Relationship between Parental Imagery with the Imagery of God in 8 to 12 Year Old Children: Studying Age and Gender Differences

People’s imagery of God during their childhood, created by their interactions with parents and peers, can affect the development of their religiosity. Therefore, over the past decades, this topic has been studied more than any other religious concept. This cross-sectional study, in the context of a causalcomparative and correlational design, examines the relationship between paternal and maternal imagery with the imagery of God in 8-12 year old children in Yazd. For this purpose, 194 students (98 girls, 95 boys) were selected through multi-stage sampling method. Guided by the researcher, all children responded to the semantic differential parental scale, which assesses the paternal and maternal characteristics of parents and God; designed by Pattin and Casters (1964). Data were analyzed using variance analysis, Pearson correlation and stepwise regression. The results showed a positive and significant relationship between all components of paternal and maternal imagery of parents and God imagery. In general, the components of the mother imagery had a higher correlation with the imagery of God. The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that mother's paternal imagery and maternal imagery had the ability to predict 50% of a positive imagery of God. In addition, the paternal imagery of God was significantly varied at different ages. Another research finding showed that imagery of God was based on maternal features rather than paternal and no significant gender differences were observed.