PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Children of divorced parents more likely to switch, pull away from religions, Baylor study finds

Factors other than divorce itself may play a role

2013-03-05
(Press-News.org) Adults whose parents were divorced are more likely to switch religions or disassociate themselves from institutional religions altogether — but growing up in a single-parent family does not have any effect on private religious life, including praying, according to a study by a Baylor University sociologist. The findings also suggest that being a child of divorced parents is not in itself as important a factor in a person's religious life as previous research has indicated, according to Jeremy Uecker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences and lead author of the study, which appears in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. "You have to take into account the context," Uecker said. "People who are less religious are more likely to get divorced. And if the parents are of different religions or differing levels of religiosity from one another, they also are more likely to divorce. So if we ignore that, we're overstating the effects of divorce itself on religious outcomes." The main reason parental divorce affects religious outcomes, Uecker argues, is that children are separated from one of their parents, and parents are usually considered the primary source of religious training for children. Other factors after the divorce also may influence children during their formative years and ultimately, affect their religious outcome as adults, he said. A parent who has been divorced may feel stigmatized or uncomfortable in some congregations and less likely to attend than previously. Typically, a child of divorce stays with his or her mother, who may become depressed or angry with God, and "that may rub off on the child," Uecker said. The child "may have thought the marriage was ordained by God. When it ends, that could rock their world and have lasting effects." Even logistical difficulty in getting to church could be a factor, Uecker said. The study by Uecker and co-researcher Christopher G. Ellison, Ph.D., a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Texas in San Antonio, is a quantitative analysis of data from 3,346 respondents ages 18 to 87, taken from the General Social Surveys done in 1991, 1998 and 2008. In the surveys, done by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, respondents were asked about their religiosity and birth family structure at age 16.

### END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Parents, religion guard against college drinking

Parents, religion guard against college drinking
2013-03-05
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Religious college students report less alcohol use than their classmates – and the reason may have to do with how their parents handle stress, according to new research by a Michigan State University scholar. The study found that students who used religious practices such as praying and meditating as a coping mechanism reported less frequent alcohol use and less heavy drinking. Further, the parents of those students reported using religious or spiritual practices when facing stress, which was linked to the behaviors reported by the students. This ...

USF and KAUST chemists develop efficient material for carbon capture

2013-03-05
TAMPA, Fla. (March 5, 2013) – Chemists at the University of South Florida and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology have discovered a more efficient, less expensive and reusable material for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and separation. The breakthrough could have implications for a new generation of clean-air technologies and offers new tools for confronting the world's challenges in controlling carbon. Publishing this month in the journal Nature, the international group of scientists has identified a previously underused material – known as SIFSIX-1-Cu - ...

Gravitational telescope creates space invader mirage

Gravitational telescope creates space invader mirage
2013-03-05
Abell 68, pictured here in infrared light, is one of these galaxy clusters, and it greatly boosts the power of Hubble, extending the telescope's ability to observe distant and faint objects [1]. The fuzzy collection of blobs in the middle and upper left of the image is a swarm of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars and vast amounts of dark matter. The effect of this huge concentration of matter is to deform the fabric of spacetime, which in turn distorts the path that light takes when it travels through the cluster. For galaxies that are even further away ...

Health benefits of marriage may not extend to all

2013-03-05
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Marriage may not always be as beneficial to health as experts have led us to believe, according to a new study. Researchers made two discoveries that explain why: First, marriage provides less protection against mortality as health deteriorates, even though it does seem to benefit those who are in excellent health. Secondly, married people tend to overestimate how healthy they are, compared to others. "We believe marriage is still good for the health of some people, but it is not equally protective for everyone," said Hui Zheng, lead author of the study ...

Heavy moms-to-be at greater risk of c-section

2013-03-05
Researchers from Norway found that women with a pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) of 40 had an increased risk of vacuum extraction delivery or Cesarean section (C-section). Findings that appear in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, a journal published by Wiley on behalf of the Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology, indicate that women with more than a 16 kg (30 lbs) weight gain during pregnancy increased their risk of forceps or vacuum extraction, and C-section. Obesity is a global health crisis, with the World Health Organization ...

Why fish is so good for you

Why fish is so good for you
2013-03-05
Jena (Germany) Fish is healthy: easy to digest and with a high level of precious proteins, fish is considered an important part of a healthy diet. And with the so-called omega-3 fatty acids fish contains real 'fountains of youth'. These fatty acids – like docosahexaeonic acid (DHA) occur mostly in fatty fish like herring, salmon and mackerel. They are thought to lower the blood pressure, to strengthen the immune system and to have positive effects on the development on the nervous system and the cardiovascular system. "Clinical studies about the intake of nutritional ...

Does the villainous 'selfish' gene undermine genome's police?

Does the villainous selfish gene undermine genomes police?
2013-03-05
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For a bunch of inanimate chemical compounds, the nucleic and amino acids caught up in the infamous "selfish" segregation distorter (SD) saga have put on quite a soap opera for biologists since the phenomenon was discovered in fruit flies 50 years ago. A new study, a highlight in the March issue of the journal Genetics, provides the latest plot twist. In TV listings the series would be described this way: "A gene exploits a rival gene's excesses, sabotaging any sperm that bear the rival's chromosome." The listing is not an exaggeration ...

Colonoscopy screening reduces risk of advanced colorectal cancer

2013-03-05
Philadelphia - A new study led by a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania adds support to current medical recommendations stating that screening colonoscopy substantially reduces an average-risk adult’s likelihood of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) in either the right or left side of the colon. In recent years, colonoscopy has begun to rapidly replace sigmoidoscopy – a procedure used to detect abnormalities in the rectum and left side of the colon – despite initially limited evidence of its efficacy and higher ...

New spectroscopy method could lead to better optical devices

New spectroscopy method could lead to better optical devices
2013-03-05
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A multi-university research team has used a new spectroscopic method to gain a key insight into how light is emitted from layered nanomaterials and other thin films. The technique, called energy-momentum spectroscopy, enables researchers to look at the light emerging from a thin film and determine whether it is coming from emitters oriented along the plane of the film or from emitters oriented perpendicular to the film. Knowing the orientations of emitters could help engineers make better use of thin-film materials in optical devices ...

Shadows over data sharing

2013-03-05
In a paper about to be published in EPJ Data Science, Barbara Jasny, deputy editor for commentary at Science magazine in Washington, DC, USA, looks at the history of the debates surrounding data access during and after the human genome "war". In this context, she outlines current challenges in accessing information affecting research, particularly with regard to the social sciences, personalised medicine and sustainability. The trouble is that most researchers do not currently share their data. This is due both to research practices and research culture. Scientists withholding ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Ground breaking advances in construction robotics in extreme environments unveiled in review

New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled

Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety

2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking

Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases

Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders

Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help

Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy

New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification

Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer

Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms

NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant

NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits

‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires

What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it

A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’

Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression

[Press-News.org] Children of divorced parents more likely to switch, pull away from religions, Baylor study finds
Factors other than divorce itself may play a role