The influence of parents, peers, and schools on the religious attitudes and practices of Catholic school students
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to discover the influence of parents, peers, and schools on the religious attitudes and practices of adolescents. A second aim was to investigate the consistency between attitudes and practices of adolescents, their parents, peers, and schools. Modeling theory and consistency theory together provided the theoretical rationale for the study. The population of the study consisted of 12th grade students in the Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of New York. A total of 200 girls and 170 boys, from a sample of six randomly selected high schools, responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire measured religious attitudes and practices of students and their perception of the religious attitudes and practices of parents, peers, and schools. Using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSSx), frequency, mean, standard deviation, t value, and correlation were calculated. The following conclusions were among those that were drawn: (1) The religious attitudes and practices of adolescents have significant correlations with the attitudes and practices of parents, peers, and schools. (2) Adolescents, in their religious attitudes, have a higher correlation with peers (r =.50) than with parents (r =.37) or schools (r =.37). Similarly adolescents, in their practices, have a greater correlation with peers (r =.48) than with parents (r =.43) or schools (r =.27). (3) Parents have a higher influence on practices of their children (r =.43) than on their attitudes (r =.37). Peers and schools have a higher influence on students' attitudes than on their practices. (4) Students consider their parents more positive and their peers less positive in their attitudes and practices compared with themselves. (5) Students perceive a very high consistency between the attitudes and practices of their parents (r =.61), and a low consistency in their schools (r =.40). (6) Students report that schools provide ample opportunities for growth in religious practices and attitudes. But only few students make use of those opportunities.
Subject Area
School administration|Education|Religion
Recommended Citation
Pazhayapurakal, Emmanuel Jose, "The influence of parents, peers, and schools on the religious attitudes and practices of Catholic school students" (1989). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8918456.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8918456
