With the rate of religious practice among young people in the U.S. at levels significantly below older generations, concerns are growing over a likely future America of diminished church attendance and a higher proportion of morally ungrounded citizens. A new report released last week identifies ways that parents can help mitigate a continued decline in religious practice by passing their faith on to their children.

According to data compiled by the Pew Research Center last December, Americans in the youngest age bracket (18-30) surveyed the lowest of any other age bracket in response to four questions about faith, including the percentage identifying with a religion (57%), those that pray daily (32%), those that say religion is “very important in their lives” (33%), and those who attend religious services at least monthly (tied for second lowest at 31%).

“While belief has not disappeared, it has become more individualized and less connected to church life,” write sociologists Jesse Smith and Jane Lankes Smith, who authored the report “Passing the Torch: How Faith Moves Across Generations” published by the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) and Communio. “As a result, many religious communities now face a sustained pattern of generational decline rather than temporary fluctuation, raising concerns for churches and church members alike about the long-term vitality of their congregation.”

The authors go on to note, “Research consistently shows that families are the single most important factor in whether children adopt and maintain faith into adulthood.” They argue that regular church attendance when children are young is key to attendance as adults, observing that “when parents reported attending church weekly while raising their children, a predicted 26% of their children did the same in their 30s and 40s, compared to only 12% whose parents were not weekly attenders.”

Additionally, they highlight data showing that “when parents identified religion as being very important in their lives, nearly two-thirds of their children were predicted to say the same as adults, compared to less than half of those whose parents did not affirm the high importance of religion.” What’s more, “parents who prayed daily had a 47% chance of having children who did the same as adults, compared to less than one-third when parents did not pray daily.”

Another key aspect identified by the report is the importance of parents regularly discussing faith amid their daily lives. The authors point out that many Christian parents in today’s culture have tended to shy away from emphasizing religious discussion with their kids for fear of pushing them away from the faith by “jamming it down their throats.” But “according to the data, efforts to pass on the faith are more often undermined not by parents laying it on too thick, but by taking too light a touch,” they highlight. Since Christianity is rarely uplifted and often denigrated in modern society, Smith and Lankes Smith urge parents to “set a tone in the household where talk of religion is normal and to prepare for the hard theological or moral conversations, especially as their kids get older.”

The strength of the marriage of the mother and father was identified as another key factor in children’s faith formation. “Parents in troubled marriages are likely to have more difficulty coordinating the time and effort needed for effective faith formation,” the authors explained. “When children see loving, harmonious marriages preached at church but witness marital strife at home, this creates cognitive dissonance that makes Christianity harder to internalize.” Data analyzed in the report showed more faith-related conversations with their kids happening per week and a higher probability of their kids praying daily with couples who reported being in happy and satisfying marriages.

But faith transmission cannot rest solely upon the shoulders of moms and dads, the report noted. Smith and Lankes Smith also underscored that an engaged church community is similarly integral to forming the faith of children. They write that pastors must minister to families by offering ongoing religious education to parents (not just to children), expand marriage ministries, create space for community, and invest in youth ministry. This will foster congregational involvement for both parents and adolescents, which “is linked to higher levels of faith commitment when children reach adulthood.”

Experts like Family Research Council Senior Fellow Joseph Backholm say that the IFS/Communio report further proves the principle that faith is primarily passed on through lived witness, not merely through words and exhortations.

“These results seem to communicate that children are watching their parents’ lives and deciding whether they like what they see,” he told The Washington Stand. “If we enjoy being with our parents, and believe their marriage is something we’d like to have ourselves, it makes sense that we’d be more interested in what they tell us about the purpose of life and what we should believe. Of course, the gospel is true despite the fact that people are hypocrites, but there’s little doubt that a life in which actions match words is more compelling to those who are watching. That includes our children.”