Religious Change and Adolescent Family Dynamics

Abstract

Much more has been documented about the influence of religion on parenting practices than on how the former may shape family life from the perspective of adolescents. Building a conceptual model of religion and changing family relations, we assessed the particular influence of adolescent religious change on the dynamics of their relationships with their parents, and overall satisfaction with their families. Employing data from two waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), results suggested that growth in personal religious salience—how important religion is in adolescents' lives—is uniquely and consistently related to better family relations, even after accounting for behavioral changes—such as excessive drinking and drug abuse—that are detrimental to both religiosity and family relations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the NICHD, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. We acknowledge Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524 (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth/contract.html). The first author was supported by a Summer Research Assignment from the University of Texas at Austin, as well as a research grant from the Spiritual Transformation Scientific Research Program, sponsored by the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science, with the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation. Data access was funded in part by a grant from the NICHD under grant R01 HD40428-02 from the Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; Chandra Muller (PI).