Investigating Intergenerational Differences in Terms of Religiousness and Religious Identity: Veteran Parents and Their Children

The objective of this study is to find out whether the self-sacrificing veterans as role models have succeeded to institutionalize religiousness and the degree of adherence to it, as one of the important factors in the emergence of the spirit of self-sacrifice in their children, in passing on their values.

To answer this question, the present study was conducted to compare the dimensions of religiousness and religious identity of two generations: veteran parents and their children. This study was an applied one in terms of purpose and a descriptive-post-event one in terms of nature and method. The statistical population included all freedmen of imposed war and veterans of Bandar-e Lengeh city and all their male children aged 20 to 30 years from among whom 25 fathers and 25 male children were selected through purposive sampling and were assessed using two religiosity questionnaires: Glock and Stark (1965) and Serajzadeh’s religious identity questionnaire (2013).

The findings show that the average religious identity of the children in emotional dimension (M=21.6) and ritual dimension (M=21.5) is higher than their parents’ average of the two dimensions: emotional (M=20.4) and ritual (20.5); and the parents are higher in the belief dimension (M=22.2) than their children (M=16.5). In addition, the average scores of young people in the intellectual dimension (M=16.5) and consequence of religiousness (M=19.9) were higher than their parents in the intellectual dimension (M=13.1) and consequence of religiousness (M=18.4). The parents are also higher in the belief dimension (M=20.3) than their children (M=16.6).

In general, the parents of the present study do not experience a different intellectual atmosphere with their children.