Ishii, T.（石井 辰典）, Kobayashi, M., & Watanabe, K. (2025).
Children’s religious belief in Japan: Relationships with empathy and parental belief.
日本の児童の宗教的信念：共感的関心と養育者の宗教的信念の役割
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.
https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000579
This preregistered study investigated whether children’s religious beliefs (RBs) are predicted by empathic concerns and parents’ religious beliefs. Participants included 166 Japanese children aged 6–12 years and their parents who visited a national museum. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire that included measures of their religious beliefs and empathic concerns. Children’s religious beliefs were positively and independently explained by their empathic concern and parents’ religious beliefs even after controlling for parents’ empathic concern and demographic variables (age and gender). Bootstrapping analysis revealed that a positive association of this magnitude between children’s and parents’ beliefs rarely occurred among random pairs, indicating that factors within the familial context were the source of this association. These results support the two-factor hypothesis and highlight the importance of social cognitive abilities and vertical transmission in developing religious beliefs.
＊本研究の実施に当たり、日本科学未来館の皆様、早稲田大学理工学術院・渡邊克巳研究室の皆様に多大なサポートを頂きました。記して感謝申し上げます。
＊日本語での解説はこちら：https://x.gd/ULINS