Religiosity and Achievement: The benefit of religious schooling for religious youth

Religiosity and Achievement: The benefit of religious schooling for religious youth

Brett Taylor
Michael Peterson
Benjamin Gibbs

Taylor, Brett; Peterson, Michael; Gibbs, Benjamin

Abstract

Parental religious involvement and its effects on child math achievement in Catholic and public settings was examined at various age categories in the National Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Cohort (NCLS-K). A mother’s attendance at a religious service was found to have a significant, negative impact on student achievement overall, varying by the degree of maternal religious involvement and the religious affiliation of the child’s school. From the data, we conclude that children with very religiously involved mothers are at greatest disadvantage in non-religious schools, and further conclude that children of very religious mothers would benefit most from religious educational environments.