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Recent research on intergenerational faith transfer has argued that (a) parents have a direct effect on the adolescence acquisition of religiosity and (b) parental effects are mediated through congregation and peers. This study tests the channeling hypothesis, which argues that parental influences are mediated through both peer selection and congregation selection. It examines both direct and indirect effects that parental influence has on the religiosity of offspring. A national survey of 11,000 adolescents and adults in six Protestant denominations produced a subsample of 2,379 youth. Contrary to the channeling hypothesis, the research showed that peer influence and parental influence remained stable during the adolescent years. Parental influence did not dramatically increase or decrease with age. Some findings support the channeling hypothesis, particularly the mediating effect of parents through peer influences. The findings of this study are discussed in light of the contradictory findings from other studies.
Martin et al. (Sat,) studied this question.