A systematic review of the association between religiousness and children’s prosociality

ABSTRACT

Religiousness can guide children’s morality and behaviors. To better understand how the growing research on religion relates to child development, and in particular, prosociality, a systematic review was conducted. Three research questions guided the systematic review. First, how are religiousness and children’s prosociality measured? Second, what is the association between religiousness and prosociality? Finally, is there variation in that association based on moderators or study design? Eligible studies included published research on the association between religiousness and children’s prosociality (n = 135), of which nine were included in the final review based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Narrative synthesis found that religiousness is mostly measured through religious affiliation, and all studies measured prosociality through general prosocial behavior, while the others also focused on empathy and/or altruism. Five of the nine studies found no association between religiousness and children’s prosociality. Variation across overall study quality, demographic variables, and methodological characteristics is explored. The review concludes with implications for future research, such as a focus on the early years and the targets of children’s prosociality.

KEYWORDS:

• Religiousness
• prosociality
• systematic review
• narrative synthesis
• children

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Isabelle Nic Craith for her assistance in reviewing articles’ eligibility for this systematic review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://osf.io/74uqw.

2 One study (Rai & Gupta, 1996) was not found. The first reviewer tried to contact one of the authors, but the communication was not successful. Searching for the article through the Interlibrary loan did not yield any positive results, so this study was excluded.