Parental Religious Consistency and Adult Religiosity: Does 'Walking the Talk' Matter for Intergenerational Transmission?

• In Event: Sociology of Religion Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2. Religion, Marriage, and Family

Abstract

Abstract
Scholars consistently identify parental religiosity as one of the strongest predictors of children’s religious trajectories, yet parents who appear similarly religious by conventional measures often produce strikingly different transmission outcomes. This study argues that the missing piece is within-parent religious consistency. Drawing on social learning theory and extending Bader and Desmond’s (2006) foundational work, we examine whether alignment between parental religious salience and service attendance predicts three dimensions of adult children’s religiosity: service attendance, religious salience, and prayer frequency. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), linking parental measures from Wave I (1994–95) to adult outcomes at Wave V (2016–18), We show that religious transmission depends not simply on parents’ overall level of religiosity, but on the consistency between their religious beliefs and practices. Compared to adult children whose parents were religiously consistent, that is, high on both salience and attendance, those whose parents were religiously inconsistent in all forms of inconsistency profile show significantly lower religiosity across all three outcomes. These findings suggest that successful intergenerational transmission depends not only on how religious parents are, but on whether their religious attitudes and behaviors cohere into a clear and credible model for children to internalize.

Author

• Jennifer Obiageli Laderi, Baylor University