In a survey conducted from March 29 to April 14, 2019 by Pew Research Center, questions were administered online, using Ipsos KnowledgePanel to learn more about the relationship within households regarding religious affiliations.
Most U.S. teenagers ages 13 to 17 tended to share the religious affiliation or identity of their parents or legal guardians. Relatively, religiously unaffiliated parents have teens who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or "nothing in particular."
Among parents who reported to attend religious services on a regular basis (at least once or twice a month), 88% have a teen who also attends that often.
Almost identical statistics are yielded in an opposite case of parents who attend services infrequently. 89% of parents who attend services infrequently (a few times a year, seldom or never) have a teen who does the same.
6 out of 10 (59%) teens say they often or sometimes talk about religion with their family and almost half (48%) teens say they at least sometimes say grace or a blessing before family meals. In contrast, only 25% of teens say they commonly read religious scripture as a family.
Within interfaith households and specifically among parents whose spouse or partner does not share their religious identity, 56% have a teen who shares their religion.
Teens are more likely to stand out from their parents on individual identity, belief and practice. Despite similar rates of religious attendance between parents and their teens, teens are less likely than their parents to pray daily. Only 27% of teens pray daily whereas 48% of parents do.
Similar statistics are yielded when comparing their stance on the importance of religion in their lives--24% of teens say religion is very important in their lives whereas a greater 43% of parents claim so.
On each of the traditional religions, evangelical Protestant teens stand out the most from other adolescents. In the importance of religion, 48% of evangelical teens, 27% of Catholics, 25% of Protestants, and 2% religious "nones" said religion was very important in their lives.
Evangelical teens are far more likely to express absolute certainty about God's existence. A whopping 71% of evangelical teens was comparable to a mere 49% of mainline Christian teens and 45% Catholics teens expressing absolute certainty about God's existence.
