Abstract

        Our denominational studies are intended to reveal both healthy and unhealthy aspects of children and families in Canada's main faith communities. Each tradition can learn from the others.

        Liberal Protestants are defined as United Church, Anglican, Presbyterian and Lutheran, and equal 24% of all children. Evangelicals are defined as other Christians (our definition of conservative Christian, excluding Jehovah's Witnesses, and Eastern Orthodox), 12% of all children. Of the total, evangelical plus liberal Protestant children, 32% of girls and 34% of boys aged 6 to 11 were evangelical in 1995.

        Tables and charts compare evangelicals and liberal Protestants, girls and boys. Faith tradition differences in the child and teen (same children eight years later), parents, family, neighbourhood and school are portrayed in the basic table containing 16 pages of traits.

        Examples: Evangelicals are overrepresented in terms of school and worship attendance, less commitment to computer games, and not being solitary. Only 50% of evangelical children worshipped weekly with their parent. Some 45% of evangelical parents both volunteered and worshipped weekly. The corresponding percentages for liberal Protestants were 20% and 18%.

        Twenty-three groups of liberal Protestant teens (same children, 1995 faith affiliation assumed), are overrepresented with negative qualities, including smoking, drinking, intoxication, smoking marijuana, use of LSD, selling illicit drugs, knowing someone who had committed suicide, sexual intercourse, and, for those aged 16 to 19, sexual intercourse at a age 14, first partner aged 17 or older, and occasional neglect of birth control methods. Evangelical teens are overrepresented in one respect, being questioned by the police about something they had done.

        Some analytical results for evangelical and liberal Protestant teens in 1995 reveal 1995 worship frequency negatively related to drinking alcohol and smoking among liberal Protestant teens, for evangelicals, to smoking, drinking, having close friends who smoke or use marijuana, and the frequency of being intoxicated in the past year.

        Teen sexual activity is by far the strongest variable in the models of unhealthy teen behaviours by both liberal Protestants and evangelicals. It is associated with decreased frequency of church attendance by evangelical teens, but not liberal Protestant teens.

        In a 2nd set of models teen worship frequency of conservative Christian girls is significantly higher than that of other Canadian teens, while worship frequency of liberal Protestant teens is significantly lower than that of other Canadian teens. Several high-risk behaviours are found to be less likely among conservative Christian teen girls than other girls, including smoking, using marijuana, drinking alcohol, intoxication, having had sexual intercourse, and having close friends who smoke, or use marijuana, or drink alcohol. The opposite relationships, positive associations, tended to be found for liberal Protestants compared with all other teens.