Sustaining Young Canadian Baptists in the Faith: Exploring the Connection between Religious Affect and Parental Religious Attendance

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the impact of parental religious practice on sustaining positive religious affect among churchgoing young Canadian Baptists. A total of 299 participants between the ages of 12 and 18 years attending a summer youth programme sponsored by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity as a measure of positive religious affect, together with measures of frequency of church attendance for themselves, their mother and their father. These data identified fathers’ religious attendance as a statistically significant factor augmenting the effect of mothers’ religious attendance for sustaining young Canadian Baptists in the faith. The implications of this finding are discussed for pastoral practice.