A researcher said that Christians’ beliefs influenced parenting ideas, which made Christian parents different from non-Christian ones in terms of parenting time and benefits.
In the series of lectures on the religious harness, Du Weiquan, an associate researcher at the School of Social and Population Studies at the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, delivered a lecture titled “Does Christian Faith Influence Ways of Parenting? - Qualitative Research on Christian Family Parenting Ideas, Practices and Benefits” at the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association conducted in Chongqing in middle July.
The sub-forum of Sociology of Religion in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society, was held on July 17.
Through a literature review, Du divided the evolution of family parenting style in China into three stages. Firstly, in the traditional social period, the belief was that “the mother is loving and the father is controlling” and “boys are preferred over girls”. Secondly, the period of command economy was the stage of defamilisation, and equality between men and women emerged. Thirdly, in the market economy period, the traditional “care” function was replaced by the “education” function, and parents’ responsibility began to diversify.
In order to explore the concept and benefits of Chinese Christians’ parenting, he conducted qualitative research by interviewing 21 Christian parents and eight non-Christian parents.
In terms of parenting knowledge, the non-Christian parents were generally lacking in the knowledge and hadn’t studied it in much depth. Even if they learned parenting knowledge, their learning sources varied, and there were many marketing efforts on selling “anxiety” to mislead the parents. The parenting knowledge of Christian parents mainly came from the Christian faith or the teaching of the Bible.
From the concept of parenting, non-Christian family education paid more attention to children’s academic achievements. The ultimate goal was that their children would succeed. Christian parents paid more attention to basic education, which was the so-called cultivation of character, as a measure of God’s children who could show reverence, gratitude, confession, and so on.
When it came to parenting practices, Christian couples were more involved in joint efforts. Although there were differences in the amount of time spent on children between a husband and wife, the absence of fathers was much rarer than non-Christian parents. Parents brought faith guidance to their children through words and deeds. They had high hopes for their children’s faith, but they would not force their children to accept the faith. Generally speaking, Christian parents’ child-rearing anxiety was lower because Christian parents wanted to train God’s children more, and paid more attention to character rather than utilitarianism to train successful people.
In regards to child-rearing benefits, college students who were trained under high pressure since childhood by non-Christian parents were more susceptible to suffering from “emptiness”, resulting in weariness and even dropping out of college. The logic of raising a child to “look for a good job and get a high income” might not work as it was expected.
The parenting style of Christian parents was conducive to children’s self-recognition, which was very helpful to their growth, making their life meaningful and improving their parent-child relationships.
Du concluded that Christians’ beliefs influenced their parenting ideas, which made them different from non-Christian parents in terms of parenting time and benefits. Basic education and the sanctification of daily life were conducive to reducing the anxiety of parenting and paying attention to fathers’ responsibilities in parenting. It was worth promoting.
- Translated by Charlie Li
在宗教治理主题讲座中，南京邮电大学社会与人口学院副研究员杜伟泉分享了题为“基督教信仰影响育儿方式吗？——一项关于基督徒家庭育儿理念、实践与收益的定性研究”的讲座。
通过对文献的梳理，杜伟泉老师把我国家庭育儿方式的演进分为了三个阶段。一是传统社会时期，更加强调“严父慈母”和“重男轻女”；二是计划经济时期，来到了去家庭化的阶段，开始男女平等；三是市场经济时期，传统的“照看”功能被“教育”功能取代，父母的指责开始多元化。
为了探索中国的基督徒的育儿理念和收益，杜老师采用了定性研究的方式，深度采访了21位以基督教为信仰背景的家长和8位非基督徒家长。
从育儿知识上来讲，非基督徒家长的育儿知识普遍是比较欠缺的，也没有专门的学习，即便学习了育儿知识，其学习来源也是五花八门，不乏很多营销号贩卖“焦虑”误导父母。而基督徒家长的育儿知识主要来自于基督教的信仰或者《圣经》的教导。
从育儿理念上来讲，非基督徒家政更加注重孩子的学业成绩，终极目标是希望孩子功成名就；而基督徒家长更加注重根基教育，就是所谓的品格的培养、作为神儿女的衡量标准，体现在敬畏、感恩、忏悔等方面。
而基督徒家长在育儿实践上，更多是夫妻协同参与育儿。虽然夫妻双方在育儿方面投入的时间经历有所区别，但是父亲缺位的现象更少见。基督徒家长通过言传身教的方式给孩子带来信仰的引导，对孩子的信仰给予厚望但也不勉强。总体来说，基督徒家长的育儿焦虑更低一些，因为基督徒家长更想要培养的是神的儿女，更加注重品格而非功利性地培养成功人士。
在育儿收益上，非基督徒家长所培养的从小被“鸡娃”的大学生很容易患“空心病”，产生厌学情绪甚至退学；“找好工作取得高收入”的设想进行育儿这种逻辑也不一定能够正常运行。
而基督徒家长的育儿方式有利于孩子能够认清自我，对孩子的成长很有帮助，让他们的生活具有意义感，也能够改善他们的亲子关系。
最后，杜老师总结的到，基督徒的信仰影响了他们的育儿理念，让他们在育儿时间和育儿收益上产生了和非基督徒家长的本质区别。根基教育、日常生活神圣化有利于降低育儿焦虑，注重父亲在育儿方面的责任，这是非常值得提倡的。
宗教社学学学者讲座分享：鸡娃大潮前，基督徒父母因为信仰会减少育儿焦虑吗？
A researcher said that Christians’ beliefs influenced parenting ideas, which made Christian parents different from non-Christian ones in terms of parenting time and benefits.
In the series of lectures on the religious harness, Du Weiquan, an associate researcher at the School of Social and Population Studies at the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, delivered a lecture titled “Does Christian Faith Influence Ways of Parenting? - Qualitative Research on Christian Family Parenting Ideas, Practices and Benefits” at the 2021 Academic Annual Conference of the Chinese Sociological Association conducted in Chongqing in middle July.
The sub-forum of Sociology of Religion in the 2021 conference, hosted by the Chinese Sociological Society, was held on July 17.
Through a literature review, Du divided the evolution of family parenting style in China into three stages. Firstly, in the traditional social period, the belief was that “the mother is loving and the father is controlling” and “boys are preferred over girls”. Secondly, the period of command economy was the stage of defamilisation, and equality between men and women emerged. Thirdly, in the market economy period, the traditional “care” function was replaced by the “education” function, and parents’ responsibility began to diversify.
In order to explore the concept and benefits of Chinese Christians’ parenting, he conducted qualitative research by interviewing 21 Christian parents and eight non-Christian parents.
In terms of parenting knowledge, the non-Christian parents were generally lacking in the knowledge and hadn’t studied it in much depth. Even if they learned parenting knowledge, their learning sources varied, and there were many marketing efforts on selling “anxiety” to mislead the parents. The parenting knowledge of Christian parents mainly came from the Christian faith or the teaching of the Bible.
From the concept of parenting, non-Christian family education paid more attention to children’s academic achievements. The ultimate goal was that their children would succeed. Christian parents paid more attention to basic education, which was the so-called cultivation of character, as a measure of God’s children who could show reverence, gratitude, confession, and so on.
When it came to parenting practices, Christian couples were more involved in joint efforts. Although there were differences in the amount of time spent on children between a husband and wife, the absence of fathers was much rarer than non-Christian parents. Parents brought faith guidance to their children through words and deeds. They had high hopes for their children’s faith, but they would not force their children to accept the faith. Generally speaking, Christian parents’ child-rearing anxiety was lower because Christian parents wanted to train God’s children more, and paid more attention to character rather than utilitarianism to train successful people.
In regards to child-rearing benefits, college students who were trained under high pressure since childhood by non-Christian parents were more susceptible to suffering from “emptiness”, resulting in weariness and even dropping out of college. The logic of raising a child to “look for a good job and get a high income” might not work as it was expected.
The parenting style of Christian parents was conducive to children’s self-recognition, which was very helpful to their growth, making their life meaningful and improving their parent-child relationships.
Du concluded that Christians’ beliefs influenced their parenting ideas, which made them different from non-Christian parents in terms of parenting time and benefits. Basic education and the sanctification of daily life were conducive to reducing the anxiety of parenting and paying attention to fathers’ responsibilities in parenting. It was worth promoting.
- Translated by Charlie Li
Christians Suffer from Lower Parenting Anxiety than Non-Christians, Research Says
