According to a recent study by Pew Research Center, more children in America are raised with the religious beliefs of their pushier parent.

“Interfaith couples have become increasingly common nationwide in recent decades, and as a result, we’re seeing more and more kids growing up practicing the faith of the parent who’s more aggressive and overbearing,” said researcher James Gammon.

In the study, Gammon cites the increasing number of dual-faith families in which children are seen celebrating traditions, holidays and rites of passage of the parent that consistently manages to push around the other one.

As seen in the chart below, liberal parents are not as interested as conservative parents are in teaching their children about religion while conservative parents are not as interested as liberal parents are in teaching their children about tolerance.

However, the study also revealed that despite more children being brought up by the religious affiliation of the pushier parent, the core values of all American parents remain more or less the same.

Almost every section of the political continuum seems to prioritize values like responsibility, hard work, helpfulness and good manners.

“The traditional narrative is that couples with common beliefs would get married and raise kids in their shared religion. But nowadays, many Americans are pairing with someone of a different spiritual background, undermining their partner’s religious beliefs by saying, ‘You stopped going to church’ or, ‘The kids will feel alienated in your faith,’ and making the whole family attend their preferred place of worship,” he said.

Gammon also pointed out that a significant number of families today are not raising their children according to any particular faith. This mostly stems from the fact that one of the parents thinks all religions are meaningless.

Photo Credit: CareerFutura