Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Connection Between Parent–Child Religiosity: Moderated Mediation by Perceived Maternal and Paternal Warmth and Overprotection and Emerging Adult Gender

  • Research Note
  • Published:
Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Previous research has shown a strong connection between parental religiosity and parenting behaviors in the transmission of religion from parent to child. Our study expanded upon previous research by examining how perceived maternal and paternal warmth and overprotection mediated the relation between parental and personal religiosity in males and females. A sample of 486 emerging adults reported maternal, paternal, and personal religiosity as well as their parents’ parenting behaviors. Results indicated that perceived paternal warmth served as a mediator for males only but neither perceived maternal nor paternal overprotection mediated the relationship between parental religiosity and emerging adult religiosity. Gender moderated the paths from perceived paternal religiosity to paternal overprotection, such that the relationship was stronger for females, and perceived paternal warmth to emerging adult religiosity, such that the relationship was stronger for males. Overall, results demonstrated that mediation effects occurred for males only, suggesting moderated mediation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Arnett, J. 2000. Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist 55: 469–480.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bandura, A. 2001. Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology 52: 1–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, M., and L. Scaramella. 2013. Mothers’ parenting and child sex differences in behavior problems among African American preschoolers. Journal of Family Psychology 27: 773–783.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, B., and G.L. Stewart. 1997. Composition, process, and performance in self-managed groups: The role of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology 82: 62–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, C., L. Nelson, S. Davarya, and S. Urry. 2010. Religiosity and spirituality during the transition to adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development 34: 311–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bierman, A. 2005. The effects on childhood maltreatment on adult religiosity and spirituality: Rejecting God the father because of abusive fathers? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44: 349–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyatzis, C., D. Dollahite, and L. Marks. 2006. The family as a context for religious and spiritual development in children and youth. In The handbook of spiritual development in childhood and adolescence, ed. E.C. Roehlkepartain, P.E. King, P.L. Benson, and L. Wagener, 297–309. Sage, CA: Thousand Oaks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brewer-Smyth, K., and H. Koenig. 2014. Could spirituality and religion promote stress resilience in survivors of childhood trauma? Issues in Mental Health Nursing 35: 251–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumpus, M., A. Crouter, and S. McHale. 2001. Parental autonomy granting during adolescence: Exploring gender differences in context. Developmental Psychology 37: 163–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, B. 2013. Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Concepts, applications, and programming, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Child Trends Databank. 2014. Religiosity among youth. Retrieved February 5, 2018 from http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=religiosity-among-youth.

  • Clark, C., E. Worthington, and D. Danser. 1988. The transmission of religious beliefs and practices from parents to firstborn early adolescent sons. Journal of Marriage and the Family 50: 463–472.

    Google Scholar 

  • Danso, H., B. Hunsberger, and M. Pratt. 1997. The role of parental religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism in child rearing goals and practices. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 36: 496–511.

    Google Scholar 

  • Desrosiers, A., B. Kelley, and L. Miller. 2010. Parent and peer relationships and relational spirituality in adolescents and young adults. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 2: 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickie, J., L. Ajega, J. Kobylak, and K. Nixon. 2006. Mother, father, and self: Sources of young adults’ God concepts. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45: 57–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eliassen, A., J. Taylor, C. Hammen, and P. Brennan. 2005. Subjective religiosity and depression in the transition to adulthood. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44: 187–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finley, G., S. Mira, and S. Schwartz. 2008. Perceived paternal and maternal involvement: Factor structure, mean differences, and parental roles. Fathering 6: 62–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, J.W. 2001. Faith development theory and the postmodern challenges. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 11: 159–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, D., N. Eisenberg, J. Salloquist, U. Purwono, T. Lu, and S. Christ. 2013. Parent–adolescent relationships, religiosity, and the social adjustment of Indonesian Muslim adolescents. Journal of Family Psychology 27: 421–430.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallop, G., and D. Lindsay. 1999. Surveying the religious landscape: Trends in U.S. beliefs. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorsuch, R.L., and S.E. McPherson. 1989. Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E revised and single-items scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 28: 348–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunnoe, M., E. Hetherington, and D. Reiss. 1999. Parental religiosity, parenting style, and adolescent social responsibility. Journal of Early Adolescence 19: 199–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halgunseth, L., A. Jensen, K. Sakuma, and S. McHale. 2016. The role of mothers’ and fathers’ religiosity in African American adolescents’ religious beliefs and practices. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 22: 386–394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, S., J. White, Z. Zhang, and J. Ruchty. 2011. Parenting and the socialization of religiousness and spirituality. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 3: 217–230.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. 2009. Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs 76: 408–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, A. 2013. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, C., S. Plunkett, L. Robinson, E. Huey, and B. McMichael. 2009. Adolescent religious motivation, family functioning, and empathic concern. Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought 28: 343–361.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertel, B., and M. Donahue. 1995. Parental influences on God images among children: Testing Durkheim’s metaphoric parallelism. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 34: 186–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, L., and P.M. Bentler. 1999. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling 6: 1–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, P., and R. Roeser. 2009. Religion and spirituality in adolescent development. In Handbook of adolescent psychology, 3rd ed, ed. R.M. Lerner and L. Steinberg, 435–478. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuczynski, L. 2003. Beyond bidirectionality: Bilateral conceptual frameworks for understanding dynamics in parent–child relations. In Handbook of dynamics in parent–child relations, ed. L. Kuczynski, 1–24. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, K., K. Cook, C. Boyatzis, C. Kimball, and K. Flanagan. 2012. Parent–child dynamics and emerging adult religiosity: Attachment, parental beliefs, and faith support. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 5: 5–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lublin, D., and S.E. Brewer. 2003. The continuing dominance of traditional gender roles in southern elections. Social Science Quarterly 84: 379–396.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, D. 2008. Introduction to statistical mediation analysis. New York: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKinney, C., and L. Power. 2013. Childhood playtime, parenting, and psychopathology in emerging adults: Implications for research and play therapists. International Journal of Play Therapy 21: 215–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A., and R. Stark. 2002. Gender and religiousness: Can socialization explanations be saved? American Journal of Sociology 107: 1399–1423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, S. 1996. An interactive model of religiosity inheritance: The importance of family context. American Sociological Review 61: 858–866.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newport, F. 2015. Missisippi, Alabama, and Louisiana most conservative states. Retrieved February 5, 2018 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/181505/mississippi-alabama-louisiana-conservative-states.aspx.

  • Norris, P., and R. Ingelhart. 2011. Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide, 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Okagaki, L., and C. Bevis. 1999. Transmission of religious values: Relations between parents’ and daughters’ beliefs. Journal of Genetic Psychology 160: 303–318.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paloutzian, R.F., and C.W. Ellison. 1982. Loneliness, spiritual well-being and the quality of life. In Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research, and therapy, ed. L.A. Peplau and D. Perlman, 224–237. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, G., H. Tupling, and L. Brown. 1979. A parental bonding instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology 52: 1–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce, L., and A. Thornton. 2007. Religious identity and family ideologies in the transition to adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family 69: 1227–1243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plante, T., and M. Boccaccini. 1997. The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology 45: 375–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, L., and C. McKinney. 2013. Emerging adult perceptions of parental religiosity and parenting practices: Relationships with emerging adult religiosity and psychological adjustment. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 5: 99–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K., D. Rucker, and A. Hayes. 2007. Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research 42: 185–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rucker, D., K. Preacher, Z. Tormala, and R. Petty. 2011. Mediation analysis in social psychology: Current practices and new recommendations. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 5(6): 359–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schnabel, L. 2015. How religious are American women and men? Gender differences and similarities. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 54: 616–622.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz, K. 2006. Transformations in parent and friend faith support predicting adolescents’ religious beliefs and commitment. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion 16: 311–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C., and P. Snell. 2009. Souls in transition: The religious and spiritual lives of emerging adults. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, M., and C. McKinney. 2017. Perceived parental religiosity and emerging adult psychological adjustment: Moderated mediation by gender and personal religiosity. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 9: S60–S69.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, M., and C. McKinney. 2018. Conflict associated with stronger parent–child religiosity in emerging adults, especially for sons. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, M., and C. McKinney. 2019. Perceived parent–child religiosity: Moderation by perceived maternal and paternal warmth and autonomy granting and emerging adult gender. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 11: 177–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullins, P.D. 2006. Gender and religion: Deconstructive universality, constructive complexity. American Journal of Sociology 112: 838–880.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, USA

    Melanie Stearns & Cliff McKinney

Authors
  1. Melanie Stearns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Cliff McKinney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melanie Stearns.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stearns, M., McKinney, C. Connection Between Parent–Child Religiosity: Moderated Mediation by Perceived Maternal and Paternal Warmth and Overprotection and Emerging Adult Gender. Rev Relig Res 62, 153–171 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00404-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-020-00404-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation