"Can Religion Offset the Effects of Child Poverty?"

Can religion offset the effects of child poverty? Apparently so, at least in part. The NY Times opinion page reports a study by researchers from three major universities including Harvard, which includes this conclusion:

"Overall, we find strong evidence that youth with religiously active parents are less affected later in life by childhood disadvantage than youth whose parents did not frequently attend religious services. These buffering effects of religious organizations are most pronounced when outcomes are measured by high school graduation or non-smoking and when disadvantage is measured by family resources or maternal education, but we also find buffering effects for a number of other outcome-disadvantage pairs. We generally find much weaker buffering effects for other social organizations."

Yet another part of an ongoing accumulation of research on positive life outcomes associated with faith. See that link for more on how to interpret studies like these. Hat tip to World on the Web.

Posted: Sat - November 24, 2007 at 04:38 PM |

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"Can Religion Offset the Effects of Child Poverty?"

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson