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Religion and Family
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Living and loving ‘‘decent’’: Religion and relationship
quality among urban parents
(link coming soon)
Religious participation is linked to overall satisfaction among both married and
unmarried couples
in urban America. Less is known about what may account for the association
between religious participation and relationship quality.
We explore this issue using data from the first
two waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study.
Relationship related behaviors
(e.g., temperance) and relationship-specific behaviors (e.g., affection) can each account
for the association
between church attendance and relationship quality. Furthermore, religious participation
appears to be more tightly linked
to men's perceptions of relationship quality than women's.
Conservative Protestant Childrearing:
Authoritarian or Authoritative?
Abstract: Recent
research on conservative Protestantism suggests that religion has
reemerged as an important predictor of childrearing attitudes and
practices.
This research has focused on the distinctive approach toward
discipline
among conservative Protestant parents. No study, however, has
explored the
links between conservative Protestantism and positive parental
emotion work
(physical and verbal expressions of affection). I suggest,
paradoxically,
that this subculture is characterized both by strict discipline and
an
unusually warm and expressive style of parent-child interaction. I
review
parenting advice offered by conservative Protestant leaders, which
encourages parents to engage in positive emotion work with their
children. I
then analyze data from the 1987-1988 National Survey of Families and
Households (NSFH) to determine if religious affiliation and
theological
conservatism are related to positive parental emotion work. I find
that
parents with conservative theological beliefs are more likely to
praise and
hug their children than are parents with less conservative
theological
views. Modest positive net effects of conservative Protestant
affiliation
are also found.
Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions,
Family Discourse, and Pastoral
Practice
Abstract: The
relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged
as
an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has
largely
overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by
specific
religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral
practices of
congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we
find
that family discourse and pastoral practice are only "loosely
coupled" to
one another. Ideological differences among mainline Protestant,
conservative
Protestant, and Roman Catholic congregations do not translate
directly into
differences in family ministry offerings. These findings help
explain why
research often finds that religion exercises uniform effects on
family life,
insofar as most congregations offer a similar package of ministries
even
though their family discourse is markedly different.
Then Comes Marriage? Religion, Race, and
Marriage in Urban
America
Abstract: A
growing body of research has focused on socioeconomic and cultural
explanations for the fragility of marriage in urban America. This
paper
examines the role that religious participation—and the norms and
behaviors
it promotes—plays in encouraging marriage among new parents in urban
America. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child
Wellbeing Study, we find that urban mothers who have a nonmarital
birth are
significantly more likely to marry within a year of that birth if
they
attend church frequently. For the most part, this religious effect
cannot be
explained by measured relationship-related beliefs and behaviors
(such as
affection between partners and the absence of domestic violence).
Instead,
religious beliefs and social supports associated with church
attendance may
help urban mothers make the transition to marriage in communities
where
marriage has become increasingly infrequent.
Conservative Protestant Child Discipline: The
Case of Parental
Yelling
Abstract: Conservative Protestant
child discipline has recently become the subject of
considerable social research and public controversy. However, no
systematic
empirical evidence has been brought to bear on conservative
Protestant rates
of parental yelling, which we view as a key indicator of an
authoritarian
style of parenting. We review parenting advice offered by
conservative
Protestant elites, who articulate child-rearing schemata grounded in
both
religious and psychological rationales for the discipline of
youngsters.
Notably, conservative Protestant family specialists advocate
corporal
punishment while discouraging the parental use of yelling at
children. Data
drawn from the 1987-88 National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH)
indicate that conservative Protestant parents of preschoolers and
school-age
children are significantly less likely to report yelling at their
children.
Moreover, the estimated effects of denominational affiliation on the
parental use of yelling are partly mediated by conservative
theological
views. We conclude by calling for research that analyzes the effects
of the
distinctive conservative Protestant approach to discipline on child
well-being.
The Measure of American Religion: Toward
Improving the State of
the Art
Abstract: Recently, scholars have
devoted renewed attention to the role of religion in
American life. Thus, it is important that they use the most
effective means
available to categorize and study religious groups. However, the
most widely
used classification scheme in survey research (T.W. Smith 1990) does
not
capture essential differences between American religious traditions
and
overlooks significant new trends in religious affiliation. We
critique this
scheme based on its historical, terminological, and taxonomical
inaccuracy
and offer a new approach that addresses its shortcomings by using
denominational affiliation to place respondents into seven
categories
grounded in the historical development of American religious
traditions.
Most important, this new scheme yields more meaningful
interpretations
because the categories refer to concrete religious traditions.
Because of
increased accuracy in classification, it also improves model fit and
reduces
measurement error.
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