Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Empirical analysis has allowed for identifying the patterns of childhood religious socialization in modern Russia: a high prevalence of key events of initiation into the confessional tradition prior to reaching adulthood (up to ⅘ of the surveyed child population), with a stable sequence of events among different groups of children. The definition of the event of a child’s religious socialization has been proposed as a significant mechanism of primary initiation into confessional norms and traditions and possible further churching. An important characteristic of the event is the precise temporal indication of such a debut on the individual's life path. Based on the empirical project on the timeline of modern Russian childhood, the scale of events related to religious initiation and age at which they occur were tracked for different groups within the child cohort (2023, N=1210). The intensity of these events was observed in groups of urban children, those from families that identify as low-income, those living with grandparents and those with siblings. A significant positive correlation has been established between childhood events and the avoidance of certain types of deviance, as well as involvement in pro-social activities (volunteering and participation in children's movements), and the perception of childhood as a happy period. The study concludes that it is necessary to identify indicators of the development of religiosity during childhood as a significant factor in political, ethnic, and socio-demographic behavior. The prospects of these searches are related to secondary hypotheses of subjective meaning: the reasons for a large proportion of young people turning to religious self-awareness may be a reaction to the current historical situation in Russia; attributing special importance to the events of religious socialization in order to build a life trajectory; uniting prosperous, positive-minded children into religious communities, etc.
Source: Sociological Journal
Authors: Elena Kolosova, Sergey Lebedev, Svetlana Mayorova-Shcheglova
Language: Russian
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7117238609