Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
Top Ten Findings
Navigating the Winding Road: How Family and Religion Influence Teen and Young Adult Outcomes
March 2008
1. Academic progress. Teens who frequently attend religious services tend to make greater academic progress than peers who attend less frequently. Youths who frequently attended religious services made, on average, greater academic progress in school 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.
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2. Teen substance use and delinquency. Teens who receive more parental monitoring tend to have lower rates of substance abuse and delinquency compared to peers who receive less monitoring from their parents. 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.
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3. Teen sexual activity. Teens in intact families are less likely to transition into sexual activity compared to peers from non-intact families. 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% and 198% more likely to transition into sexual activity than adolescents living with two biological parents.
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4. Educational attainment. Young adults from intact families have, on average, higher levels of educational attainment than peers from blended or single-parent families. 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 single-parent families.
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5. Earnings and occupation attainment. Young adults from intact families report, on average, higher earnings and occupational attainment than peers from non-intact families. Compared to individuals from intact families, those from single-parent families or stepfamilies without any changes in their family situation during late adolescence (between the ages of 14 and 18) had, on average, lower levels of educational attainment, lower annual earnings, and less prestigious occupations at age 26. Individuals from non-intact 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.
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6. Wealth. Religious service attendance in childhood or young adulthood is associated with greater 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.
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7. Religious involvement. Young adults from intact families are less likely to report declines in their religious involvement than peers from non-intact families. Young adults from intact families were less likely to report a decrease in their religious service attendance, a decline in importance of religion in their lives, and a change to no religious affiliation than young adults from non-intact families.
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8. Closeness to parents. Young adults of parents in low-conflict marriages are more likely to report feeling close to both parents compared to peers of parents in high-conflict marriages and those of divorced parents. Young adults of parents in low-conflict marriages were more likely to report feeling close to both parents than peers who were either raised in intact high-conflict families or whose parents divorced. 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. Young adults who experienced a parental divorce were more likely to report feeling close to only one parent.
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9. Expectations of marriage. Teens in intact families tend to report higher expectations of marriage than peers in single- or cohabiting-parent families. Compared to teens in intact families, those in single- and cohabiting-parent families had, on average, lower expectations of marriage in their future. Teens in stepfamilies were no more or less likely to expect marriage in their future compared to peers in intact families.
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10. 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 ages 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 ages 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 ages 23 and 31.
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |