Relationship between family religious behaviors and child well-being among third-grade children

While there is growing empirical evidence that religion can have a positive impact on the health and well-being of adults and adolescents, less is known about its influence on the welfare of children. The current paper examined the relative importance of family religiosity and religious behaviors on multiple measures of children's well-being (general health, academic achievement, social skills, and behavior problems) and sought to identify whether religious variables contribute above and beyond non-religious measures of family caregiving. Parent use of religious coping and family religious behaviors, the latter defined as attendance at religious or spiritual programs, predicted several aspects of child well-being above and beyond parenting styles. Parental religious coping significantly predicted child social skills and externalizing behaviors above and beyond parenting styles. Family religious service attendance significantly predicted child health and social skills, and inversely predicted internalizing behaviors, above and beyond both parenting styles and parent use of religious coping.