2011/09/19 by David Voas, Ingrid Storm · 45 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Attendance #Church attendance #Cultural transmission in animals #Gender studies #Identity (music) #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving #Law #Political science #Psychology #Religion and Society Interactions #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Religiosity #Religious identity #Social psychology #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1007/s13644-011-0026-1
published in Review of Religious Research 53(4), 377-395 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2011/09/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The family is an important setting for the transmission of values and traditions, and parents have a significant influence on the religious involvement of their children. The family typically provides an initial religious identity and introduces children to religious beliefs, practices and a network of adherents. For both scholars and practitioners, the question of how religion does or does not come to be passed on in families is of crucial importance. In this study we use data from the 2001 International Congregational Life Survey to examine church attendance across three generations in England and Australia. In both England and Australia there is a strong tendency for couples to attend church together; they are making joint decisions and, when churchgoing is favored, encouraging each other in religious practice. The impact of two churchgoing parents on their children is considerably stronger than that of one alone. Our analysis shows that not only parental but also grandparental religious activity has a significant effect. While much of their influence simply results from the upbringing they gave their own children, a substantial proportion of it seems likely to be a direct, unmediated effect on grandchildren.