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Pew: A Minority of Parents Want to Pass Down Their Religious Beliefs to Their Children
- Milton Quintanilla Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Jan 26, 2023
According to a Pew Research study, a small portion of parents believes it is important to pass their faith down to their children.
“Parents place less importance on their children growing up to have religious or political beliefs that are similar to their own. About a third (35 percent) say it is extremely or very important to them that their children share their religious beliefs, and 16 percent say the same about their children’s political beliefs,” Pew researchers Rachel Minkin and Juliana Horowitz said in a statement. “Republican and Democratic parents are about equally likely to say it’s at least very important to them that their children share their political beliefs.”
According to The Christian Post, the researchers also noted that only 40 percent of black parents and 39 percent of Hispanic parents said that it’s extremely or very important to them that their children share their religious beliefs. That desire is even lower among white and Asian parents, with only 32 percent stressing the need for their children to share the same religious beliefs.
Additionally, 70 percent of white Evangelical parents and 53 percent of black Protestants said it is important that their children hold to the same religious beliefs. Just 29 percent of white non-Evangelical Protestants and 35 percent of Catholic parents said the same.
Meanwhile, roughly 40 percent of U.S. parents with children younger than 18 “say they are extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression at some point.”
Researchers also noted that parents share a larger concern over their children’s mental health than “certain physical threats … the dangers of drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy and getting in trouble with the police.”
“Concerns about mental health are felt more acutely by white and Hispanic parents: 42 percent of white parents and 43 percent of Hispanic parents say they are extremely or very worried their children might struggle with anxiety or depression at some point, compared with 32 percent of black parents and 28 percent of Asian parents,” researchers wrote.
The study, which was released on Tuesday, was conducted between Sept. 20-Oct. 2 with a nationally representative sample of 3,757 U.S. parents with children younger than 18.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash/Priscilla du Preez
