Want Better Grades? Go to Church
Excepts:
In a recent study, researchers Mark Regnerus and Glen Elder Jr. demonstrate that when youth from low-income neighborhoods attend church, their academic performance improves.
Beyond faith and schoolwork, studies show that church involvement improves the physical, social, and emotional health of students.
Church attendance also convinces low-income students that their lives matter, and that they have choices and hope for a better future. Pamela Parker, an assistant principal in Chicago's public school system, discovered this during her doctoral studies when she interviewed 10 young women who had succeeded despite difficult circumstances.
Regnerus and Elder are not the only researchers to find a link between church and academic excellence. More than 600 studies identified by the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society have also shown religion's positive effect on physical, mental, and social health.
Using the same data set as Regnerus and Elder, Robert Crosnoe of the University of Texas identified 500 same-sex twin pairs and studied their emotional health. He discovered that a more religious or churchgoing twin demonstrates less emotional distress. The difference was most dramatic among twins from low-income communities.
Students from poor neighborhoods who attend church are also less likely to engage in violent behavior, says Byron Johnson, director of the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, which sponsored the Regnerus/Elder study.
"Religion is one of the best predictors of avoiding crime and delinquency," Johnson says.
And the longer the church involvement the greater the curbing of violence, he says. Johnson credits youth workers like Carrasco and Hairston for not only being healthy role models (especially on how to manage anger) but also providing youth with alternatives to life on the streets.
The effects of church involvement seem to apply to poor rural communities as well. Elder, in previous research, examined the emotional health of students from rural Iowa after the farm crisis of the 1980s jolted their community. Elder found that religion increased resilience as youth faced adversity.
"The church was part of what allowed them to rise above disadvantage," he says.
Excepts:
In a recent study, researchers Mark Regnerus and Glen Elder Jr. demonstrate that when youth from low-income neighborhoods attend church, their academic performance improves.
Beyond faith and schoolwork, studies show that church involvement improves the physical, social, and emotional health of students.
Church attendance also convinces low-income students that their lives matter, and that they have choices and hope for a better future. Pamela Parker, an assistant principal in Chicago's public school system, discovered this during her doctoral studies when she interviewed 10 young women who had succeeded despite difficult circumstances.
Regnerus and Elder are not the only researchers to find a link between church and academic excellence. More than 600 studies identified by the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society have also shown religion's positive effect on physical, mental, and social health.
Using the same data set as Regnerus and Elder, Robert Crosnoe of the University of Texas identified 500 same-sex twin pairs and studied their emotional health. He discovered that a more religious or churchgoing twin demonstrates less emotional distress. The difference was most dramatic among twins from low-income communities.
Students from poor neighborhoods who attend church are also less likely to engage in violent behavior, says Byron Johnson, director of the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society, which sponsored the Regnerus/Elder study.
"Religion is one of the best predictors of avoiding crime and delinquency," Johnson says.
And the longer the church involvement the greater the curbing of violence, he says. Johnson credits youth workers like Carrasco and Hairston for not only being healthy role models (especially on how to manage anger) but also providing youth with alternatives to life on the streets.
The effects of church involvement seem to apply to poor rural communities as well. Elder, in previous research, examined the emotional health of students from rural Iowa after the farm crisis of the 1980s jolted their community. Elder found that religion increased resilience as youth faced adversity.
"The church was part of what allowed them to rise above disadvantage," he says.
... but it suppose it is true from my experience... not me though... 
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