Religious Transmission Versus Religious Formation: Preadolescent-Parent Interaction*

Religiousness on the part of youth can result from transmission across generations and it can stem from a nurturant parent-child relationship. Interaction could occur between these variables. These relationships were tested using data from 2724 adolescents in grades 4–8 in intact families in southern Minnesota. The dependent measure involves five items measuring religious attendance, belief, and devotional practice. Both parental religiousness and support were significant predictors of preadolescent religiousness, with the former the better predictor. There was no significant interaction between these two predictors, and this finding is discussed in the context of a culture supportive of religion. Females were more religious than males. Paternal and maternal measures were similar in their abilities to predict religiosity, although a significant interaction existed between sex of preadolescent and material religiousness, with sons scoring especially low on religion when their mothers also scored low.