Passing the Torch: The Mediating Role of Internalization in the Intergenerational Continuity of Catholic Religious Value Transmission in American Parents

Despite extensive research on the intergenerational transmission of values, the continuity of parenting practices and underlying cognitive processes of transmission have received relatively little attention. We explored the mediating role of introjected and identified internalization on the intergenerational continuity of four parenting practices related to religion (assurance, disapproval/punishment, social involvement, and encouraged skepticism). We focused on Catholicism as an important test case based on its distinctive components amongst other Christian denominations. In addition to responding to items that measured religious value internalization, 279 community members from the United States were asked to reflect on their parents' use of four religious parenting practices during their childhood, as well as the current practices they are employing with their own children. Respondents' recollections of their parents' religious parenting practices significantly predicted their own current religious parenting practices. Whereas these associations were significantly mediated through identified internalization for all four practices, only the associations between past and current social involvement and disapproval/punishment were also mediated through introjected internalization. Recollection of parenting practices predict adult children's implementation of the same practices with their own children through their level of internalization of their parents' beliefs. Importantly, the efficacy of different types of internalization appears to depend on the specific nature of the behavior to be maintained.