Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
Promoting the Positive: The Link between Individual Religious Practice and Social Outcomes
October 2007
1. Marriages in which both spouses frequently attend religious services are less likely to end in divorce. Marriages in which both husband and wife attend church frequently are 2.4 times less likely to end in divorce than marriages in which neither spouse attends religious services.
|
2. Mothers who consider religion to be important in their lives report, on average, better quality relationships with their children. According to mothers' reports, regardless of the frequency of their church attendance, those who considered religion to be very important in their lives tended to report a higher quality of relationship with their children than those who did not consider religion to be important.
|
3. Fathers’ religiosity is associated with the quality of their relationships with their children. A greater degree of religiousness among fathers was associated with better relationships with their children, greater expectations for positive relationships in the future, investment of thought and effort into their relationships with their children, greater sense of obligation to stay in regular contact with their children, and greater likelihood of providing emotional support and unpaid assistance to their children and grandchildren. Fathers’ religiousness was measured on six dimensions, including the importance of faith, guidance provided by faith, religious attendance, religious identity, denominational affiliation, and belief in the importance of religion for their children.
|
4. Among high school seniors, religious attendance and a positive attitude toward religion are correlated with predictors of success and well-being. Positive attitudes towards religion and frequent attendance at religious activities were related to numerous predictors of success and well-being for high-school seniors, including: positive parental involvement, positive perceptions of the future, positive attitudes toward academics, less frequent drug use, less delinquent behavior, fewer school attendance problems, more time spent on homework, more frequent volunteer work, recognition for good grades, and more time spent on extracurricular activities.
|
5. Religious attendance is associated with higher life expectancy at age twenty. Life expectancy at age 20 was significantly related to church attendance. Those who attend church more than once a week were expected to live another 62.9 years, while those never attend church were expected to live another 55.3 years. Life expectancy was 61.9 years for those attending church once a week and 59.7 for those attending less than once a week.
|
6. Frequent religious attendance is correlated with lower rates of heavy drinking, smoking, and mortality. Compared with peers who did not attend religious services frequently, those who did had lower mortality rates and this relationship was stronger among women than among men. In addition, frequent attenders were less likely to smoke or drink heavily at the time of the first interview. Frequent attenders who did smoke or drink heavily at the time of the first interview were more likely than nonattenders to cease these behaviors by the time of the second interview.
|
7. Individuals who engage in private prayer are more likely to join voluntary associations aimed helping the disadvantaged. Individuals who engaged in private prayer were more likely to report being members of voluntary associations aimed at helping the elderly, poor and disabled when compared to those who did not engage in private prayer. Prayer increased the likelihood of volunteering for an organization that assisted the elderly, poor and disabled, on average, by 20 percent.
|
8. Individuals who attend religious services weekly are more likely to give to charities and to volunteer. In 2000, compared with those who rarely or never attended a house of worship, individuals who attended a house of worship nearly once a week or more were 25 percentage points more likely to donate to charity (91 percent vs. 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer (67 percent vs. 44 percent).
|
9. Individuals who participated in religious activities during adolescence tend to have higher rates of electoral participation as young adults. On average, individuals who reported participating in religious groups and organizations as adolescents were more likely to register to vote and to vote in a presidential election as young adults when compared to those who reported not participating in religious groups and organizations.
|
10. Business professionals who assign greater importance to religious interests are more likely to reject ethically questionable business decisions. Business leaders who assigned greater importance to religious interests were more likely to reject ethically unquestionable business decisions than their peers who attached less importance to religious interests. Respondents were asked to rate the ethical quality of sixteen business decisions. For eight of the sixteen decisions, respondents who attached greater importance to religious interests had lower average ratings, which indicated a stronger disapproval of ethically questionable decisions, compared to respondents who attached less importance to religious interests.
|
View Findings by Category
Click a Category from the list:
Create Your Own Search
Enter topic, keyword or author:
Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |