Pew studies and analyzes issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs by conducting surveys, demographic analyses, and other research about the practice of religion and its place in American life.
Recent work includes a major portrait of Jews in America and interviews with 38,000 Muslims around the globe to provide a more complete understanding of the beliefs and political views of members of the world’s second- largest religion.
September 10, 2020MethodologyThe analysis of adolescents in this report is based on a self-administered web survey conducted from March 29 to April 14, 2019, among a sample of 1,811 dyads, with each dyad – or pair – comprised of one U.S. adolescent ages 13 to 17 and one parent per adolescent. The margin of sampling error for […]
September 10, 2020AcknowledgmentsThis report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find related reports online at pewresearch.org/religion. Primary Researchers Elizabeth Podrebarac Sciupac, Senior Researcher Philip Schwadel, Professor of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Team Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research Gregory A. Smith, Associate Director of Research Becka A. Alper, […]
September 10, 20204. Family religious practicesChildren’s religious practices are tied to their families’ traditions.28 To better understand these links, the survey asked teens a variety of questions about who they attend worship services with, what types of religious activities they participate in with their families and why they participate (including whether they enjoy those activities). Four-in-ten teens attend religious services with […]
September 10, 20206. What do parents want for their teens?The survey asked parents of teens ages 13 to 17 about some of their desires for their teen, including the importance of raising their teen in their own religion or with their own views on religion. Parents also were asked to assess how important it is for their teen to exhibit certain traits, such as […]
September 10, 20203. Teens’ religious practicesThe new survey finds that although the majority of teens pray and attend worship services at least occasionally, about four-in-ten say they seldom or never attend services, and a similar proportion report seldom or never praying. The survey also allows for comparisons between teens and their parents who took the survey before them, finding that […]
September 10, 20205. Shared beliefs between parents and teensResearch suggests that parents have a large impact on their children’s religious behaviors.35 For example, there is considerable overlap between how often teens and their parents attend religious worship services (see Chapter 3). But what about religious beliefs? Do teens and their parents also tend to be in alignment on that front? For most families, the […]
September 10, 20202. Religious beliefs among American adolescentsCompared with the parent who took the survey before them, U.S. teens are less likely to rate religion as a priority in their lives and to say they believe in God with absolute certainty. Still, a majority of teens say that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives, including one-in-five unaffiliated teens who […]
September 10, 20201. Religious affiliation among American adolescentsWhile most U.S. teens identify with a religion, they are modestly less likely than their parents to do so – particularly when it comes to Christianity. The new survey finds that 63% of U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17 identify as Christian, compared with 72% of the responding parents. Furthermore, teens are more likely than […]
