Religious Value Transmission: An Exploration of the Internalization of Catholic Values in Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Parenthood

Despite increasingly secular pressures, more Catholics continue to practice the faith in which they were brought up, as compared to members of other Christian denominations. It is of interest to understand what factors contribute to the maintenance of childhood beliefs into adulthood and into one’s own childrearing practices, thereby passing those beliefs to the next generation. This dissertation explored religious value transmission through the lens of internalization across three notable life stages in Catholic individuals: young adolescence (Study One), young adulthood (Study Two), and parenthood (Study Three). Across these three stages, the pattern was mostly consistent: parental influence was positively associated with religiosity, and this relationship was generally mediated by identified, but not introjected, internalization. Study One found that adolescents' perceptions of their parents' religiosity were associated with both introjected and identified internalization. Study Two showed that, while current factors (e.g., peer experience and school affiliation) changed the ways in which parental influence was associated with internalization and religiosity, they did not entirely replace parental influence. Study Three showed that people tend to raise their children similarly to how they were raised with regards to religion, thereby continuing the cycle of religious value transmission. Apart from two notable deviations (wherein introjection was also a significant mediator), identified, but not introjected, internalization was associated with the religious outcomes throughout the three life stages, highlighting the importance of this fuller form of internalization in religiosity and the continuation of the value transmission cycle