The Transmission of Religion across Generations
A comparative international study of continuities and discontinuities in family socialization
Empirical findings show that institutional religiosity and religious practice have been steadily declining in most European countries (and more recently in the US and Canada, too) since the 1960s. While there is a large body of evidence to suggest that the decline in church religiosity is due mainly to intergenerational change (with one generation being less religious than the previous), there is also a general lack of detailed knowledge about how this change actually happens. In addition, the conditions in which religious and non-religious worldviews are passed on through generations have rarely been the object of international comparative study.
The research project funded by the John Templeton Foundation aims to understand the transmission of religiosity and non-religiosity across generations in Europe and Canada. In short, it anticipates being able to provide a better explanation of religious change itself, and a more precise theory of religious change across generations. The research project focuses on the following three questions: How does the transmission or non-transmission of faith, values and worldviews take place within families and across generations? What are the main factors in the successful (or non-successful) transmission of faith in different cultural contexts? How does religiosity change in the process of transmission?
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data, a group of international researchers will present and discuss findings from five countries: Canada, Finland, Germany, Hungary, and Italy. In addition, findings from the U.S. partner project “Pro-Social Values and Spirituality in the Absence of Religion Among Millennials and their Families” will be presented.