New Survey Refutes Claim that Taking Kids to Church is Harmful
Most Americans, even those who no longer attend religious services, say their childhood experiences of attending worship has had a positive impact on them, a new study showed.
The latest Ellison Research study, released Tuesday, found that 66 percent of Americans believe their religious attendance before age 18 gave them a good moral foundation and 62 percent say it's something they are glad they did. Even among those who have currently abandoned regular worship attendance (once a month or more), a majority says childhood attendance has been more positive than negative.
Fifty-six percent of Americans who no longer attend services say their attendance as a child has had a positive influence on their life; 55 percent feel their childhood attendance gave them a good moral foundation; 51 percent say they are glad they attended as a child; 48 percent say it gave them important religious knowledge; 35 percent believe it helped them grow spiritually; 34 percent feel it helped them prepare for life as an adult; and 27 percent say it deepened their spiritual faith.
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On the negative side, 31 percent of adults currently not attending services say their childhood attendance turned them off to organized religion; 24 percent believe that past experience is not relevant to their life today; and 13 percent believe it sent them down a different spiritual path than the one they were on at that time.
Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, noted that these findings should refute claims that having children attend religious services will negatively impact them.
"There have long been claims from some in the atheist community that taking children to religious services is harmful to their development," Sellers said. "According to the vast majority of adults who have themselves been through the experience, this is simply not true. Only about one out of every seventeen people who attended religious services at some point during their childhood feel this had a negative influence on their lives and no longer attend services. At the same time, almost three out of four believe it had a positive influence on their lives, whether or not they still attend. Today's adults are, by and large, glad they attended worship services at some point during their childhood."
The negative perception was more likely among those who have stopped attending services regularly.
Only 9 percent of adults who currently attend worship say childhood attendance turned them off on organized religion and 19 percent of all surveyed adults say the same. Fifteen percent of all adults say it is not relevant to their life today and 13 percent feel it helped send them down a different spiritual path than the one they were taking at that time.
The vast majority of Americans have attended religious worship services regularly at some point in their lives. Only 7 percent have not had any point in their lives when they regularly attended. Currently, 51 percent of adults say they attend religious worship services of some kind once a month or more.
However, attending worship services as a child is becoming less common, according to the study. Among Americans who do not regularly attend worship services today, 24 percent of those under age 35 also did not attend as a child, compared to 13 percent of people age 35 to 54 and 9 percent of those 55 or older.
Still, most Americans who look back on their childhood attendance view it in a positive way. Fifty-seven percent of all adults believe it gave them important religious knowledge; 50 percent believe it helped them grow spiritually; 47 percent feel it helped them prepare for life as an adult; and 44 percent say it deepened their spiritual faith.
Attitudes about childhood religious involvement vary substantially according to whether the person is still regularly attending services, the study revealed.
Seventy-eight percent of those who currently attend religious services feel their childhood attendance has made them more interested in religion as an adult compared to 30 percent of adults who do not currently attend services. Also, only 8 percent of those who currently regularly attend say childhood religious involvement decreased their interest in religion as an adult compared to 30 percent of adults who do not currently attend services regularly.
Only 8 percent of all adults and 13 percent of adults currently not attending services said childhood attendance has had a negative influence on their life. Also, 18 percent of all adults and 30 percent of those who have stopped attending services feel it has had no real influence.
Sellers noted that the survey findings should have some influence on parents.
"Today's adults are over twenty times more likely to feel attending worship services in childhood had a highly positive influence on them than to say this had a highly negative influence on them – twenty times," he stressed. "Even adults who no longer are involved in religious attendance are seven times more likely to cite childhood religious attendance as a highly positive influence on their lives than as a highly negative influence. Clearly, most adults believe the reward far outweighs the risk when it comes to childhood religious involvement."
The study was conducted by Ellison Research, a marketing research company located in Phoenix, among a representative sample of 1,007 American adults. The sample was balanced by gender, age, income, race, and geography.
