Keywords
adolescence, deconversion, parent-child relationship, religious changes
Abstract
The present study investigated the parent-child relational repercussions of converting to religion, switching, or de-converting from religion. Qualitative research indicates that these religious changes may negatively affect parent-child relationship quality, however, few quantitative studies investigate this issue. Subsequently, we utilized structural equation modeling to test if changes in religious identification during adolescence and emerging adulthood predicted worse parent-child relationship quality using three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion (N = 2,352). We found that deconversion between Waves 1–2 significantly predicted poorer parent-child relationship quality at Wave 2 and father-child relationship quality at Wave 3. Further, deconversion between Waves 2–3 significantly predicted poorer mother-child relationship quality at Wave 3. Autoregressive cross-lagged models indicated an association between de-conversion and father-child relationship quality. Deconversion had a significant indirect effect on parent-child relationship quality through decreased parental warmth and mother-child religious belief similarity. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Original Publication Citation
Hendricks, J. J., Hardy, S. A., Taylor, E. M., & Dollahite, D. C. (2024). Does leaving faith mean leaving family? Longitudinal associations between religious identification and parent-child relationships across adolescence and emerging adulthood. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 63, 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12876
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Hendricks, Justin J.; Hardy, Sam A.; Taylor, Emily M.; and Dollahite, David C., "Does Leaving Faith Mean Leaving Family? Longitudinal Associations Between Religious Identification and Parent-Child Relationships Across Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood" (2024). Faculty Publications. 7946.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/7946
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2024
Publisher
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Language
English
College
Family, Home, and Social Sciences
Department
Family Life
Copyright Status
© 2023 The Authors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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