Navigating the Winding Road: How Family and Religion Influence Teen and Young Adult Outcomes

Coming from an intact family and being involved in religion are associated with a variety of positive outcomes for teens. Youth do better in school, are less likely to abuse alcohol or be sexually active, and are also more likely to have expectations of marrying in the future.

  • Academic Progress. Teens who frequently attend religious services do better in school. Youths who frequently attended religious services made, on average, greater academic progress than youths who attended less frequently. The effect of religious attendance on academic progress tended to be more significant among youths in neighborhoods with greater levels of poverty, such that among youths with high religious services attendance, those in more disadvantaged neighborhoods and those in more advantaged neighborhood exhibited similar levels of academic progress. Academic progress was a composite measure of youths’ grades in school; whether or not they had trouble getting homework done; relationship with teachers; experience of suspension or expulsion; and truancy.1
  • Teen Substance Use and Delinquency. Teens who receive more parental monitoring have lower rates of substance abuse and delinquency. Adolescents who reported receiving more parental monitoring (in response to questions such as “How often do you tell your parents where you’re going to be after school?” and “How often do you tell your parents where you’re really going when you go out evenings and weekends?”) had, on average, lower rates of alcohol misuse, illicit drug use, and delinquency throughout their teenage years compared to youths who received less parental monitoring.2
  • Teen Sexual Activity. Teens in intact families are less likely to transition into sexual activity. Even after accounting for a set of parental involvement variables, adolescents living with two biological parents were significantly less likely to transition into sexual activity when compared to adolescents from all other family structures. Adolescents from other family structures were between 40 percent and 198 percent more likely to transition into sexual activity than adolescents living with two biological parents.3
  • Educational Attainment. Young adults from intact families have higher levels of educational attainment. Individuals from intact families completed, on average, more years of schooling and were also more likely to graduate from high school, attend college, and complete college, compared to peers raised in blended or singleparent families.4
  • Earnings and Occupation Attainment. Young adults from intact families report, on average, higher earnings and occupational success. Compared to individuals from intact families, those from single-parent families or stepfamilies without any changes in their family situation during late adolescence (between age14 and 18) had, on average, lower levels of educational attainment, lower annual earnings, and less prestigious occupations at age 26. Individuals from nonintact families that did not experience changes in their family structure during late adolescence had similar rates of attendance at post-secondary educational institutions and poverty compared to peers from intact families.5
  • Wealth. Children and youth who attend religious services report higher wealth accumulation later in life. Religious services attendance in childhood or in young adulthood was positively associated with net worth (the value of total assets minus the value of total liabilities). Individuals who sometimes, occasionally and frequently attended religious services either as children or as adults reported, on average, greater net worth than individuals who did not attend religious services in childhood or in young adulthood.6
  • Religious Involvement. Young adults from intact families are less likely to report declines in religious involvement. Compared to youth from non-intact families, those from intact families were less likely to report a decrease in their religious service attendance. Additionally, they were less likely to report a decline in the importance of religion in their lives and a change to “no religious affiliation.”7
  • Closeness to Parents. Young adults of parents in low-conflict marriages are more likely to report a close relationship with their parents. Compared to peers of parents in high-conflict marriages or parents who are divorced, youth whose parents have low-conflict in their marriages were more likely to report feeling close to both their mother and father. Among young adults from intact families, those of parents in high-conflict marriages were more likely to report that they didn’t feel close to either parent, and young adults who experienced a parental divorce were more likely to report feeling close to only one parent.8
  • Expectation of Marrying. Teens from intact families tend to report higher expectations of marrying. In a sample of youths age 12 to 19, those from intact families—compared to those from single- and cohabiting-parent families—were more likely to say that they expected to marry in the future. Teens in stepfamilies were no more or less likely to expect to marry compared to peers in intact families.9
  • Family Values. Young adults who attended religious services frequently as teens are more likely to hold traditional family values compared to peers with less frequent attendance. At age 23 and 31, young adult respondents who reported frequent religious services attendance at age 18 were more likely to disapprove of premarital sex, non-marital cohabitation, and divorce compared to peers who attended less frequently. Young adults who frequently attended religious services at age 18 were also more likely to view favorably marriage and traditional family gender roles at age 23 (for marriage only) and 31 (for marriage and general roles) compared to peers who attended religious services less frequently at age 18. The strength of the association was the strongest between religious attendance at age 18 and views on premarital sex and cohabitation at age 23 and 31.10

Footnotes

  1. Mark D. Regnerus and Glen H. Elder, Jr., “Staying on Track in School: Religious Influences in High- and Low-Risk Settings,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42, No. 4 (December 2003): 633-649.
  2. Grace M. Barnes, “Effects of Parental Monitoring and Peer Deviance on Substance Use and Delinquency,” Journal of Marriage and Family 68, No. 4 (November 2006): 1084-1104.
  3. Jennifer Pearson, Chandra Muller, and Michelle L. Frisco, “Parental involvement, family structure, and adolescent sexual decision making,” Sociological Perspectives 49, No. 1 (Spring 2006): 67-90.
  4. Donna K. Ginther, “Family Structure and Children’s Educational Outcomes: Blended Families, Stylized Facts, and Descriptive Regressions,” Demography 41, No. 4 (November 2004): 671-696.
  5. Sun Yongmin, “Stable Postdivorce Family Structures During Late Adolescence and Socioeconomic Consequences in Adulthood,” Journal of Marriage and Family l70, No. 1 (February 2008): 129- 143.
  6. Lisa A. Keister, “Religion and Wealth: The Role of Religious Affiliation and Participation in Early Adult Asset Accumulation,” Social Forces 82, No. 2 (September 2003): 175-207.
  7. Jeremy E. Uecker, “Losing My Religion: The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood,” Social Forces 85, No. 4 (June 2007): 1667-1692.
  8. Juliana M. Sobolewski, “Parents’ Discord and Divorce, Parent-Child Relationships and Subjective Well-Being in Early Adulthood: Is Feeling Close to Two Parents Always Better than Feeling Close to One?”,” Social Forces 85, No. 3 (March 2007): 1105-1124.
  9. Wendy D. Manning, “The Changing Institution of Marriage: Adolescents’ Expectation to Cohabit and to Marry 69, No. 3 (August 2007):. 559-575.
  10. Lisa D. Pearce, “Religious Identity and Family Ideologies in the Transitions to Adulthood,” Journal of Marriage and Family 69, No. 4 (December 2007): 1227-1234.