Friday, April 15, 2005
Survey: 4 of 5 teens say religion is important
The most comprehensive survey ever done on faith and adolescence finds a teen nation where more than four in five youths say religion is important in their lives.
But the new survey of more than 3,000 teenagers and their parents also indicated that many teens know little about their religion.
Many other activities compete for their time, but among religiously active teens - those who attend services weekly and belong to a youth group - their faith appears to be making a significant difference in their behavior.
The National Study of Youth and Religion, described as the most comprehensive research ever done on faith and adolescence, revealed that such teens are more likely to:
• Do better in school.
• Feel better about themselves.
• Shun alcohol, drugs and sex.
• Care about the poor.
• Make moral choices based on what is right rather than what would make them happy.
Researchers considered variables such as the possibility that more obedient youngsters are more likely to attend church, and still found that "religious faith and practice themselves exert significant positive, direct and indirect influences on the lives of teenagers, helping to foster healthier, more engaged adolescents who live more constructive and promising lives."
What religious groups have to worry about, the study found, is not teen rebellion, but a "benign 'whateverism"' that tends to reduce their perception of God to more of a valet - someone meeting individual needs.
The result is growing numbers of teens replacing traditional faith with an "alternative religious vision of divinely underwritten personal happiness and interpersonal niceness," said Christian Smith, the University of North Carolina sociologist who led the study.
By DAVID BRIGGS
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
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