​Research
​&
​Trends

The most relevant research studies and trends in religion, faith, and Catholicism and the impact they can have on evangelization and catechesis 

Family Faith Research Studies

Partnering with Parents to Nurture Family Faith: Four Insights from Research
John Roberto
  • ​This essay draws from several major research studies to identify findings that can be used to develop approaches and strategies to engage, encourage, and equip parents for family faith transmission and formation. Use the four research findings in this essay to assess your current practice, redesign ministry and programming, and create new initiatives that engage, encourage, and equip parents and the whole family at home, church, and school. 
4_insights_from_research_.pdf
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A Report on American Catholic Parenting Report
Christian Smith and Justin Barkus (University of Notre Dame, 2017)
  • In this report, Smith and Barkus provide observations from their national research about household religious culture and how it affects parents’ chances of successfully passing on their religious belief. In this way, they hope to accomplish four objectives: 1) to properly define the American home and the task of religious transmission in terms of the concept of ​culture;” 2) to allow parents and Catholic ministerial professionals to examine snapshots of concrete success in parental transmission; 3) to provide a coherent framework for describing the cultural dynamics of transmission in these successful households, and in any religious household; and 4) to stimulate practical deliberation about what sort of pastoral action to take on the basis of our research findings. 
catholic-parenting-report_-_smith.pdf
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Keeping the Faith
Christian Smith (First Things, May 2021)
  • Christian Smith writes, "After spending two decades studying the religious and spiritual lives of American adolescents and emerging adults, I turned to studying religious parenting. As a sociologist, I sought not to produce a “how-to” book, but to understand how American religious parents approach the task of handing on religion to their children. Nonetheless, my years studying intergenerational family religious dynamics have produced clear findings, which suggest implications for parents interested in the religious formation of their children."
keeping_the_faith_by_christian_smith.pdf
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The Best Practices - and Benefits - of Religious Parenting
David Dollahite, Loren D. Marks, and Hal Boyd (Religion and the Public Square, 2020)
  • Informed by the best practices from social science and the best of religious belief, parents can raise their children with the benefits of a meaningful faith, as part of a nurturing community in a manner that honors children's humanity, their growing autonomy, and their spiritual choices. Surveying the growing body of social science research helps bring greater clarity to the complex, and largely beneficial, interactions between religion and family life. The research also suggests evidence-based best practices for effectively integrating faith and family life, including religious-spiritual authenticity, nurturing parent-child relationships, balancing religious firmness and flexibility, and encouraging youth to have spiritual experiences, sacrifice meaningfully, and prayer earnestly - all the while parents preach a bit less and listen a bit more. 
Best Practices Religious Parenting
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Catholic Research Studies 

The American Parish: By the Numbers
CARA 
The American Parish by the Numbers.pdf
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Black Catholics in American
(Pew Research Center 2022)
  • The Black Catholics in America study captures the diversity of Black American religious life offers new insights into their religious habits and experiences, finding that their experiences at parishes and at Mass are often distinctive from those of other U.S. Catholics. It also shows that their religious beliefs and practices differ from those of Black Protestants.
Black Catholics Report - Pew Research.pdf
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Open Wide the Doors to Christ: A Study of Catholic Social Innovation for Parish Vitality
(FADICA 2021)
  • ​This report focuses on ways in which Catholic Social Innovation (CSI) processes might foster vitality in Catholic parishes in the United States. In addition to studying parish vitality in general, the Working Group asked that the researchers look for innovative and best practices in four key areas of parish life: welcoming parishes, young adults, women and women religious in leadership, and Hispanic ministry. This study, conducted by Marti Jewell and Mark Mogilka involved a survey of more than 200 ministries, websites, and books, plus interviews with more than 65 recognized and recommended pastoral leaders and innovators from across the country. The report provides a summary of the overall findings on the meaning and use of Catholic Social Innovation and the characteristics and practices of parishes with vitality, including summaries of findings in the four key areas of parish life (see above). 
Parish Vitality Report - Fadica.pdf
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Faith and Spiritual Life of Catholics in the United States
(Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate Georgetown University 2021)
  • ​This report presents findings from a study about faith and spiritual life of Catholics in the United States (especially, Hispanics/Latinos and youth/young adults) to help better understand their spiritual needs and how existing spiritual formation programs cater to these needs. The study was conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA). The report is based on the national poll of young Catholics, national survey of Small Christian Communities, and interviews about Small Christian Communities.
Faith & Spiritual Life of Catholics.pdf
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The State of Youth and Religion - Catholic Edition
(Springtide Research 2020)
  • In October 2020, Springtide Research Institute released The State of Religion & Young People 2020: Relational Authority, the first report of its kind, exploring the inner and outer lives of young people ages 13–25. The State of Religion & Young People 2020, Catholic Edition: Relational Authority is design for those who work with young Catholics to better understand them. This special report amplifies the voices of a nationally representative sample of these young Catholics—of varying ages, races, and genders—in conversation with their peer group as a whole in the United States. We present findings about young people in general as well as Catholic young people because young Catholics are, by and large, encountering the same trends and realities as their Protestant, atheist, agnostic, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, and “other” peers. Where there is variance between Catholics and others, we highlight those instances.
The State of Religion & Young People 2021 – Catholic Edition
(Springtide Research 2021)​
  • This special edition of the 2021 report focuses on what the data from our 2021 annual report, The State of Religion & Young People, tell us about young Catholics. Our data reveal how young Catholics today are serious about engaging and exploring their faith, but in ways that look quite different from prior generations. The newest study on Catholic young people is available for purchase on the Springtide website: www.springtideresearch.org/product/catholic-edition-2021
Youth & Religion Catholic Edition.pdf
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Social & Religious Research Studies

20 Years of Congregational Change
(Faith Communities Today 2022)
  • ​This report conducted by Faith Communities Today, a multireligious and collaborative research initiative that has been tracking trends in the U.S. religious landscape since 2000, summarizes the findings of the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the U.S. It captures a pre- and early pandemic picture of America’s faith communities and affirms many of the trends evident over the past few decades, while also highlighting some distinct areas of change.
20 Years of Congregational Change.pdf
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Congregations in 21st Century America
(National Congregations Study 2021)
  • The National Congregations Study examines what people do together in congregations. What communities of faith do together tells us something important about the beliefs and practices of individuals in those communities. The NCS provides a portrait of a broad and varied cross-section of American religious life, and it allows us to offer grounded observations about the state of congregational life today. 
Congregations in the 21st Century.pdf
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About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated
(Pew Research Center 2021)
  • Currently, about three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) are religious “nones” – people who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religious identity. Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives. 
Pew Religion Trends Report 2021.pdf
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The National Community of Catechetical Leaders (NCCL) promotes the ministries of Evangelization and Catechesis by fostering a community of leaders who proclaim and teach the Word of Jesus Christ through the witness of accompaniment, education and formation in the Catholic faith.
 NCCL
133 Old Towne Road
​Cheshire, CT 06410

Contact: 
John Roberto, Executive Director
jroberto@lifelongfaith.com