ERIC Number: EJ720308
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Sep
Pages: 17
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0037-7732
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Available Date: N/A
Who Values the Obedient Child Now? The Religious Factor in Adult Values for Children, 1986-2002
Starks, Brian; Robinson, Robert V.
Social Forces, v84 n1 p343-359 Sep 2005
Sociologists have documented a convergence of Protestants and Catholics in their valuation of autonomy and obedience as desirable traits for children from 1958 through 1991. By the 1980s, Alwin (1986) found that variation in such values within Protestants and Catholics was greater than that between them. Analyzing the GSS from 1986 to 2002, we test whether Evangelical Protestants, in a backlash against a climate of moral uncertainty and government intervention into matters of morality, have become more likely to value obedience in children over autonomy, while Catholics, reacting to the Second Vatican Council and to collective upward mobility, have become less likely to do so. We find no change among Catholics (and Mainline Protestants), but a shift toward increasing valuation of obedience over autonomy among Evangelicals who attend church frequently. (Contains 2 tables.)
Descriptors: Adults, Attitudes, Protestants, Catholics, Children, Individual Characteristics, Compliance (Psychology), Social Behavior, Personal Autonomy, Religious Factors, Social Influences, Moral Values
University of North Carolina Press, 116 South Boundry Street, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. Tel: 919-966-3561; Fax: 919-966-3829.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A