Childhood predictors of adults’ belief in god, gods, and spiritual forces across 22 countries

Abstract

Religion is an integral part of everyday life for billions of people, yet little is known about the developmental antecedents of religious belief outside of Western cultures. Using data from over 200,000 individuals across 22 countries, we evaluate several childhood predictors of belief in God, gods, and spiritual forces (Belief in God) in adulthood. We hypothesized that these childhood experiences, personal attributes, and familial or social circumstances would have meaningful and varied associations with Belief in God as adults, with the strength of these associations differing by country, reflecting diverse cultural influences. Most candidate predictors (e.g., parental marital status, childhood socioeconomic status, abuse, being an outsider, and immigration) were associated with Belief in God in some countries but with substantial variation. However, when pooled across countries, only childhood religious service attendance, birth cohort, and gender were significant predictors. Yet there was important variation even for these predictors, and no predictor had a consistent association across all countries. Though this cross-sectional design is limited in allowing causal inference, results provide insights into early-life experiences that might contribute to adults’ Belief in God. The heterogeneity of results highlights the importance of considering any childhood predictor within its social and cultural context.