It’s the Moms Who Get Kids to Church
A new study suggests women are the primary models for religious faith in many households.
EMMA GREEN
9:00 AM ET
It’s often the moms: the ones who do the cleaning and volunteer at school and know the ins and outs of their kids’ diets and health records. Men and women in American households may be taking on more and more equal roles, but there are some spheres in which women still dominate.
And that, apparently, includes religion.
A new report from the Pew Research Center suggests mothers have more influence on their children’s religious upbringings than fathers, especially in interfaith households. One-third of respondents in a survey of roughly 5,000 Americans said their mom was more responsible for their religious experiences than their dad. In families with parents of mixed religious backgrounds, the percentage was well more than half. This was especially true in households in which one parent was religious, and the other wasn’t; in those cases, nearly two-thirds of respondents said their mom had the most influence on their religious lives.
There are some straightforward demographic explanations for why this might be the case. American women tend to be more religious than men: In surveys, they’re more likely than men to say religion is “very important” to them; to report going to services at least once a week; and to report praying on a daily basis. They also tend to hang onto their faith, even when they marry someone who isn’t religious: In roughly 83 percent of interfaith households in which one parent is non-religious, Pew reports, the women are the ones who are still religious.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/its-the-moms-who-get-kids-to-church/505310/
http://www.pewforum.org/2016/10/26/one-in-five-u-s-adults-were-raised-in-interfaith-homes/
= new reply since forum marked as read
