Our current research aims to shed new light on topics key to developmental science:  belief, culture, and development.  We outline our theoretical approach in more detail in a chapter in Advances in Child Development and Behavior and in a recent publication in Annual Review of Development Psychology.

 

We are currently conducting a 3-wave longitudinal study of the development of religious thinking in children between the ages of 4 and 10. We are specifically studying three aspects of religion in the lives of children and families around the world: how children think about religious agents and entities, the development of religious identity, and religious socialization.​

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The research questions that guide the current program of research were developed collaboratively, with input from all Field Site PIs, Core Team Post-Doctoral Researchers, and Advisory Board Members.

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Research Questions

 

RQ1. Entities, agents, forces, and causes: What is the “lay of the land” in terms of supernatural, spiritual, and religious entities, agents, forces, causes, etc., in each site?

 

• What are the various entities, agents, forces, causes, etc., that are present in each site?

• Which ones are the most relevant to children’s lives (even if they later come to be less so)? In what ways are they “relevant” (e.g., most familiar to children, reported by parents as most critical for children to learn about, salient in holidays/rituals specifically for children, children are taught to pray to them, entities used to enforce good behavior or obedience in children)? How does this vary across different developmental periods, in the transition to adulthood (with these periods broadly defined, to account for variation between cultures)?

• In what ways are these entities, agents, forces, causes, etc. perceived to be subject to the laws of (folk) ___ and in what ways do they violate them?

  • physics (e.g., Can ghosts pass through walls?)

  • biology (e.g., Do ancestors need to consume food?)

  • psychology (e.g., Is God’s perception limited to a particular location in place/time?)

  • sociology (e.g., Do spirits belong to specific social groups?)

• How are individual differences in cognitive measures (e.g., EF) related to children’s understanding of these (folk) physical, biological, psychological, and sociological constraints?

 

RQ2. Religious identity: In each site (or each population within each site), which aspects of religious identity are children aware of, at which ages, and what is identity associated with?

 

• What are the various religious identities that are present in each site, and how well can children self-identify (i.e., match their parents’ responses to questions like “What is your religion?” or “Are you a [religious noun]?”)?

• What are appropriate measures or indicators of religious identity, religiosity, and spirituality (e.g., “What do [religious noun] do?”; “How can you tell if someone is [religious noun]?) What are the ways in which religious identity is demonstrated (e.g., via credibility-enhancing displays, clothing, spoken language)?

• How are the conceptualization and development of religious identity related to…

  • degrees of religiosity and spirituality in the community?

  • exposure to religious diversity?

  • social-political tensions, conflict, and fractionality?

  • social categories like gender and race?

  • representations of social hierarchies?

• What are the norms associated with religious identity in each population/site? Which goals do parents pursue when enforcing religious norms (e.g., identity affirmation, avoidance of divine punishment, child safety, group harmony, morality)? How do children distinguish religious norms from social norms? Are religious social categories constrained by religious norms?

 

RQ3. Religious Socialization: How are religious and supernatural beliefs (including both formal religions and more traditional beliefs/practices) transmitted in each site? How do children weigh different sources of information? Does this weighing change across development? How are beliefs revised based on new information? What is the role of socio-cognitive skills (e.g., ToM, EF, memory) and/or circumstance (e.g., food insecurity)?

 

• Which entities, agents, forces, causes, etc. do children learn about from specific sources (parents, peers, formal schooling, religious leaders)? In what ways (e.g., through conversation, through instruction, through observation, through ritual, through stories, through songs, etc.)? How does the language of religious practice affect children’s beliefs (e.g., if religious practices are conducted in one language but general schooling and education are done in another)?

• How do children weigh different sources of information and misinformation? What is the role of cultural consensus and/or affiliation with a minority or majority religious belief system? How do sources of information and contexts of learning vary at different developmental time periods? Which sources of information are most relevant at different developmental periods, in the transition to adulthood (with these periods broadly defined, to account for variation between cultures)? In what ways are they “relevant” (e.g., most familiar to children, reported by parents as most critical for children to learn from, salient in learning spaces specifically for children)?

• What are parents’ cultural belief systems or “ethnotheories” about how and from which sources children should learn (e.g., what are appropriate pedagogical practices or sources; what constitutes “good teaching” or “good models”)? How do adults feel about children asking questions about religious and supernatural beliefs and practices? When is it appropriate? When is it viewed as rude/not-appropriate?

• What rituals, ceremonies, and other experiences are common in each population/site (e.g., what does it look like to practice your religion? Other religions?)? To what extent do children have access to observe or be directly taught about these experiences?

• What, if any, are the common religious artifacts to which children are exposed? In the home? At school? At religious locations? In what ways do conversations in each of these settings shape children’s beliefs about the artifacts as they relate to the natural and supernatural world?

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