As Religion Declines, Child Anxiety Rises: Global Study Finds A Link

What Secular Societies May Be Getting Wrong About Raising Mentally Healthy Kids

Across much of the developed world, raising children without religious faith has become increasingly common, even fashionable. But a sweeping new study spanning 70 countries and three decades of data raises an uncomfortable question: could that secular shift be linked to rising anxiety among children? As religious faith faded as a cultural priority in child-rearing, estimated rates of anxiety disorders among children and adolescents tended to rise. A consistent pattern appeared across many countries, though not all relationships were global or equally strong. Societies where communities still placed a high value on raising children with religious faith had lower estimated rates of anxiety disorders in kids. Religion may play a protective role, though the effect appeared to come less from what any individual parent believed than from the broader cultural environment children grew up in. Published in the journal Developmental Science, the study examined broad societal trends over time across more countries and cultures than most prior research in this area, asking whether the values a culture collectively tries to instill in its children are connected to how mentally healthy those children turn out to be.

Tracking Child Anxiety and Cultural Values Across 70 Countries

Researchers pulled from four large public datasets. They used the World Values Survey, which tracked what adults in dozens of countries said they wanted children to learn at home, across six rounds of data collection between 1989 and 2022. For mental health outcomes, they used the Global Burden of Disease study, which provides modeled estimates of anxiety disorder rates for children and adolescents aged 0 to 19. A third source, the Human Development Report, provided country-level data on income, education, and life expectancy, used to help account for differences in development and healthcare across nations. Survey participants were asked to pick the qualities they most wanted children to develop, from a list that included independence, hard work, obedience, tolerance, imagination, and religious faith. Researchers then tracked how those priorities shifted over time within each country and whether the shifts lined up with changes in child anxiety rates. Religious faith showed one of the clearest associations in the analysis. Countries where it became less of a child-rearing priority over time tended to see anxiety rates in kids go up. The researchers write that their findings suggest “religiosity may serve as a protective factor by fostering a sense of purpose and social connectedness, globally.” To get closer to the individual level, researchers analyzed data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a U.S.-based project that followed nearly 4,900 children born in large American cities between 1998 and 2000, checking in on them at ages 3, 5, 9, and 15. One notable finding: a child’s anxiety symptoms appeared more closely tied to how religious their broader community was than to whether their own mother was personally devout. A child growing up in a more religious social environment, one where faith-based values were widely shared, tended to fare better mentally even when accounting for the mother’s individual beliefs. Researchers also ran an analysis tracking whether religiosity or anxiety came first across the years of the study. Lower maternal religiosity at age 3 was associated with higher anxiety in adolescence at age 15, while the reverse did not hold. That pattern is consistent with religiosity having a protective effect on children’s mental health over time, though researchers are careful to note it stops short of proof. Why might a religious upbringing help? Researchers suggest this could be because shared religious beliefs give children a structured way of understanding the world, clear moral guidelines, and a ready-made community of people looking out for them. Those elements may provide stability and a sense of belonging that buffers against anxiety, particularly during adolescence.

Child Anxiety Is Higher Where Independence Dominates Child-Rearing

Not every finding cut in the same direction. When researchers looked at how promoting independence as a child-rearing value related to anxiety rates, the results split along economic lines. Globally, emphasizing independence showed no connection to higher anxiety. But in wealthy, Western, democratic nations, a rising cultural emphasis on raising self-directed, independent children was associated with more anxiety disorders in kids in these countries. In lower-income, non-Western countries, the same shift had no such effect. One reasonable interpretation is that in countries already leaning heavily toward individualism, piling on more independence-focused pressure may leave children with higher expectations and fewer communal supports to fall back on. In developing nations, a move toward greater independence may still be tied to economic and social progress that improves children’s lives overall.

What Secular Societies Need to Replace What Religion Once Provided

Effect sizes in this study were modest throughout, a reminder that no single cultural variable explains a mental health trend. Poverty, family instability, and access to healthcare all matter too. The study also cannot establish causation, and the mechanisms researchers propose, such as purpose and community belonging, are theoretical rather than directly tested. Still, the pattern across 70 countries is notable, if modest. Religious environments appear to provide elements that may be psychologically important for children: a sense of purpose, a place in a community, and a framework for making sense of hardship. Researchers write that “societies that are becoming increasingly secular should take this into account and support children and adolescents in developing a sense of purpose and belonging without religion.” That is a taller order than it might sound. Schools, youth programs, mentorship initiatives, and community organizations can all contribute. But religious institutions have been delivering these benefits at scale for centuries. Most secular alternatives are still catching up. For anyone trying to understand why so many children in wealthy, modern societies are struggling with anxiety, that gap may be one important place to look.

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