Children of parents who are believers in God and take part in religious functions become psychologically well adjusted, have improved interpersonal skills and fewer behaviour issues but may perform lower in academic scores, according to a US study.
A team of researchers led by John Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu, both professors of Sociology at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and Stephen Bartkowski, of the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at the Alamo Colleges of District studied data on third graders to find the impact of religious environment at home on their psychological well-being and social competence. Although their academic scores may be lesser compared to their peers they were found to do better in interpersonal skills and adjustment. This is because of importance given to social competence and self-control, the researchers said. So being born in a religious family is both a blessing and a handicap.
Bartkowski points out that if religious environment at home or in the community has to fully benefit a child, they have to be equally involved in academic activities at school. There are some limitations to this study as it does not categorise the results based on religious denominations as some families may be good at balancing religious knowledge with academic skills of their child.