What qualities do you feel are most important to teach children?
When Pew Research Center asked, responses were impacted by respondents’ religious and political affiliation as well as their age, race, gender and education level.
When all responses were calculated, the three most important qualities were: being responsible (55 percent), hard work (42 percent) and religious faith (30 percent).
The importance of instilling religious faith in children varied greatly based on the respondents’ demographic data.
Sixty percent of white evangelical Protestants listed religious faith as the most important quality to teach children, compared to 28 percent of Roman Catholics, 22 percent of white mainline Protestants and 3 percent of the religiously unaffiliated.
Fifty-nine percent of those with consistently conservative political views believed teaching religious faith was most important, compared to 11 percent of those with consistently liberal views.
More women than men listed religious faith as most important, while African Americans were more likely than whites or Hispanics to feel that religious faith was most important.
Persons with college education were less likely than those with a high school education to affirm teaching religious faith to children as most important.
The qualities from which respondents chose were: independence, hard work, being responsible, creativity, being well-mannered, helping others, persistence, religious faith, obedience, empathy for others, curiosity and tolerance.
The complete report is available here.
