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TechnoratiAttitudes 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.
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