The Transfer of Religiousness in the Family from Parents to Children: An Analytical Review of Studies

Abstract

The growing interest towards studying the impact of religion on various spheres of social life is reflected in quite large corpus of academic publications. Yet, the reproduction of religious identity on the level of individuals and small social groups is not much covered by Russian sociology of religion. The matter of the connection between religion and parenthood in Russian society becomes urgent due to the current transformations in Post-Soviet society: the first generation of believers is added and gradually being substituted by the second and third generations of believers. The representatives of these generations differ as it comes to the character of religious socialization that it is linked either to individual conversion or reproduction of religiosity. The given article represents the review of modern empirical studies of transmission of religion from parents to children. In our analysis we mostly refer to the results of foreign studies and are focused on the description of the results of reproduction of religiosity in family regardless of religious or confessional belonging. The analysis has indicated that family serves as one of the key agents of religious socialization of children and teenagers along with their peers and school. The review also focuses on the description of the factors that determine religiosity of children whose parents are believers. The authors also note the differences between religious and non-religious families are characterized relations between spouses and children, subjective wellbeing of children and styles of parenting. Attention is also paid to external factors determining family religiosity: cultural context, place and role of religion in society.