Survey: Parents more likely to prioritize passing their religious views to their children over political views

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Parents in the U.S. are more likely to prioritize passing on their religious views to their children rather than their political views, according to data analysis from the Pew Research Center.

A new analysis of several Pew Research Center surveys found that most parents pass along both kinds of affiliation to their children.

One survey by the center found that 35 percent of U.S. parents said it was “extremely or very important” that their children share their religious views, while fewer than half as many — 16 percent — said the same of their political views. However, the survey found that parents ranked passing on both religious and political views as less important than passing along other values, “such as being honest and ethical, hardworking, and ambitious.”

Pew then compared that data alongside a 2019 survey of more than 1,800 teens, ages 13 to 17, that researchers interviewed alongside one parent or guardian. That survey found that high majorities of Republican and Democrat parental figures — 81 percent and 89 percent respectively — had teens who described themselves either as having the same affiliation or leaning that way.

Similarly high rates in that survey were found for religious views; 82 percent of Protestant parental figures had teens who also identified as Protestant, while 81 percent of Catholic parents had Catholic teens. Meanwhile, 86 percent of religiously unaffiliated parents, which Pew said were the ones who described themselves as “atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular,” had teens who expressed similar views. Pew noted the survey sample “was not large enough to estimate transmission rates among parents who belong to non-Christian religious groups, such as Jews and Muslims.”

Pew then compared that data to another 2015 survey, which found that most people who were raised in a single religion, either by two parents of the same faith or by a single parent, still identified as an adherent of that religion. Among those raised in Protestant households, 79 percent were still Protestant, while among those raised Catholic, 62 percent described themselves as such.

Similarly, among those raised with no religious affiliation, 62 percent were still unaffiliated.

Among those raised in interfaith households, the numbers dropped, the survey found. Of respondents who were raised by a Protestant parent and another unaffiliated parent, 56 percent identified as Protestant, while 34 percent were unaffiliated, 3 percent were Catholic and 7 percent belonged to other religions.

In interfaith households with a Catholic parent and the other unaffiliated, 42 percent said they were unaffiliated in adulthood, while 32 percent said they were Catholic. Another 20 percent said they were Protestant, and 5 percent identified with other religions.

In interfaith households with one Protestant parent and one Catholic, Pew called the outcome “close to a toss-up.” When children from these households reached adulthood, 38 percent identified as Protestant, 29 percent as Catholic, 26 percent as unaffiliated and 7 percent identified with other religions.

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