Passing on the Faith: how mother‐child communication influences transmission of moral values

Abstract

This paper examines religious affiliation and commitment of teenagers as a function of the quality of mother‐child interaction and the mothers’ religious commitment, as an illustration of the principle that transmission of parental norms and values to their children is facilitated or inhibited by the quality of their interaction. We expected that in cases where mother‐child interaction was good, parents would be better able to impose their own values upon their children, resulting in a lower disaffiliation and higher religious commitment in high quality of family‐interaction families. This expectation was tested using data from 223 British adolescent‐mother pairs, by means of logistic and ordinary regression analysis. The results largely supported the hypotheses, exemplifying how mothers in their role of moral agents may profit from good mother‐child relationships.