Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Teenagers Greatly Influenced by Parents' Faith
A new survey funded by the Lilly Endowment found that most American teenagers are religious, pray while alone, feel close to God, and follow their parent’s faiths, but at the same time have difficulty expressing the faith’s teachings.
"Teenage religiosity for the vast majority is highly conventional," said Christian Smith, who co-wrote Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. "That may mean that compared to previous generations, teenagers today are more conventional and bound to mainstream values and cultures compared to, say, the '60s. They seem pretty content just going with how they were raised."
The book, to be released in March by Oxford University Press, is the compilation of the first major finding by the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR).
Of those surveyed, 82 percent said they are affiliated with a religious congregation and 71 percent said they felt “extremely,” “very” or “somewhat” close to God. Sixty five percent also said they pray alone a few times a week or more, and sixty one percent said they “definitely” believe in divine miracles from God.
In a larger picture, the survey found that most teenagers are greatly influenced by that of their parents’: less than one third of one percent reported that they were part of “alternative” religions such as Wicca. Three fourth of the religious teens said their beliefs were somewhat or very similar to that of their parents, and only 6 and 11 percent of teens said their beliefs are very different from their mothers’ and father’s beliefs, respectively.
Teens, like their American Baby Boomer parent generation, have a strong sense of religious identification, but are unsure of what the identification means in relation to their faith.
“What I find most interesting about the trend is the wide gap between religious knowledge on the part of most teens and their strong sense of religious identification and affiliation, as indicated by this survey,” said Mary Kupiec Cayton, a history professor at Miami University and a specialist in American spirituality.
“I agree that this trend isn't unique to teens: it increasingly characterizes how many American adults feel about religion as well,” Cayton said. “Contemporary Americans are often looking to religion to meet their personal needs for community and emotional comfort. ‘Belief’ seems to depend a great deal on the degree to which these needs get met.”
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