Young Children's Descriptions of God: Influences of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools

Roos, Simone A. de; Iedema, Jurjen; Miedema, S.

doi:10.1080/13617670123273

Cited by 14 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Concerning the effect of maternal denomination on young children's potent God concept, we found that children of orthodox Christian mothers have a more potent image of God than children of nonaffiliated and open Christian mothers. A similar finding was reported by Miedema (2001, 2003) and is consonant with the hypothesis. However, contrary to the other hypotheses, we did not find independent effects of mothers' denomination on children's loving, caring, and punishing God concepts.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Potential differences in children's perceptions as to whether God is like their parents probably are caused by age effects. In a recent study (de Roos, Iedema, and Miedema 2003), for example, four year olds more often refer to their parents in their idea of God than do five and six year olds. This was explained by the idea that the youngest preschoolers are more dependent on their parents than the older ones (cf.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An explanation may be that the nonaffiliated ones doubt the existence of God due to the suffering in the world, don't believe in God, or even blame God for wars, disasters, and poverty (cf. de Roos, Iedema, and Miedema 2003). Therefore, they view God as more punitive and less loving than do the open Christians.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, in predicting kindergarteners' God concepts from maternal God concepts and childrearing practices, we control for maternal religious denomination since children's God concepts (de Roos, Iedema, and Miedema 2003), adults' God concepts (Noffke and McFadden 2001), and child-rearing practices (Alwin 1986;Danso, Hunsberger, and Pratt 1997;Ellison, Bartowski, and Segal 1996;Sherkat 1993a, 1993b;Kelley, Power, and Wimbush 1992) have been found to differ as a function of denomination. In addition, we will control for (maternal) education, which has been found to be related to child-rearing practices (Deković 1991;Rispens, Hermans, and Meeus 1996) and aspects of religion (Alwin and Jackson 1982;Keysar and Kosmin 1995;Lehrer 1999;Loury 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children of orthodox Christian mothers are expected to have a more punishing and potent view of God than do other children, whereas the nonaffiliated children are hypothesized to have a less loving, caring, and potent God concept than the other preschoolers (cf. Miedema 2001, 2003). In summary, in this article our goal is to test a model based on social learning and projection theory that predicts that young children's God concepts come from maternal God concepts and child-rearing practices, controlling for education and religious denomination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children's God Concepts

Roos¹,

Iedema²,

Miedema³

2004

Scientific Study of Religion

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children's God Concepts

Roos¹,

Iedema²,

Miedema³

2004

Scientific Study of Religion

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Different Attachment Styles in Relation to Children’s Drawings of God: A Qualitative Exploration of the Use of Symbols in a Dutch Sample

Muthert

Jonker

2023

When Children Draw Gods

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The development and functioning of representations of God are complex processes, in which psychological and cultural factors mutually influence each other. Attachment is a psychological factor that can provide insights into the representation and communication of ideas and experiences regarding supernatural agents in children’s drawings and narratives. Our hypotheses: (1) Securely attached children will use more God representation-related symbols in their drawings than insecurely attached children, (2) These symbols will have a referring and self-transcending character. We explore children’s drawings of God and their accompanying narratives with regard to attachment styles. We describe our theoretical framework and discuss the research process, our use of theory and materials, and our findings. We also present a qualitative analysis of drawings by both insecurely and securely attached children, focusing on qualitative aspects of the drawings and their use of religious symbols. Secure attachment is associated with more God representation-related symbols. Other drawing aspects also relate to attachment. We compare the occurrence of attachment characterizations of relationships with God, the padding of the paper, and the use of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic images. Finally, we focus on the concrete localization of God on the paper, and the figurative place where children imagined God to be.

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Integrative Model of Children’s Representations of God in Drawings

Brandt

Robert

Dessart

et al. 2023

When Children Draw Gods

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When confronted with being asked to “draw god”, children have to solve a problem; they are being asked to produce a visual representation of an entity that they have never seen. Resources for solving this problem are available within the child’s cultural context: The shape of the figure itself may be based on various religious representations of gods, iconic figurations of supernatural agents in fictional artefacts (paintings, movies, cartoons even in advertisement), various valences may be attributed to colours or to different parts of an image composition, etc. The drawings produced by children depend also on their cognitive abilities to grasp the concept of god, their emotional abilities to express the accompanying feelings, their creativity and artistic skills. In representing god, children have to solve additional problems. For example, connotations of the concept of god can awaken attachment bonds to parental figures; religious prohibitions against representations of god can be in conflict with the task of drawing god. The purpose of this work is to integrate the results presented in parts II-V of this book, and to articulate the different factors in an integrated model that outlines possible strategies used to carry out the project of drawing god.

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Young Children's Descriptions of God: Influences of parents' and teachers' God concepts and religious denomination of schools

Cited by 14 publications

References 13 publications

Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children's God Concepts

Influence of Maternal Denomination, God Concepts, and Child‐Rearing Practices on Young Children's God Concepts

Different Attachment Styles in Relation to Children’s Drawings of God: A Qualitative Exploration of the Use of Symbols in a Dutch Sample

Integrative Model of Children’s Representations of God in Drawings

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