transmission of religion, focusing on the parental forms of religious identity and engagement that influence religious identity, beliefs, and practices in adulthood. By analyzing the 2018 GSS dataset in the United States with multiple regression analyses, I found strong parental and childhood influences on adult religiosity, religious service attendance, and belief in God. Indeed, this engagement often mirrors parental engagement for these variables. However, while paternal religious identity often predicts these religious variables, I found that the religious identity and engagement of parents generally do not predict religious identity in adulthood. Ultimately, while these results generally show strong predictive mechanisms of intergenerational transmission, they also illustrate that these relationships are variably dependent on the form of parental and adult religious engagement, and which parent participates or is associated with that engagement.