title: 'Mixed blessings': parental religiousness, parenting, and child adjustment in global perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most studies of the effects of parental religiousness on parenting and child development focus on a particular religion or cultural group, which limits generalizations that can be made about the effects of parental religiousness on family life.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed the associations among parental religiousness, parenting, and children's adjustment in a 3-year longitudinal investigation of 1,198 families from nine countries. We included four religions (Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, and Islam) plus unaffiliated parents, two positive (efficacy and warmth) and two negative (control and rejection) parenting practices, and two positive (social competence and school performance) and two negative (internalizing and externalizing) child outcomes. Parents and children were informants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Greater parent religiousness had both positive and negative associations with parenting and child adjustment. Greater parent religiousness when children were age 8 was associated with higher parental efficacy at age 9 and, in turn, children's better social competence and school performance and fewer child internalizing and externalizing problems at age 10. However, greater parent religiousness at age 8 was also associated with more parental control at age 9, which in turn was associated with more child internalizing and externalizing problems at age 10. Parental warmth and rejection had inconsistent relations with parental religiousness and child outcomes depending on the informant. With a few exceptions, similar patterns of results held for all four religions and the unaffiliated, nine sites, mothers and fathers, girls and boys, and controlling for demographic covariates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents and children agree that parental religiousness is associated with more controlling parenting and, in turn, increased child problem behaviors. However, children see religiousness as related to parental rejection, whereas parents see religiousness as related to parental efficacy and warmth, which have different associations with child functioning. Studying both parent and child views of religiousness and parenting are important to understand the effects of parental religiousness on parents and children.
authors.affiliation: Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Marc H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bornstein
authors.affiliation: Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Public Health Service, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Diane L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Putnick
authors.affiliation: Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lansford
authors.affiliation: Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan.|Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
authors.forename: Suha M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Al-Hassan
authors.affiliation: Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bacchini
authors.affiliation: Rome University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna Silvia
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Bombi
authors.affiliation: University of Macau, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Kirby
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Deater-Deckard
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Rome University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Giunta
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Dodge
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Malone
authors.affiliation: Maseno University, Maseno, Kenya.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Oburu
authors.affiliation: Rome University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Concetta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pastorelli
authors.affiliation: Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Ann T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Skinner
authors.affiliation: University West, Trollhättan, Sweden.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sorbring
authors.affiliation: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.|King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.affiliation: Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
authors.forename: Sombat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tapanya
authors.affiliation: Rome University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy.|Universidad San Buenaventura, Bogotá, Colombia.
authors.forename: Liliana Maria Uribe
authors.initials: LMU
authors.lastname: Tirado
authors.affiliation: University of Rome Foro Italico, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Arnaldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zelli
authors.affiliation: Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines.
authors.forename: Liane Peña
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Alampay
mesh_terms: D000073978:Academic Performance; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D066107:Social Skills
keywords: Religiousness; child adjustment; parenting; religion; reporter