From DKos: religion apparently doesn't teach kids generosity?

A new study examined the generosity of children raised religiously versus their less-religious peers

By Walter Einenkel  

     

Thursday Nov 05, 2015 5:05 PM EST

 

Do unto others as you would...whatever.

In news that will only be shocking to people who think the Duggars clan are doing this life thing right, a new study has been released on religiousness and the children who grow up in such an environment.

Highlights  

•  Family religious identification decreases children’s altruistic behaviors
•  Religiousness predicts parent-reported child sensitivity to injustices and empathy
•  Children from religious households are harsher in their punitive tendencies

The study was a simple one, according to OregonLive:

Here's how the study worked: researchers asked kids to play a game which required them to decide how many stickers to share with an anonymous peer from the same school and similar ethnic group.  

In their report, the researchers noted it was important for the anonymous stranger to be similar to the child so that other biases didn't get in the way.

The study also found that children from religious homes were more judgmental of others' actions and in return were harsher in their opinions of punishment. These findings were true of children growing up in a religious household with frequent practice of a religion, regardless of the specific religion.

In our sample, 23.9% of households identified as Christian (n = 280), 43% as Muslim (n = 510), 27.6% as not religious (n = 323), 2.5% as Jewish (n = 29), 1.6% as Buddhist (n = 18), 0.4% as Hindu (n = 5), 0.2% as agnostic (n = 3), and 0.5% as other (n = 6). Results from an independent samples t test, comparing altruism in children from religiously identifying (Msharing = 3.25, SD = 2.46) and non-religiously identifying (Msharing = 4.11, SD = 2.48) households indicated significantly less sharing in the former than the latter (p < 0.001).  

To further investigate these effects within specific religions, three large groupings were established: Christian, Muslim, and not religious; children from other religious households did not reach a large enough sample size to be included in additional analyses.  

Results from a linear regression with number of stickers shared as the dependent variable and age (1-year bins), country of origin, socioeconomic status (SES), and religious identification of the household (dummy coded) suggest that age (βstandardized = 0.39, p < 0.001), SES (βstandardized = 0.16, p < 0.001), country (βstandardized = 0.1, p < 0.01), and religious identification (βstandardized = −.132, p < 0.001) are significant predictors of sharing, (model r2adjusted = 0.184).  

Paired comparisons (corrected for family-wise error) showed that Christian children (Msharing = 3.33, SD = 2.46) did not differ in their altruism from Muslims (Msharing = 3.20, SD = 2.24); however, both were significantly less altruistic than non-religious children (Msharing = 4.09, SD = 2.52, both p < 0.001; Figure 1).  

Regardless of religious identification, frequency of religious practice, household spirituality, and overall religiousness were inversely predictive of children’s altruism (r = −.161, p < 0.001; r = −.179, p < 0.001; r = −.173, p < 0.001, respectively; Figure 2).  

Results from a linear regression with number of stickers shared as the dependent variable and age (1-year bins), country of origin, socioeconomic status (1–6 scale) and overall religiousness of the household (aggregate score) suggest that age (βstandardized = 0.410, p < 0.001), SES (βstandardized = 0.13, p < 0.001), and religiousness (βstandardized = −.150, p < 0.001) are all significant predictors of sharing (model r2adjusted = 0.194).  

Importantly, the relations between altruism and the three aspects of religiousness were strongest in older children (n = 533, ages 8–12 years; r = −.187 p < 0.001; r = −.211, p < 0.001; r = −.202, p < 0.001, respectively).

Spare the rod and spoil the child.