Marriage Matters

Religion and Educational Achievement

This article was posted on: August 21, 2019

“Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” Proverbs 4:13

Many educational benefits are associated with religious practice:

• Church involvement can have an even more beneficial impact on educational progress than does family income, especially for the poor.
• Students who attend church weekly while growing up have significantly more total years of schooling by their early thirties than peers who do not attend church at all.
• Students’educational expectations for themselves are strongly influenced by their religious attendance and by their parents’expectations.
• Students who are religiously involved have a better academic record than those students who are not religious.
• Students who become religious during college achieve above-average grades.

Given the educational benefits that come from religious practice, how can you encourage your child to deepen his/ her faith? Are there parents you know who could benefit from this knowledge?

This chart illustrates the educational benefits of church attendance for children. Church attending children tend to do best in school, with this benefit extending even to high-poverty areas. Attending church as a family is important for all aspects of children’s lives. Faith is the basis for navigating all realms, from the inner life to education.

http://marri.us/wp-content/uploads/Religion-and-Educational-Achievement.pdf

For links to the research behind these statements, please visit www.marri.us/one-pagers/
*It bears emphasizing that these patterns hold for the groups involved, not for all the individuals who make up each group. There is naturally a wide variation among individuals.

The Catholic Diocese of La Crosse
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