Andy's Blog: A Personal Word

April 30, 2008

Apr. 30, 2008

Thinking about children and faith again, a recent study conducted by sociologist John Bartkowski, at Mississippi State University found that kids whose parents are actively involved in their faith are better adjusted and better behaved than others. Parents and teachers of more than 16,000 kids, most of them first-graders, were asked 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 and talked about religion with their child.

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.

Why so good? Bartkowski thinks religion can be good for kids for three reasons:

First, religious networks provide social support to parents 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,” Bartkowski said.

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and supportive of family. Bartkowski reported that these “could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response.”

Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.

At Trinity, rarely a Sunday goes by that we don’t baptize a child. There is something very special about this for me. In this act of God’s promise to love this child always, the parents promise to share God’s love with their child, and the entire congregation’s promise to share in that responsibility, all come together. That’s a whole lot of promises coming together. And apparently when we all keep those promises, it works!  Children are enabled to fulfill the promise of their own lives.

Faithful parents, raise faithful kids.

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