Do Parents Influence Their Children?

What influences students on their religion? Is it their parents? Is it school or their peers? The WC polled these questions to 25 anonymous students around campus. We received many different types of responses through our poll. The majority of students polled thought that their parents had influenced them. Some students responded with either a simple “yes” or “no,” but others took their response a step further. “My parents introduced me to my religion, but my need for inner peace for security drives me to praise God for everything I am blessed with,” wrote an anonymous student. Some wrote down it was their personal values and beliefs is what influenced them. Others it was a combination of school, parents, and values. “It’s not just parents that influence your worldview. It’s a compilation of many things that shape how you view the world (i.e. friends, parents, work/school, etc.) You can’t just pinpoint on one thing,” another anonymous student wrote.From online research, we discovered that mothers typically influence their children (findarticles.com). If religion is important to a mother, that bond between mother and child are strong. Family bonding time also influences a child. This family time is when children interpret their parents’ influences on a wide variety of topics including religion. Usually children are more likely to say their parents influence their religion if family bonding time is more prominent – going places, doing things and just being together as a family. On the other hand, if there is no family bonding or even if the parents are divorced, the child will look to peers, friends, and the media for most of their questions. These children feel that their peers, friends, and the media have influenced their religion. There is no one answer that is more dominant than another. The answers are as individual as each type of religion. One cannot decide with a straight “yes” or “no” if parents influence their children. One factor of many is that it depends on the individual and their family. Do you think your parents influence your religion?