Study: Religion good for children

Study: Religion
good for children
Scientific research finds kids develop better
when both parents frequently attend services

A new study concludes children whose parents regularly attend religious services and talk about their faith have better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than children with non-religious parents.

The research led by John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist, is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development, reports LiveScience.com.

The study, to be published in the journal Social Science Research, also found, however, that regular arguing by parents over their faith has the opposite effect on children.

Parents and teachers of more than 16,000 children were asked in the study to assess self-control, behavior and cooperation with peers. The researchers compared the scores to how frequently the children's parents said they attended worship services, talked about religion with their child and argued about religion in home.

Children with two parents who frequently attended religious services faired the best.

Bartkowski sees three reasons for the results.

* Religious networks provide social support to parents that can improve their parenting skills, and children in such networks hear the parental messages being reinforced by other adults.

* Values and norms in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family, which "could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response."

* Religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance.

Bartowski LiveScience.com one limitation of his study was that it didn't compare the effects of different faiths or denominations.

"We really don't know if conservative Protestant kids are behaving better than Catholic kids or behaving better than mainline Protestant kids or Jewish kids," he said.

He also conceded it's possible the correlation between religion and child development is the other way around. It may turn out that only the parents of good behaving children are comfortable in a religious congregation.

"There are certain expectations about children's behavior within a religious context, particularly within religious worship services," Bartowski said.

The expectations might frustrate parents, he offered, "and make congregational worship "a less viable option if they feel their kids are really poorly behaved."