Religion Is Good For Kids (A Study)

Lightkeeper · #1 (**permalink**) 26th April 2007, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Melinda Wenner
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Tue Apr 24, 10:45 AM ET

Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development.

The conflict that arises when parents regularly argue over their faith at home, however, has the opposite effect.

John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids, most of them first-graders, to rate how much self control they believed the kids had, how often they exhibited poor or unhappy behavior and how well they respected and worked with their peers.

The researchers compared these scores to how frequently the children?s parents said they attended worship services, talked about religion with their child and argued about religion in the home.

The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services?especially when both parents did so frequently?and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

But when parents argued frequently about religion, the children were more likely to have problems. ?Religion can hurt if faith is a source of conflict or tension in the family,? Bartkowski noted.

Why so good?

Bartkowski thinks religion can be good for kids for three reasons. First, religious networks provide social support to parents, he said, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also ?take more to heart the messages that they get in the home,? he said.

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family, Bartkowski told LiveScience. These ?could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response,? he said.

Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...nisgoodforkids

What are your thoughts?

cardero · #2 (**permalink**) 26th April 2007, 08:19 PM

I don’t think that religion contributes to well-behaved children. Responsible parents do and responsible parents do not originate with religion.

evangelicalhumanist · #3 (**permalink**) 27th April 2007, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cardero

I don’t think that religion contributes to well-behaved children. Responsible parents do and responsible parents do not originate with religion.

Just so, Cardero.

And one has to note the reasons given for the results. The reasons, in the article quoted, are not about religion, religious faith or God per se, but about social relationships.

I keep insisting that humans are a socially interdependent species, and so this should not come as any surprise whatever. And in fact, I think that if, mysteriously, mankind had no religious belief at all, then the same sorts of social support and social learning would occur at sporting events, instead, and be just as effective.

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