Transmission and transaction: predicting adolescents' internalization of parental religious values
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 3, 2026

Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
1Institute for Behavioral Research, University of Georgia, USA. theflors@bellsouth.net
Abstract:
Data in this study supported a model of internalization that included both transmission and transactional variables. Two sets of hierarchical linear regression models were conducted on data collected from the fathers, mothers, and adolescents (10 to 12 years old) in 171 intact Caucasian families. One set predicted adolescent religious behavior; the other predicted the importance of religion to child. Transmission variables (parental religious behavior and parental desire for child to be religious) predicted the most variance in all models. Dyadic discussions of faith (transactional) predicted significant variance in all models. Child gender had a direct effect only on adolescent religious behavior. A significant 3-way interaction occurred between child gender, parental desire for child to be religious, and dyadic discussions when predicting importance of religion to child, with child and parent gender dyads interacting in a complex manner.
Related Concept Videos
Parental Influences on Gender Typing
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth. This guiding role...
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Cognitive Development During Adolescence
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Socialization and Self-Regulation During Toddlerhood

