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Brigham Young University
This study will focus on the relationship between faith and family life in highly and moderately religious Jewish, Christian (including LDS), and Muslim families. It will explore how religion promotes the well being of the family over time. The study will discover whether and how religious perspectives serve as the "fixed point" around which other parts of life revolve. The research will explore how families of faith live their religion in daily family life including, among others, (a) how religious belief and practice influences family activities, (b) which religious beliefs or practices are the most meaningful and helpful in binding family members to one another, (c) in terms of a strong marriage and family, does religion provide things that secular society does not.
The sample will involve families from New England, Salt Lake and Utah counties, and, eventually, England. These families will be two-parent families with reasonably high levels of marital and family quality and will have at least one adolescent child. The parents of these families, along with their child(ren), will be interviewed and their responses will be analyzed focusing on understanding the influence and benefits of faith in their lives. Comparisons will also be drawn across faiths and varying degrees and types of religious commitment.