If your kids are well-behaved and better-adjusted than their friends, chances are that’s because you’re more religiously active than the friends’ parents. That’s according to a new study involving 16,000 participants that is the first to look at the effects of religion on child development. The children of religiously observant parents were rated by both parents and teachers as having better self-control, social skills and approaches to learning than kids with non-religious parents. There’s one major caveat, according to John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist who was lead author of the study: If religion is a steady source of arguments and tension in the home, it does more harm than good.
Source: LiveScience, April 24