Religion And Parenting

The team analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS)-Kindergarten Cohort to complete the study. They examined the effects of parents' religious attendance and how the religious environment in the household (frequency of parent-child religious discussions and spousal conflicts over religion) influenced a nationally representative sample of third-graders. They reviewed the children's psychological adjustment, interpersonal skills, problem behaviors, and performance on standardized tests (reading, math, and science). 

They found that third-graders' psychological adjustment and social competence were positively correlated with various religious factors. However, students' performance on reading, math, and science tests were negatively associated with several forms of parental religiosity. 

The findings suggest that parental religiosity is a mixed blessing that produces significant gains in social psychological development among third-graders while potentially undermining academic performance, particularly in math and science.

From here.

Personally, I'm skeptical of both the positive and negative effects that were observed. 

Performance in academic subjects could simply reflect the fact that higher IQ parents have higher IQ kids and are also more likely to be non-religious. 

Psychological adjustment and social competence effects could likewise be spurious correlations. For example, they may have to do with the fact that in the social context measured, the religious kids are part of a majority culture and the non-religious kids are part of a minority culture.

The linked article notes other caveats and limitations expressed by the authors. The paper is:

John Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu, Stephen Bartkowski. "Mixed Blessing: The Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of Religion on Child Development among Third-Graders. Religions" (2019); 10 (1): 37 DOI: 10.3390/rel10010037