Religion is good for kids, from Fox News

[RockyGlen]

Can this be discussed in a civil manner?

link to whole article:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268081,00.html

Excerpts that hopefully satisfy the cut and paste rule:

Study: Religion Is Good for Kids
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

By Melinda Wenner

Kids with religious parents are better behaved and adjusted than other children, according to a new study that is the first to look at the effects of religion on young child development.

The conflict that arises when parents regularly argue over their faith at home, however, has the opposite effect.

The kids whose parents regularly attended religious services — especially when both parents did so frequently — and talked with their kids about religion were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents.

Bartkowski thinks religion can be good for kids for three reasons. First, religious networks provide social support to parents, he said, and this can improve their parenting skills. Children who are brought into such networks and hear parental messages reinforced by other adults may also “take more to heart the messages that they get in the home,” he said.

Secondly, the types of values and norms that circulate in religious congregations tend to be self-sacrificing and pro-family, Bartkowski told LiveScience. These “could be very, very important in shaping how parents relate to their kids, and then how children develop in response,” he said.

Finally, religious organizations imbue parenting with sacred meaning and significance, he said.

[mistletoad]

Interesting reading and I like that he admits the correlation could be reversed, but I have some issues with it. The biggest is that attending services does not make a person religious (I think there are many religious people on this forum who say they do not regularly attend services) and he does not look into whether it is the togetherness of attending services together that is beneficial rather than the religious aspects of the service.

[RoseGarden]

I agree with those points. I am not saying that kids who are not part of religious families or church groups are all misbehaving or lack self control, but I have seen for myself firsthand that generally speaking, what this study is saying is true. If nothing else, the kind of upbringing discussed gives a child a good understanding of what is right and what is wrong, and provides a good moral compass overall.

I don't have issues with this article. I think a lot of what it's saying is self-evident.

[Sherri C]

I agree that religion can be an important force in childhood. The three reasons given in this article are the reasons why I'm actively investigating joining an Asatru kindred.

[RockyGlen]

I also wondered if maybe religious parents were more strict, whether through spanking or whatever.


what is an asatru kindred????

[bumpus]

.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander so they say.

If a religion is good for the childfren, it must be good for the parents, and all other grown ups in life.

But if it is not good for the grown ups, and all the rest of the people in this world, it is not good for the children at all.

The main thing is, if any religion is not good, for what God has to say;


IT IS NO GOOD FOR ANY ONE ... INCLUDING CHILDREN AND GROWN UPS ! ! !


bumpus
.

[Jan Doling]

My grown step daughter regrets that she grew up without religion because her parents were too liberal to even send her. I take my kids and make sure they have the chance to attend all the functions they want to because I see what a difference it makes in shaping their characters. However, I don't think forcing kids into religion has the same effect as offering the opportunity and letting them choose for themselves.