Exploring Autonomy and Relatedness in Church as Predictors of Children's Religiosity and Relationship with God

Concerns about the shifting religious landscape for young people in the United States provides the impetus to expand research investigating children's experiences in Christian education. A significant number of children regularly attend Christian education in church and yet there is limited res...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ingersoll, Heather (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage Publications [2019]
In: Christian education journal
Year: 2020, Volume: 17, Issue: 1, Pages: 52-70
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
KBQ North America
KDD Protestant Church
KDG Free church
RF Christian education; catechetics
Further subjects:B relatedness
B Children's religiosity
B Christian Education
B Autonomy
B Sunday School
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Description
Summary:Concerns about the shifting religious landscape for young people in the United States provides the impetus to expand research investigating children's experiences in Christian education. A significant number of children regularly attend Christian education in church and yet there is limited research investigating how those programs support children's faith. Guided by self-determination theory, this research investigates whether instructional practices can support children's religiosity and relationship with God. The present study specifically assessed whether children's perceived relatedness with adults and peers in church, and children's perceived autonomy in Sunday school, predicted children's religiosity and relationship with God. Two hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to identify if the church variables were significant predictors of an identified relationship to God. Neither perceived relatedness in church nor perceived autonomy in Sunday school were significant predictors of identified religiosity. However, perceived relatedness in church did significantly predict relationship with God.
ISSN:2378-525X
Contains:Enthalten in: Christian education journal
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0739891319876654