Emerging adult perceptions of parental religiosity and parenting practices: Relationships with emerging adult religiosity and psychological adjustment.

Abstract

Recent research suggests that little is known about how parental religiosity influences child development, in particular the development of religiosity in children. Although research posits that direct communication of parental religiosity and authoritative parenting practices facilitate the transmission of parental religiosity to children, more work is needed in this area. Specifically, although several studies examined some characteristics in combination, very few studies have examined parental religiosity, parenting practices, and child religiosity simultaneously with respect to how those characteristics predicted child outcomes. Thus, the current study investigated the relationships among perceived parental religiosity, emerging adult religiosity, perceived parenting practices, and emerging adult psychological adjustment as reported by 486 emerging adults. Data were analyzed with a two-stage structural equation modeling approach. Results of measurement models demonstrated significant correlations among all of the constructs examined, and results of structural models demonstrated that the effect of perceived parental religiosity on emerging adult psychological adjustment was mediated by emerging adult religiosity and perceived positive parenting practices. Structural models further indicated that emerging adult religiosity maintained a significant relationship with emerging adult psychological adjustment when examined simultaneously with perceived positive parenting practices. Thus, perceived parental religiosity was related indirectly to emerging adult psychological adjustment through emerging adult religiosity and perceived positive parenting practices, and emerging adult religiosity and perceived positive parenting practices were related directly to emerging adult psychological adjustment.

Religiosity, Developmental Context, and Sexual Shame in Pornography Users: A Serial Mediation Model

“…Many studies show that the faith attitudes and behaviors of parents strongly predict those of their children (Bader & Desmond, 2006;Flor & Knapp, 2001;Heaven, Ciarrochi, & Leeson, 2010;Holden, Bayan, Baruah, & Holland, 2013;Martin, White, & Perlman, 2003;Petts, 2015), and this predictive relationship holds true for both the public and private components of faith (Leonard, Cook, Boyatzis, Kimball, & Flanagan, 2012). Parental religiosity is associated with healthy and unhealthy faith attitudes and practices (Holden et al, 2013;Power & McKinney, 2013). Due to the influence of childhood household religiosity, researchers are exploring the complex relationship between parent and child religiosity with the goal of understanding the factors that promote or inhibit transmission of faith attitudes and behaviors from parent to child (Power & McKinney, 2013).…”

“…These interactions include education, other adults, and peers that reinforce parental views (Martin et al, 2003), parental modeling, and explicit communication. Children internalize faith via observation and education that leads to imitation (Power & McKinney, 2013) and the quality and provision of "capita" as parents transmit beliefs and behaviors through explicit religious training (Petts, 2015). One consistent finding is that in a variety of ways, parental religiosity plays the seminal role in the development of child religiosity (Bao, Whitbeck, Hoyt, & Conger, 1999;Leonard et al, 2012;Limke & Mayfield, 2011;Martin et al, 2003;Power & McKinney, 2013;Vaidyanathan, 2011).…”

“…Several theoretical models about transference factors and processes are postulated as predictive of transmission, each of which is cited as needing further empirical exploration (Martin et al, 2003;Petts, 2015;Power & McKinney, 2013). Among these is the quality of parental faith, features of the parent-child relationship, parenting style, and family environment/structure.…”

“…Parental religiosity is associated with healthy and unhealthy faith attitudes and practices (Holden et al, 2013;Power & McKinney, 2013). Due to the influence of childhood household religiosity, researchers are exploring the complex relationship between parent and child religiosity with the goal of understanding the factors that promote or inhibit transmission of faith attitudes and behaviors from parent to child (Power & McKinney, 2013).…”

Spiritual education programme for primary caregiver parents to build resilience in children with acute anxiety symptoms: A multicity study

“…Spiritual education or training in spiritual techniques and practices has been viewed as a source of strength, a buffer, for providing meaning and understanding and very often also as a coping mechanism (Power & McKinney, ). Spiritual education has the potential to influence the mental health of primary caregiver parents by shaping their fundamental beliefs and behaviours that in turn influence psychological adjustment of young children (van der Jagt‐Jelsma et al, ).…”