Fathers who regularly attend church have happier and more stable marriages and are more involved with and affectionate toward their children than non-religious or nominally religious males, according to a new study.
A research brief by the Center for Marriage and Families explores the influence of religious tradition and attendance on what has been termed the “male problematic,” the trend toward larger numbers of men becoming disconnected from family life as a result of increased rates of divorce, cohabitation and bearing children out of wedlock during the last half century.
“[F]athers who are religious, and who have partners who are religious, are–on average–more likely to be happily married, to be engaged and affectionate parents, and to get and stay married to the mothers of their children,” said University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, author of the study. “As a consequence, religious fathers and husbands are much less likely to fall prey to the male problematic of late modernity.”
Men who attend church regularly enjoy happier marriages than their non-religious peers, according to the report. Statistics say 70 percent of men who attend worship several times a month report they are “very happy” in their marriage, compared the 59 percent of husbands who rarely or never attend church.
Husbands and wives who regularly attend religious services together are 35 percent less likely than other couples to divorce.
Couples that attend church are also less likely have a child born outside of marriage–a significant factor in a society where more than one in three births is to a single mother.
All of the report can be read here.
