Study Finds Religious Kids Behave Better

[Trauma-san]

This isn't intended as a knock on non-religious people, or on any specific religion.  I'm just trying to show the benefits of religion.  They don't mention Islam, but I'm sure the same thing holds true for them; it was conducted in North Carolina, and I'm not sure how many Muslims they ran into.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/3606.2251

Religious Kids Behave Better

Less Likely Than Peers to Take Risks, Get in Trouble

By   Lisa Habib  
WebMD Medical News  

Sept. 24, 2002 - You may not be surprised to hear that religious teenagers get into less trouble than their nonreligious peers. Even the author of a new study says, "Our findings are not radically surprising."


But religion as a factor in adolescents' lives hasn't been studied much before, says Christian Smith, PhD, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.


His study analyzes data from a survey of more than 2,400 high school seniors who identified themselves as Baptist, Protestant (other than Baptist), Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, other, or not religious. The students were categorized by how often they attend religious services, how important religion is to them, and how long they'd participated in a church youth group.


"One of the most interesting observations is that the religious correlation doesn't seem to kick in until it reaches the level of the most religious kids," Smith says in a news release.


The findings show that the most religious 12th graders are:


Less likely to skip school.
Less likely to be suspended or expelled.
More likely to have strict parents.
Less likely to smoke, or more likely to start smoking later than other kids.
More likely to never have been drunk and more likely to wait longer than others to get drunk for the first time.
Less likely to use, sell, or be offered drugs (though 39% of even the most frequent attenders of religious services reported using some kind of drug).
More likely to wear seatbelts (but not significantly less likely to get traffic tickets).
Just as likely as nonreligious kids to get into fights.
Less likely to participate in crimes, including shoplifting.

The results also show that religious kids volunteer more and participate more in sports and student government.


The study is part of the four-year National Study of Youth and Religion, looking at how religion and spirituality shape and influence teenagers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


Another Positive Post, brought to you by DJ Trauma.  

[King Tech Quadafi]

eh you know what, im not that surprised at all

faith teaches discipline, dedication and responsibility

at least thats what islam taught me as a child

you have to be disciplined in order for u to come home from school and be taught for another 2 hours by ya pops (arabic, quran reading, praying)

praying is a responsibility u are taught

and by adopting all these principles and practices u become dedicated to your faith

[Trauma-san]

See, that's what I'm talkin about.  Similarities between religions.  Peace~

[bLaDe]

Good post, thats very true.  Religion really helps disicplen people, of all ages, it teaches us morals, and how to value things.  Teaches us to be grateful, and helps us be more peaceful, and makes us realize that we are capabal of great things.
However, I talked to many kids who do drugs n crap like that, but goto church every week.  Turns out, they dont learn anything, no one teaches them about God or religion, they just goto church cuz they are told to.  
 
  -{bLaDe}

[CharlieBrown]

I wonder what the results would be like if they did the study over here as only 8% of our nation goes regurly to church and much fewer people are as strongly religious as they are in the USA, I highly doubt that we have a much higher devient behaviour in our school kids compared to the USA.

[OutSider]

i agree

[ITW [the irish boy]]

you all sound like rodd and todd from flanders ... no offence

i'm not a religious kid, and i was never the best kid, but in simpsons terms, id prefer to be bart than rod and tod. lol

[I TO DA GEEZY]

well, it's true religion teaches dicipline, yet this has nothing to do with the essence of the religion, it's just another aspect of socialization and institutionalizing,  so as far as teaching kids behaviour goes, it can bring both positive both negative results....look at the Muslim Education in the Palestinian authority, they simply create a link between religion and their political goals and u get 11 year old kids running around with army uniforms and short m16z on parades....

[Sikotic™]

I couldn't agree more. Like my man Tech said, it gives you discipline and makes you a more rounded person.

[Ant]

I know I probably too often play devil's advocate, but seriously....

Firstly, surveys are easily manipulated, but my arguement is this... No one is going to post in a newspaper a survey about how the church harms society.  The paper would get boycotted.  Anti religious opinions are strongly looked down upon and thats not hard to realize.  Furthermore, even people that are "semi" religious still love to hear about how great religion.  And considering most of the population is religious there are a lot of people that eat up this kind of report.  So for a paper writing about the benefits of religion a survey is not what I call verifyable evidence.

For example, I could make a report saying children that sell drugs get more fresh air.  A little too extreme, but hey.

I could also make a report documenting the damage religion has imposed on society.  The only problem is, even if by some strange coincidence the report was justified no one would listen to it.  

I could have a report saying muslims are more likely to blow up buildings than aethists.  Or white people are more likely to get better jobs than black people so whites are better.  

Lets take for granted religion helps kids "behave" better.  What exactly does this better behavior mean?  Does it improve the quality of their life?  For how long?  What is "good behavior"? How would you define it?  Should kids even have to "behave"?  

Let's take it a step further... are the kids that "behave" the one's the grow up to be the happiest?