Do evangelical Protestant fathers really know best?
By Julia Neyman, USA TODAY

Religious men, especially evangelical Protestants, are more involved and attentive husbands and fathers than men who are not religious, new research shows.

Though they favor a patriarchal family structure, evangelical Protestant men who attend church regularly scored higher on several national surveys that evaluated levels of family involvement and affection than did men from other religious groups and men who consider themselves religiously unaffiliated. Surveys included the government's National Survey of Families and Households.

"Evangelical Protestant dads come out on top compared with every religious group in the U.S.," says University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox, who conducted the study.
He analyzed data from three large surveys conducted several times from 1972 to 1999 that examined behaviors and attitudes toward family and gender among different religious groups, including Catholics and Protestant Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims and others. The results point to greater family involvement and less domestic violence among churchgoing Protestants, especially evangelicals, which he says include Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, and nondenominational evangelical churches.

Wilcox says religion "domesticates men in ways that make them more retentive to the ideals and aspirations of their wives and children."

Wilcox, who is Catholic, says earlier research about Protestant religions and family life concentrated on the fact that many Protestant parents spank their children. "There was a sense that they were authoritarian parents," he says. "But my personal observations led me to believe that they were strict but affectionate parents."

He reports his findings in a new book, Soft Patriarchs, New Men: How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands. According to his analysis, evangelical Protestant men are more likely to expect their school-age children to tell them where they are at all times and more likely to hug and be affectionate toward their kids than religiously unaffiliated men. They also spend more time in youth activities with their kids.

Religious men outscored other fathers on most family life indicators, Wilcox says, because religion stresses familial involvement.

"Religious congregations give young families social support and enforce certain norms about what it means to be a good father," Wilcox says.

One reason evangelical Protestants especially are so involved with the lives of their children is that their traditionalist social approach is at odds with popular culture, he says. Often, parents attempt to shield their children from mainstream culture, which they view as corrupt, by closely monitoring them and involving them in family and church activities.

Just go to church regularly and you can be a better dad.