RELIGION AND CHILDREN

Religion and Children



Religion and Children

Introduction

America has always been a religious country. Its first Christian inhabitants were only too anxious to explain what they were doing and why," explains historian Paul Johnson. In a way the first American settlers were like the ancient Israelites. They saw themselves as active agents of divine providence. Today, he adds, "it is generally accepted that more than half the American people still attend a place of worship over a weekend, an index of religious practice unequaled anywhere in the world, certainly in a great and populous nation(D'Antonio 1980 , pp. 89-104).

At the heart of religious practice is prayer: Americans pray even more than they go to church. According to a composite of surveys, 94 percent of blacks, 91 percent of women, 87 percent of whites, and 85 percent of men regard themselves as people who pray regularly. Some 78 percent pray at least once per week, and 57 percent pray daily. Even among the 13 percent of the population who call themselves agnostics or atheists, some 20 percent pray daily.

When policymakers consider America's grave social problems, including violent crime and rising illegitimacy, substance abuse, and welfare dependency, they should heed the findings in the professional literature of the social sciences on the positive consequences that flow from the practice of religion(Shrum 1980 pp. 135-147).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of religion and religious leaders have on children and early adult years. We live in a society where your background is very crucial most Americans have some form of religion that they embrace. They also embrace their religious leaders. This paper will examine in a dual way the impact of religion and religious leader on children positive and negative(Larson 1985 pp. 121-147).

Statement of the Problem

Although interest in religion among young people has increased markedly, research examining the impact of religion on child development has been sorely lacking. Children have to be taught religion and theism — they aren't born believing in any gods or with any particular theology. There is no evidence, however, that either religion or theism are necessary in any way adults or for children. Atheists can raise good children without either. This has been demonstrated many times throughout history and it is constantly being demonstrated again even today. Significant religious effects are observed across a range of child development domains and are manifested for both parents' ratings and teachers' ratings of youngsters. Parental, couple, and familial religion are linked with youngsters' pro-social behavior. However, religion can undermine child development when it is a source of conflict among families(Carlson 1988 p. 7).  

Literature Review

To date, a great deal of research has surfaced concerning religious variations in parental values, child-rearing practices, paternal involvement, and parental attachment (Kahoe 1974 pp. 812-818). On the positive side of the ledger, religion has been shown to enhance the parent-child bond for both mothers (Pearce and Axin, 1998) and fathers (Larson Susan 1991 pp. 26-40). Moreover, scholarship on religion and youth has demonstrated that faith is generally important to American teens, ...