Strong Families + Strong Faith = Strong Kids
Posted on December 18, 2006
The evidence is clear. By any measure, kids do best when raised by their own mother and father (biological and adoptive).
From Heritage: Top Ten Findings: Family, Religion & Adolescent Well-Being
1. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever gotten into a fight. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever gotten into a fight (27.1 percent) when compared to (a) their peers from intact families with infrequent religious attendance (32.1 percent), (b) peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (34.3 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with infrequent religious attendance (43.5 percent).
2. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever used hard drugs. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever used hard drugs (8.5 percent) compared to (a) their peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (9.5 percent), (b) peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (14.6 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (20.1 percent).
3. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were least likely to have ever committed a theft of $50 or more. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever committed a theft of $50 or more (11.7 percent) when compared to (a) those from intact families with low to no religious attendance (15.3 percent), (b) those from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (15.8 percent), and (c) those from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (23.5 percent).
4. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever shoplifted. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever shoplifted (6.1 percent) when compared to (a) their peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (7.9 percent), (b) peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (9.9 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (12.3 percent).
5. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever run away. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever run away (5.2 percent) when compared to (a) their peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (8.1 percent), (b) peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (8.5 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (13.1 percent).
6. Teen girls from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners. Teen girls from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners (0.47) when compare to (a) their peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (0.93), (b) peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (1.14), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (1.55).
7. Teen boys from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners. Teen boys from intact families with frequent religious attendance averaged the fewest sexual partners (1.04) when compared to (a) their peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (2.03), (b) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (3.14), and (c) peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (3.92).
8. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever been drunk. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever been drunk (22.4 percent) when compared to (a) their peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (24.5 percent), (b) peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (33.4 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (41.2 percent).
9. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have been expelled or suspended from school. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance were the least likely to have ever been expelled or suspended from school (17.3 percent) when compared to (a) their peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (25.5 percent), (b) peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (32.5 percent), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low or no religious attendance (46.7 percent).
10. Teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance earned the highest GPA, on average. On average, teens from intact families with frequent religious attendance earned the highest GPA (2.94) when compared to (a) their peers from intact families with low to no religious attendance (2.75), (b) peers from non-intact families with frequent religious attendance (2.72), and (c) peers from non-intact families with low to no religious attendance (2.48).
Trolls — please spare me the “studies” that “show” that the more religious a country or Redder the state, the higher the crime, teen pregnancy, yack, yack, yack. I’ve got a simple thing for you to do with those…isolate the big cities (you know, the places pretty much ALWAYS run by the Democrat Machine, in Red States and Blue) and look at what numbers emerge. Check out what St. Louis does to Missouri’s numbers, or what Atlanta does to Georgia’s, New Orleans to Louisiana’s, Phoenix and Tucson to Arizona’s…etc.
The fact is, that when children are not deprived of either a mom or a dad and when those parents raise their children to respect an authority higher than their own “image of self-worth,” they are less likely to get themselves and society in the trouble caused by the measurables compiled by Heritage.
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5 Responses to “Strong Families + Strong Faith = Strong Kids”
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Syndicate Me
Sure, the core of virtually every religion amounts to the ultimate carrot and stick incentive. Since those incentives are coupled with instructions to avoid the behaviors listed in this study, it shouldn’t be any surprise that there is a statistically significant correlation.
What isn’t addressed by this study is to what degree the effect is permanent and whether or not there are corresponding negative impacts to other personality traits.
“What isn’t addressed by this study is to what degree the effect is permanent and whether or not there are corresponding negative impacts to other personality traits.”
Hi Jeff–
1) The study is specifically on teens, so what you propose would be a different study.
2) I know you will acknowledge that better behavior early in life more often leads to better behavior later. I don’t think any study anywhere would show that teens who’ve generally exhibited responsible behavior when younger make a mass movement toward being poor citizens while the troubled youths make the flip the other way en masse. I would guess that most behavior remains pretty consistent as most people take on the values, faith and voting patterns of their parents.
3) What “corresponding negative impacts to other personality traits” are you imagining here? As Arthur Brooks has clearly demonstrated (http://www.arthurbrooks.net/buy.html), the folks who are brought up in the environments described by the Heritage study are far more likely to take an interest in helping their fellow man via charitable giving and sacrificial activity.
Understood.
- I don’t believe citizenry can be adequately quantified with just the ten behaviors studied.
- It’s not about going from Jekyll to Hyde. Most of the behaviors studied are closely related to teenage rebellions. It’s well within the realm of possibility that the “lead” that religious children enjoy may completely disappear by age 25. I also wouldn’t be the first to suggest that such “delayed rebellions” might ultimately be more destructive than if they had occurred earlier.
I don’t have anywhere near a complete enough understanding of human psychology to suggest how the difference might manifest itself. I just know that “close adherence to pre-defined rules” and “ad-hoc decision making” are two very different cognitive processes and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that an emphasis on one over the other would have both positive and negative results.
Jeff M,
It is known that intact families whether religious or not are more stable and the children less prone to crime.
It is also known that some religions tend to discourage behavior such as adultery, alcoholism, etc which is damaging to family stability and leads to dysfunctional families.
The one factor that is important that I did not see isolated in this study is socioeconomic level of the families involved.
I don’t dispute that.
I acknowledged that in my first comment, but I went on to point out that this study doesn’t address adultery and alcoholism. Whether or not religions approve, a very significant majority of the people in this country have been drunk and had premarital sex.
This study would have to be extended to at least age 25 to determine if religion is actually correlated to a decrease in these activities or if it is only correlated to a delay in these activities.
Yes, that is also a significant oversight.