Diversity and Volunteerism by Alex Wyatt

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Oxford, UK and Malden, USATSQThe Sociological Quarterly0038-02532007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.200748193118RELIGION: AGENCY AND NEGOTIATIONFamily and Religious Socialization for Asian AmericansJerry Z. Park and Elaine Howard Ecklund

The Sociological Quarterly ISSN 0038-0253

NEGOTIATING CONTINUITY: Family and Religious Socialization for SecondGeneration Asian Americans Jerry Z. Park* Baylor University

Elaine Howard Ecklund University at Buffalo, SUNY

This article examines second-generation Asian Americans’ explanations of the significant influences on their own religious identities. Data include interviews (N = 73) with college-aged Asian Americans from different religious traditions and ethnic backgrounds. Respondents viewed families as the most significant influence on current religiosity. Mothers and fathers were mentioned most often, followed by extended kin, siblings, and relatives, who acted as what we call “reinforcers,” “substitutes,” or “contrasts” to the roles that parents played in religious socialization. These roles occurred along two religious configurations within families: heterogeneous or homogeneous degrees of religious commitment and religious affiliation. Directions for future research and contributions to the religious transmission literature follow.

INTRODUCTION Scholars view the family as the central site of religious transmission (Acock and Bengtson 1978; Thomas and Henry 1985; Bao, Whitebeck, Hoyt, and Conger 1999; Edgell 2005). America’s changing racial, ethnic, and religious demographics, however, may challenge what we know about the place of families in transmitting religious identities and practices. Post-1960s immigration is broadening the American racial and ethnic landscapes by bringing large numbers of immigrants from non-European parts of the world such as Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin. These new nonwhite immigrants are both increasing religious diversity and radically changing the ethnic and racial composition of American Christianity (Warner and Wittner 1998). This new immigration pattern also signals a change in American family demography. According to recent census reports, those under the age of 18 that are either foreign born or born to at least one nonnative parent now constitute nearly 20 percent of all U.S. children (Fields 2003). Yet, little research specifically examines the ways in which family and religion connect within this new ethnic and religious landscape, particularly for members of non-Christian religious traditions or for nonwhite members of Christian religions (Boyatzis 2003). Here, we respond to this gap by asking what Asian Americans from different religious and ethnic

*Direct all correspondence to Jerry Z. Park, One Bear Place #97326, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798; telephone: 254-710-3150; e-mail: jerry_park@baylor.edu The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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groups view as the significant forces in their own religiosity. We are particularly interested in what role they see their families playing in this process. We also examine whether the explanations that Asian-American respondents provide are similar or different from what sociologists already know about the role that families play in religious transmission for other groups. We organize our argument into two parts. First, we show that, similar to non-Asian families, parents are often the first source of religious influence. Similar to previous research Asian-American respondents mentioned mothers more often than fathers as being strong influences on their own religiosity. The significance of parental influence, however, includes an assortment of different practices not established in the broader religion and family literature. Findings complicate the role of the ethnic congregation in the Asian-American community by emphasizing the overlapping influences of the family both at home and in the religious organization. Second, different from existing research on religious transmission, and possibly unique to the Asian-American experience, in addition to parents, these respondents see other family members as key agents in religious socialization. The distinctive ways in which nonparental family members were described as influences followed three particular paths, which we conceptualize as “reinforcement, substitution, and contrast” roles. This article expands knowledge of religious heterogeneity within families by focusing on the impact of religious diversity on the children (rather than spouses, as in the existing literature) in a family. These findings also allow us to propose a theoretical model for the specific role of families in religious transmission among Asian Americans. FAMILY, IMMIGRATION, AND RELIGIOUS TRANSMISSION Family and Religious Transmission Research Although other factors influence individual religiosity,1 researchers find that families are the primary determiner of religious beliefs. Such findings repeatedly show that the religiosity of an individual’s parents has a direct and positive influence on their own religiosity.2 When researchers discuss “family,” however, they generally refer exclusively to parents rather than including other significant figures in a household (such as siblings, relatives, or in-laws) (Acock and Bengtson 1978; Nelsen and Rizvi 1984; Wilson and Sandomirsky 1991; Myers 1996; Wuthnow 1999a,b). A large number of studies reveal that mothers and fathers have a different influence on the religiosity of children. With few exceptions (Gunnoe and Moore 2002; Weilhouwer 2004), researchers find that the mother’s role has the strongest effect both in sustaining and in transmitting religion to the children (Acock and Bengtson 1978; Nelsen 1980; Dudley and Dudley 1986; Davidson et al. 1997; Bao, Whitebeck, Hoyt, and Conger 1999; Boyatzis 2003).3 Fathers, too, play a specific role in religious transmission (Bartkowski and Xu 2000; Wilcox 2002), but their role either differs from that of mothers or seems to have less of an impact on children (Kieren and Munro 1987; Hayes and Pittelkow 1993). For example, one study examines the likelihood that parents will transmit religious beliefs to adolescent first-born sons and finds that mothers and fathers influence different aspects of religiosity for children. 94

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Mothers mainly influence the practical application of religion for sons whereas fathers influence participation in a religious community, in this case church attendance (Clark, Worthington, and Danser 1988). Two important commonalities appear in these studies. One is the use of white American Protestant or Catholic samples (Keeley 1976; D’Antonio 1985; Heaton and Goodman 1985; Thornton 1985, 1989; Ellison and Sherkat 1993; Mahoney et al. 2003). With few exceptions (Herzbrun 1993; Bacon 1996; Boyatzis 2003), little work considers whether or how the different family factors that influence religious transmission for white Christians will also be an important influence for nonwhite Christians and members of non-Christian religions. Asian-American religion includes Christianity, both Protestantism and Catholicism, as well as an array of other religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam (Jasso, Massey, Rosenzweig, and Smith 2003; Lien and Carnes 2004). Given the expanding presence of Asian Americans in our society, examining the family dynamics of both Asian-American Christians and non-Christians is an important step toward understanding how religious transmission among Asian Americans is similar to or different from that among white American Christians. Second, given that Asian America contains more religious diversity when compared to the U.S. population as a whole, research on religious heterogeneity within the family is pertinent. In our review of the religious transmission literature, we noted that there are many studies examining the role of religion in families when the mother and father have different religious affiliations. Such studies, however, have typically centered on consequences for marital quality (Chinitz and Brown 2001), with much less attention paid to the impact that religious heterogeneity within a family has on children.4 Further, religious heterogeneity in the family typically refers to a handful of religious affiliation combinations, namely Catholic-Protestant, and Christian-Jewish households (Sherkat 2003), rather than to the diverse array of religiously heterogeneous combinations that are possible within the Asian-American community. Questions such as “To what extent is religious diversity occurring within AsianAmerican households?” and “What effect might such diversity have on children?” are left unanswered. We have no reliable data that tells us whether Asian-American households are more homogeneous or heterogeneous in terms of religion, but some studies have stressed the significance of conversions to Christianity among Asian immigrants in the United States, most notably among the Chinese (Yang 1998, 1999b; Ng 2002). Adult conversions can have a significant impact on the religious dimension of family life for children, since some may experience a religiously mixed or heterogeneous household as a result of a family members’ switch to Christianity. Furthermore, since Asian Americans comprise the most religiously diverse racial group, household religious heterogeneity for Asian Americans could refer to additional combinations not visible within many white U.S. households, such as Protestant-Buddhist or Christian-Hindu. Asian-American Immigration and Religion Research Knowledge about Asian-American religions has dealt primarily with the role of congregations in immigrant communities rather than family life (Warner and Wittner 1998; The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000; Kwon, Kim, and Warner 2001; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2002; Min and Kim 2002; Carnes and Yang 2004). In particular, most of these studies emphasize the ways in which ethnic congregations maintain ethnic identity through religion for the first generation and, in some cases, the second generation (Min 1992; Bankston and Zhou 1995; Chong 1998; Zhou and Bankston 1998; Yang 1999b; Kim and Kim 2001). The role of families in the religious transmission process is not centrally examined in these studies. Without any alternative perspectives that center directly on the family, such research can create the impression that the key force in determining religion for the children of immigrants is the ethnic congregation, despite research that shows immigrant families are central in promoting positive outcomes for their children (Zhou 1997).5 In the growing number of studies that explore Asian-American second-generation religion, the central site where religion is examined is not the family, but the congregation or equivalent religious organization (Abusharaf 1998; George 1998; Kurien 1999; Yang 1999; Cha 2001; Chai 2001; Kim and Kim 2001; Chen 2002; Kurien 2002; Dhingra 2003; Kim and Pyle 2004; Jeung 2005). Studies about family in the lives of second-generation immigrants generally center on discussions of ethnic identity (Hong and Min 1999; Min and Kim 1999; Thai 1999; Kibria 2002; Killian and Hegtvedt 2003; Lee and Zhou 2004). For example, Karen Pyke’s work on second-generation Korean and Vietnamese Americans shows us that the “normal American family” is often cited by these respondents as a way to articulate their experiences growing up with their presumably “nonnormal” immigrant parents (Pyke 2000). Our research fills several significant gaps in the existing literature. Universal arguments concerning “religious transmission” typically use white Protestant or Catholic experiences as reported in surveys. As the presence of Asian Americans grows in the United States, American religion is becoming less Euro-Protestant, with many Asian communities consisting of non-Western variations of Christianity (e.g., Syrian Christianity among Indian Christians, and Confucian-influenced Protestantism among Protestant Chinese and Korean Americans), and non-Christian religions (e.g., Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam) (Smith and Kim 2005). To fill this gap, our study examines Asian Americans from different religious traditions. Timothy Fong (2002) and more recently Yu Xie and Kimberly Goyette (2004) have shown that, based on census data from 1990 and 2000, Asian-American families on average are larger than most white and black families. In addition, they note that in 1990, 17.4 percent of Asian-American households contained extended kin (i.e., anyone who is not a parent, in-law, spouse, or child) compared to 7.4 percent in the national average (Fong 2002). Using the standard of “multigenerational” family (i.e., a minimum of three generations in a household) 15 percent of Asian-American households fall under this definition compared to 5 percent of white households (Fong 2002; Xie and Goyette 2004). These compositional differences could result in sibling and extended kin (such as grandparents) exhibiting greater influences on religious socialization within the family when compared to non-Asian groups of Americans. Our research expands the conception of “family” in the study of religious transmission, which typically means the influence of parents, by including the possible importance of extended kin. 96

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While some studies have addressed the significance of Asian immigrant conversions to Protestant Christianity (Yang 1998), we do not know what effect religious diversity within families has on the children of these immigrants. What is religious socialization like for those who are raised in families where some members are Buddhist and others are Protestant? Again, consideration of the variety of household compositions that constitute “family” for Asian Americans applies not only to parents, but to siblings and extended kin as well. Our study also uncovers a variety of interreligious combinations within households and how Asian-American respondents perceive these diverse combinations to influence their own religiosity. Finally, the study of Asian-American religion has rarely placed the family in the foreground. Research on Asian-American religions typically examines the lives of first-generation immigrants, their activity within the ethnic congregation, and how they sustain their ethnic identity. Among the increasing number of studies of religion among second-generation Asian Americans, the focus shifts to how the children of immigrants negotiate the differences between religion and ethnicity. But even in this growing literature, the emphasis is still primarily on the religious organization, whether a church or college religious organization, rather than other factors that might shape the religious experience of Asian Americans. DATA AND METHODS Data for this article is part of a larger study of ethnic and religious identities among second-generation Asian Americans. From the fall of 2000 to the spring of 2001, Jerry Z. Park conducted 88 face-to-face semistructured interviews with second-generation Asian Americans. Interviews consisted of 20 questions and lasted between 30 and 90 minutes. By “second-generation” we refer to those individuals who were either born in the United States (N = 56) or grew up in the United States prior to the age of 13 (sometimes described as the “1.5” generation, N = 32). These individuals were located through various student organizations based on a typology that stratified groups along religious and ethnic interests: strictly ethnic (e.g., Filipino Students Association), strictly religious (e.g., Hindu Students Association), ethnic-religious (e.g., Asian American Intervarsity Christian Fellowship), and a residual other category (e.g., College Democrats). This strategy was intended to produce a more balanced number of respondents with different cultural identities (e.g., those who emphasize ethnicity over religion, religion over ethnicity, neither, or both). These organizations were selected from among four public universities, one in each of the census regions carrying the largest percentage of undergraduate Asian Americans. The universities included the University of Houston (19 percent), University of Illinois at Chicago (22 percent), University of California at Irvine (55 percent), and The State University of New York at Stony Brook (21 percent). Fifty percent of the respondents were women and 50 percent were men. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 26 years with a mean of 20.8. They were also from a variety of different Asian ethnic groups, including Chinese (n = 16), Indian (n = 19), Korean (n = 17), Japanese (n = 2), Filipino (n = 10), and Vietnamese (n = 9). Several respondents were of other Asian ethnic groups (n = 6) or identified as having a mixed Asian ethnic heritage The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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(n = 9). Religion-wise, the respondents were diverse and included Catholics (n = 20), Protestants (n = 25), Buddhists (n = 6), Hindus (n = 15), Muslims (n = 3), and members of other minority religions (n = 4). The remaining respondents were not part of any religion (n = 15). Our analysis here focuses on the 73 respondents who reported a religious affiliation. In the interviews, we asked respondents about their own religious identities and the influences that may have shaped the significance of their current religious tradition.6 Both of the authors reanalyzed each interview to determine main themes related to influences on personal religiosity. Then, we recoded the responses according to these themes, comparing the members of each religious tradition to one another. In this way, our data analysis strategy followed a modified inductive method of analysis (Strauss and Corbin 1990). This analysis strategy was appropriate because we were proceeding with a research question about which there is very little previous research. We see these findings as developed grounded assertions about the place of families in accounts of religious adherence for second-generation Asian Americans. Such grounded assertions could be further tested in other studies. There were limitations and benefits to using a college sample. A young adult sample is an appropriate group among which to examine issues related to religious transmission since college-aged individuals are in the process of making decisions about their own religiosity (Oyserman and Sakamoto 1997). While stratification by organization type allowed us to control for certain kinds of organizational effects, such as oversampling highly salient ethnic or religious responses, the sample itself was not strictly random. Rather, respondents consisted of student leaders who cooperated upon contact through either phone or e-mail. Further, because these respondents attended four-year universities, they do not represent the class heterogeneity present in the general Asian-American population. Despite these limitations, the spread and depth of the sample across ethnicity and religion greatly expand the other available data on this topic, allowing us to develop bounded findings about the religious transmission process from which to generate and test future hypotheses and theories. ASIAN-AMERICAN FAMILIES AND RELIGIOUS TRANSMISSION A dominant theme through these interviews was the significant role that families of origin played in religious transmission. Although some talked about other forces, such as schools, families were more important than any other influence in determining religious identities. We found that the role of the family and the role of the congregation overlapped in our respondents’ narratives of religious socialization, where parents provided the means by which children receive religious training in the congregation and provide models of participation and leadership for children. Unlike previous research, which has equated family with “mother and father,” we found that when these Asian Americans mentioned “family,” they referred to a more complex system of influential people that included but was not limited to their parents. Mothers were specifically mentioned more often than anyone else as a central influence; as with 98

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previous research, their contribution to religious socialization far outweighed other family members and was evident both at home and in the religious congregation. Fathers were mentioned less often and their influence was more mixed; in some cases, fathers were seen as being a part of a respondent’s religiosity, but in other cases, were noticeably distant or absent altogether. In addition, extended kin (whether stateside or abroad), such as aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, as well as nearer kin like brothers and sisters were also significant influences for respondents of all religious traditions. The variety of family influences as well as the links between the domestic household and the ethnic congregation together is represented in Figure 1. As we listened to the descriptions that Asian Americans gave for how different family members played a role in their own religious socialization, we found several combinations of dynamics at work. Although parents were often the primary socializing agents, other family members acted as substitutes in the absence of parental influence, reinforcers in concert with them, or contrasts in comparison with them. Substitute family influences typically replaced a primary socialization agent, usually parents, and sometimes the congregation. Reinforcers acted as additional exemplars that shore up the significance and plausibility of religion, and contrasting agents provided examples of a religious tradition that is an alternative to the family members’. These dynamics mapped together with the substantive differences that respondents saw in their families’ own religious histories. Religious affiliation was taken for granted by some, but the degree of religiosity was seen as the true measure of authentic faith. For others, diverse religious affiliations were the normal experience. These distinctions produced a variety of environments in which religious socialization experience took place, which we explore in more detail below. Congregation

Local household Nuclear family Mother

Religious selfidentity

Father

Siblings

Extended kin

International family visits

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“Ever Since I Was Born . . .”: Parents as Links to Religious Organizations and Activities In a number of instances when we asked interviewees what influences played a role in their religious socialization, they described their family influence as embedded within a church setting. This sentiment is exemplified by the oft-repeated statement: “Ever since I was born, I was in the church.” The consistency of this explanation, heard not only from Protestants and Catholics but from Hindu and Muslim students as well, suggests not only the importance of the ethnic church in the cultural script of adaptation for Asian Americans, but also the link between the ethnic religious organization and the family, possibly confirming the important role of congregations in the United States (Warner 2000). We found at least two ways in which this link was expressed: access to the institution and leadership in the institution. Access to a religious institution was understood both literally and symbolically. Parents provided children and young adults opportunities to participate in the life of a religious organization by the act of bringing them to a religious gathering. Such activities might include worship services, religious education classes, and youth group participation. At a symbolic level, however, some also recognized their parents’ involvement in terms of leadership and service. Catherine, a Korean-American Protestant in Chicago, described the totalizing experience of her family’s religious influence as seen in her home life and her parents’ participation in church. Ever since I was little . . . I grew up in a Christian home and every Sunday my parents have taken me and my brother to church. My parents have always been very active in church too. Just coming from that background and that family background introduced me to it and then aside from that, at my old church, as I got older, we got involved in the youth group. And every summer and every winter, there would be a youth retreat for churches all over the area, . . . So there would be guest speakers that would come and speak and you would be able to meet other Korean Christians. That’s pretty much how that has had an effect on my life. (Interview, September 2000) To be sure, Catherine highlighted all the ways that the local Korean Protestant church helped her develop her faith, which included youth group involvement and areawide youth retreats with noted Korean Christian speakers. But none of this would have been possible without the initial link her parents provided as active members of the church. While not explicit, her parents’ religious participation provides some evidence that mothers and fathers play an important role in religious socialization by modeling participation within the context of the religious organization. In another example, Angela, a Filipina Catholic from New York, explained that her religious participation was often compulsory as a member of a household whose parents were highly devout: My parents . . . would always force me to go to church. I mean, yeah, there were times when I didn’t want [to go] and during those times I know I should go. Like especially my birthday. (Interview, December 2000) Despite the frustration on special occasions like her birthday, the cumulative effect of her parents’ influence through church attendance left Angela with a deep impression of her faith tradition’s importance in her life. 100

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We found similar responses among the Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim AsianAmerican respondents. Helen, a Korean Buddhist in Chicago, told the interviewer that after trying the Korean Catholic and Presbyterian churches with her Korean friends, she thought she would “give my parents’ religion a chance.” In another part of the interview, Helen went on to say, “So I went with my mom, [and] I actually started to listen to the sermons and felt, not ‘belonged’ per se, but in touch with Buddhism” (Interview, September 2000). In another example, Ritwik, an Indian Hindu from Chicago, said that his parents introduced him to Hinduism by attending cultural events, talking about it, and visiting the temple. And Maryam, a Pakistani Muslim, described her parents as having a strong influence on her faith development: “We go to a lot of conventions that are religious conventions; . . . going to the mosque had made me closer too” (Interview, October 2000). These examples show the importance of the parents’ role as both actual and symbolic links to religious organizations. “Because, You Know, God Watches . . .”: Parents as Domestic Practitioners of Religion Most previous research on Asian-American religion has focused primarily on religious organizations, often ignoring the significance of the domestic experience of religion. But similar to studies on immigrant Indian Hindu and Christian communities (Bacon 1996; George 1998; Ebaugh and Chafetz 2000; Kurien 2002), we found a number of respondents reporting the home-based influence of their parents through domestic religious practices. Some made mention of their parents reading the Qu’ran or the Bible to them, while others recall reciting family prayers or receiving moral instruction. Based on these previous studies, we expected that home-based rituals might be less important to members of religious traditions that have significant institutional and organizational resources in the United States, such as Protestants and Catholics, when compared to those religions with fewer such resources, for example, Buddhism or Islam. We found, however, that the importance of family-based religious rituals and practices was important for members of both Christian and non-Christian religions. Denise, a Filipina Catholic from New York, mentioned that her parents would help interpret the television news through religion: When we would watch the news and when something bad happened, sometimes my parents would relate that to religion. (Interview, December 2000) Prema, an Indian Hindu from Houston, explained that her parents’ influence was through moral training and discipline in the everyday aspects of living: I would definitely say parents [were influential]. ’Cause they’re always teaching like not to do bad, bad things, because you know, God watches. I think parents on like day-to-day activities you know, giving me lectures here and there . . . stuff like that. (Interview, October 2000) The parental influence on the domestic front was apparent in many of these responses. Parents acted as models of ritual practice, moral instructors, and religious teachers in the childhood experiences of these Asian Americans. While the content of the practices and beliefs may vary across religions, we noticed that the respondents, regardless of religion, tended to describe these experiences with their parents in much the same way. Because of the numerous instances where a specific parent was mentioned with respect to religious The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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socialization, we explored some of the ways that mothers and fathers specifically had an influence on second-generation Asian Americans. “I Look Up to My Mom a Lot in That Way”: Mothers as Religious Exemplars When we examined the responses that mentioned mothers, we found that mothers were often mentioned in relationship to their service in a local religious organization. Mothers served in various capacities as pastors, temple leaders, and active congregant members. Generally, mothers were more often mentioned as a salient influence in the respondent’s religious socialization. Typical of these responses was Mi-gyung, a Korean-American Protestant from Chicago: My mom most especially has given me a lot of guidance as far as religion. My mom and I have had some deep talks. I look up to my mom a lot in that way. (Interview, December 2000) Responses concerning mothers were often stated in this matter-of-fact manner; a respondent’s mother was and is very religious, period. This tendency suggests the foundational role that mothers play in passing down religious traditions and is similar to previous research among white American Christians.7 “Sometimes but Not as Much as My Mom:” Fathers as Supportive but Distant Influences Fathers in general were mentioned less often. In several cases, the interviewer needed to specifically ask about the role of the father in personal religiosity before he was mentioned. When we reviewed the examples of the influence of fathers, we noticed some cases in which the role of the mother was positioned in contrast to the father. For example, David, a Chinese-American Protestant, began his explanation by stating that his parents stressed religion a lot: Parents stressed it a lot, especially my mom. She always gets on me, “Oh are you reading the Bible every day?” “Are you praying?” I take it they’re both Christian? Yes, they are. So my mom stressed it a lot. Every time I talk to her, she always brings it up. . . . I think my parents played the biggest part in forming my religion. (Interview, November 2000) David made no mention of his father at this point so the interviewer asked him specifically: Did your father by any chance play any particular role? You mentioned that your mother often asked you questions . . . ? My dad does sometimes, but not as much as my mom. He doesn’t stress it as much ’cause my dad became a Christian through my mom. My mom was Christian first, then, my dad became Christian. When I was younger, he was really into church, but then we changed pastors. He didn’t like the way this one taught so he wasn’t into it as much, so he kind of started to slowly turn from that. He’s still a Christian and he still believes and everything they stand for, but he just, I guess, he doesn’t attend church as much as he used to. But he would say it once in a while but not stress it as much as my mom. (Interview, November 2000) 102

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At home, David witnessed his father’s religious participation change over time, and in light of this inconsistency he concludes that his father’s influence is present “sometimes, but not as much as my mom.” In some cases, we found that fathers were quite active either at home (reading Bible stories or leading the family rosary prayer) or at a local religious community (as pastors, elders, deacons, general helpers). And in other cases, they were seen as reticent (“dad was not very religious”) or only indirectly encouraging. Cynthia, a Vietnamese-American Catholic from Houston, explained that while her father was not Catholic, he still encouraged her to attend Mass: [M]y mother is Catholic and my father is not. My father is nondenominational. He understood that it was important to my mother for me to learn Catholicism and for me to be Catholic. With all of my siblings, it’s that way. So even though he didn’t necessarily have a faith, he would push us in that direction and he would say, “You should do this” and “You should study this” and beyond going to church, they would teach us at home. (Interview, October 2000) In recent decades, American Christianity has seen an explosion of nondenominational churches (Miller 1997; Sargeant 2000), organizations that are typically evangelical Protestant but eschew any traditional ties to a specific denomination, such as Baptist or Presbyterian. Given this reality, we asked Cynthia to clarify whether her nondenominational father was Protestant or simply nonreligious. She replied: He doesn’t go to church. He’s never stated his religious beliefs to me but he’s not Catholic, I know that. But still, to this day, I do not know what my father is. So, I am going to assume him to be Christian, or at least he tells me he’s Christian. He just doesn’t tell me exactly what he is. (Interview, October 2000) Similarly, when asked if his parents were Buddhist, Takatoshi, a Japanese-American Buddhist, explained: My parents are—my dad is not religious at all. My mom . . . it’s like my dad tells my mom to take, used to tell her to take me and my brothers to church just because it was like a good thing to do, not because he saw any divine purpose in it. (Interview, November 2000) From Takatoshi’s perspective, his father sees the local Buddhist organization as a place for moral socialization. His father’s presence is felt only indirectly as the one who encourages his mother to take the children to religious services and organizations. Fathers played a variety of roles but were often described by respondents as distinct from mothers in terms of emotional distance. While not every respondent described her father in this way, this “distance” dynamic was present more often in respondents’ discussions about their fathers when compared to their mothers. Expanding Family Influences: Siblings and Relatives Without question, parents played a critical role in the religious socialization of most of our respondents. For these Asian-American children of immigrants, however, other family members sometimes contributed to, or even superseded, the influence of parents. While not technically extended kin, siblings were mentioned often enough that they stood out as a significant nonparental family influences in respondents’ religious The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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socialization. Many of our respondents also explained the importance of extended kin, some of whom lived in the same household. For some, these relatives were important figures who lived nearby rather than in the home and, for others still, nonparental relatives provided an influence when respondents visited these extended kin in the native lands of their parents. The significance of these added family influences in the lives of secondgeneration Asian Americans rests not only in their mere presence but also in the specific role they play as reinforcers of, substitutes for, or contrasts to the influence of parents. “I Think If [My Brother] Didn’t Become Christian . . .”: Siblings as Socializing Agents In a number of instances, we found respondents mentioning the important contributions of brothers and sisters in forming their personal faith.8 Previous research has overlooked the role of siblings when discussing the place of “family” in religious transmission. We found that these interviewees were often challenged and inspired by older brothers and sisters as siblings paved the way in taking hold of the faith of their parents. Cynthia, who we met earlier, recalled the unique practices of one of her sisters: My sister went off and did some Bible study type things, and I did a lot at home and I had an active participation in the other church, the Vietnamese Catholic church, which my sister didn’t. So, it was kind of like my parents said, “Okay, well, we’re not going to say you have to do this, but it is a good idea that you learn to do these kind of things.” And so, I studied at home and studied at both the churches, things like that. (Interview, October 2000) Cynthia interpreted the difference in the forms of religion she and her sister practiced as stemming from a semiflexible religious model conveyed by her parents; being Catholic is important and religious organizational participation is important—but the configuration of participation ought to be a decision of the children. Clearly, her parents were the important influences, but the alternate path she observed in her sister was also instructive in interpreting the implied messages of her parents. Siblings often served in this capacity as a measuring stick of the respondent’s own religious trajectory. Jim, a Korean-American Protestant, illustrated this pattern in his description of the influence of his family: My parents and my oldest sister are [very religious]. I have four older sisters. My parents and my oldest sister are very religious, but my three other sisters and I aren’t. (Interview, September 2000) Jim clearly placed his own religiosity in the midst of that of his sisters and situated his felt lack of religious observance as similar to that of some, but not all, of his siblings. Their presence in his life and their religiosity helped create a peer-level barometer within the family for estimating his faith commitment. He could readily evaluate “real religiosity” because one of his sisters reflected strong commitment, a comparison that helped confirm for Jim the significance of his parents’ influence in his religious socialization, even if at this point in time he wasn’t very religious himself. Most often, when respondents talked about the place of their siblings in developing their own religiosity, they mentioned such a role in very positive ways. That is, the effect that they saw in their siblings (usually an older one) altered their own attitude toward 104

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religion, sometimes serving as catalysts to initiating a religious journey. Andrew, a ThaiChinese Protestant from New York, described the change he saw when his brother “became a Christian”: I think the biggest one would probably be my brother. . . . He had become Christian, maybe about four or five years ago and at that time I was still in high school. I can still vividly remember how much my brother was anti-Christian but hearing him say, “Yeah, I’m a Christian” really hit my heart for some reason because my brother’s a very stubborn person and for him to change so drastically was like, “Hmm. I wonder what’s this all about.” I think if he didn’t become a Christian and I didn’t see the transformation or the change of personality, I don’t think I would have been so open to looking into Christianity. And, I think, once I let myself be open, to actually look into things, after a while things really [made] sense. (Interview, December 2000) Andrew later told us that his parents are Buddhists. From his perspective, his brother’s positive change in behavior occurred as a result of converting to Christianity, and it was this “transformation,” as he described it, that led him to embrace Christianity as well.9 We saw this dynamic several times, especially in the descriptions of the role that other relatives had on some of the respondents. In a number of cases, siblings were often substitutes or contrasting examples to the religious commitment (or lack thereof) of parents. One reason for this important role of siblings in developing personal religiosity may be that, because of a lack of human capital in the first generation (language skills, education, etc.) older siblings may take on a more parental role than found in other American sibling relationships, consequently leading to the greater influence of siblings in the religious socialization process for this group. “Why Are We Going to Celebrate Easter at Grandma’s House When She’s Buddhist?”: Extended Kin as Substitute Socializing Agents While brothers and sisters were significant influences, respondents also mentioned broader networks of extended kin, including aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, as having important roles in religiosity. Such additional individual-level influences were often part of the taken-for-granted meaning behind “family” for young Asian Americans. “Family” included this wide array of individuals spanning vertically across generations and horizontally across peer-age cousins. When Peter, a Korean Protestant from Chicago, was asked to explain how his faith became such an important feature in his life, he illustrated the complex web of family influences that included his parents but reached across several generations. He mentioned that his extended family experienced a good deal of hardship including the loss of family members, which caused him to explore his faith: My family is relatively young. My mom is 39. She had me when she was 21. My grandmother is the age of some of my friends’ mothers. They are in pretty good health, but then kind of toward high school, I had some relatives pass away. One of my grandmothers on my father’s side had acute leukemia. My great grandmother passed away during high school and I was really close to her because she lived with us all of my life. When they passed away, I kind of asked myself, “If they were Christians and they believed in God and they never did any bad things, what could cause them to get ill?” The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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I was kind of confused; it made me think of my religion and stuff. If God is such a good God, why does he let evil things happen to good people? My parents tried their best to explain it to me. And that kind of questioning sparked my curiosity and that is one of the reasons I looked into Christianity more and tried to understand it better. I knew that religion was not a simple thing. The more you learn the more questions you have. (Interview, September 2000) Similar to many who hold deep religious sensibilities, Peter’s understanding of the importance of religion in his life is related to major events of loss, particularly family loss. But unlike many examples of white American religious socialization, “family” referred to a host of relatives including parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. These extended kin members were not merely symbolic characters in Peter’s parents’ retelling of the family’s religious history; they were integral people in his personal life while growing up in the same household. He noted the shared faith tradition of his relatives, which deepened his spiritual seeking and questioning since their deaths could not be reconciled with his understanding of a good God. His parents too, according to Peter, tried to counsel him. But as his tone suggested, their efforts had a negligible impact. We learned later in the interview that a church youth minister helped him to reconcile his faith and tragic life events. In some instances, the influence of relatives was felt even though they did not share the same roof as the respondent. Joseph describes himself as a Hapa (half Japanese, half white). He is a Buddhist, from Irvine, and grew up in a mixed religious household. His mother was a Christian (although he could not remember “exactly which kind”), and his father was nominally religious but originally came from a Buddhist family heritage. Joseph’s family experience was patrilocal since most of his mother’s side of the family was in Ohio and Pennsylvania. When asked about the influences on his own religious commitment Joseph notes not his father, but his father’s side of the family, particularly his paternal grandmother: Yeah. It’s mainly my family, probably my grandma, my grandpa. My dad wasn’t too involved in the church but every year I go help out at their food bazaar. I always talk to my grandma about it to try and find out more. She’s probably the biggest influence towards that aspect of my life. (Interview, November 2000) Interestingly, Joseph mentioned further that he was uncomfortable with attending the Buddhist temple near his grandparents’ home, which suggested a curious problem: Joseph claimed that his grandparents were the strongest influences in his Buddhist adherence and yet they did not act as a link to the local religious institution. In what way then were his grandparents an influence? One way is suggested in a story from his childhood: All of these years, I used to go to my grandma’s house for Easter, and when I was 14 or 15, I started thinking to myself: Why are we going to celebrate Easter at grandma’s house when she’s Buddhist? Then, when I was 17, when we were eating she said, “Yeah, it’s sort of funny, everybody celebrates Easter around this time.” And she goes, “And it’s just pure coincidence that Hanamatsu,” which is a Buddhist holiday, like the rebirth of Buddha, falls around the same time too.” She referred to my mom and said, “You can celebrate Easter” and since she doesn’t really know how me and my brother 106

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align ourselves, she said, “Yeah, you guys can celebrate Easter, or whatever holiday you want to celebrate, and then I can celebrate the dinner for Hanamatsu.” I think that’s the pronunciation of it. But, yeah, it just answered one of those questions that I just brought in my mind about two or three years prior to that, and I just didn’t want to ask her. So I felt uncomfortable asking her about stuff like that. But then, as I got into college, I realized that she probably would have enjoyed talking to me about stuff like that. So . . . now if I have a question for her I probably just ask. (Interview, November 2000) Joseph’s grandmother does not come across as a dynamic and inspiring teacher in this example. But she was enough of a presence in Joseph’s life to leave an imprint of her identity as a Buddhist. Viewed from another angle, the fact that he saw his grandparents as very influential meant they acted as substitutes for his parents in the socialization process. We note, too, that this experience occurred outside of the temple, and inside the familial settings of his extended family. We repeatedly found religious socialization as an organic project, where different figures and institutions operated in a variety of configurations with only a few common characteristics. Relatives from Far Away: International Family Ties and Religious Socialization In a number of cases, the influence of extended kin was experienced through visits to the original homelands of the respondents’ parents or through transnational ties. The influence of transnational ties on personal religiosity was mentioned specifically among our Hindu respondents more so than others. Perhaps more so than any other world religion, Hinduism is associated with one nation, India, a fact that may explain the importance of transnational ties for the Hindu respondents.10 Neha, who lived in Chicago, explained that her understanding of Hindu values was based, in part, on interactions with her cousins in India: There are certain things that I have learned, maybe from talking to cousins in India. I do not drink and I do not smoke, and that is really important to me and that is the stuff that my parents have passed on. I guess just respecting who I am and respecting others. (Interview, December 2000) We learn later in the discussion with Neha that these cousins in India were part of her extended family network, and despite the distance even by bloodline, she maintained that they are a significant influence: We have a lot of relatives that are in India, relatives in a very loose term. Not first cousins or immediate relatives, but second or third cousins that you learn a lot from. (Interview, December 2000) As with parents and local relatives, visits to relatives in distant countries linked children and young adults to indigenous expressions of religion, as Neha explained: I think the influences definitely come from my dad’s side of the family. Even things like going back to visit India, a lot of the trip there is visiting temples and visiting holy places, so that is a big influence. (Interview, December 2000) For some Asian Americans, the transnational influence of relatives is historical. We heard several Protestant and Catholic respondents state that their religious heritage can be The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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traced back several generations typically beginning with a pivotal experience of a grandfather or grandmother in the country of origin. Consider Kevin, a Korean-American Protestant from Irvine, who explained that his grandmother was the first Christian in his family lineage. He explained: Her [my grandmother’s] daughters, my mother, and my aunts, they all went to church and when my father and mother wanted to get married, there was a condition that he had to attend church in order to marry her, and that was all of the conditions. When they got married, he started going to church. (Interview, November 2000) Rachel, a Sri Lankan Catholic living in Houston, shared a similar story about her grandfather who converted from Hinduism to Catholicism years ago and still lives in Sri Lanka: My mother has had a big role. Actually, my mother and her father, my grandfather, because he . . . converted from Hinduism into Catholicism and he was . . . Catholic. And going to church is a very important part because in Sri Lanka it’s only like 6 percent Catholic in that country. So he was a very strong influence. And my mother, I guess, she got that from him and she was the one, that . . . we didn’t just go to church. We did the rosary at home and every night she would say prayers on her own. And I admired her and I looked up to her and she . . . my father was always kind of . . . he would go but never was really involved. She had a big influence and my grandfather too. (Interview, October 2000) Several earlier themes are also evident here. Rachel’s mother played a central role in leading her religious practice both at home and at church; her father was present but “never was really involved”; and her grandfather began the chain of Catholic faith in the family while in Sri Lanka—all of which served to enable Rachel’s religious faith. Divergent Roles of Family Members in Religious Socialization: Cumulative and Contrast Models As discussed, family influences in religious transmission for second-generation Asian Americans include parents, siblings, and other relatives. Through these influential figures, religious identity was socialized both via the relationship between the individual and the family member as well as the family links to the institutions and organizations that further contributed to the process of forming a religious identity. Family members, however, often played different roles according to their strength of religious commitment and their specific religious affiliations. In each of the explanations about family influences, different actors were significant because of contrasting degrees of religiosity (e.g., mom was super-religious but dad was not) and/or contrasting religious affiliations (e.g., my uncles and aunts are Protestant but my parents are Catholic). We stress these as independent factors because we found instances of different combinations of factors as illustrated in Table 1, which uses several of the above-mentioned cases as examples. As depicted in the table, for Neha and Catherine, all of the family members who contributed to their respective religious upbringings shared either the Hindu faith (in the case of Neha) or the Protestant faith (in the case of Catherine), and all members were seen as observant. In the example of David and Kevin, all of the influential family figures were 108

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TABLE 1. Typology of Asian-American Religious Households of Origin Religious Composition of Household Degree of Religious Commitment in the Household

Homogeneous Religious Affiliation

Heterogeneous Religious Affiliation

Homogeneous Religious Commitment Heterogeneous Religious Commitment

Catherine, Neha Kevin, David

Andrew Joseph, Cynthia

described as sharing the same religious tradition, but at least one of the noted individuals (a mother, a father, or another relative) was described as being less observant relative to the standard that these respondents felt warranted “true faith.” When listening to Joseph and Cynthia, we hear examples of varying religious faiths and varying degrees of that faith in practice as perceived by the respondent. For example, Joseph’s father was not particularly observant in the Buddhist tradition while his mother was at least moderately observant (at least enough to bring her child to church) in a Protestant denomination. Cynthia had a mother who was a devout Catholic but her father was a Protestant and not particularly observant. The more questionable category in this matrix refers to a family religious structure where religious heterogeneity is occurring and respondents view family members as consistent in their degree of observance. To some extent, this might be evident in Andrew’s case, where he recalls his Buddhist family’s criticism of his acceptance of Protestantism while his brother served as a model for his own choice of adherence to a faith tradition that Andrew saw as at odds with the family’s tradition. Implicit here is the shared observance level of the various factions in his family, even though they adhere to different practices. While this sample is not representative of all second-generation Asian Americans, we noted too that, with the exception of Joseph, nearly all examples of family religious heterogeneity were among the Catholics and Protestants, and typically, the pattern included some exit from either Buddhism or Hinduism. Some of these religious switches reflected the religious conversion experiences among immigrants or the children of immigrants, but in a few cases, the change occurred in the sending country at an earlier generation. Both of these patterns suggest the significance of evangelistic and missionary efforts in the United States among immigrant communities (Yang 1998; Espiritu 2004) and in the Asian sending nations. Among our Hindu and other non-Christian respondents, we found no examples of individuals who started out as Protestant or Catholic and switched to being Muslim or Hindu.11 And among those who practiced the non-Christian religions, we found no examples of respondents mentioning religious heterogeneity in their family religious composition. For them, the patterns consisted of religious homogeneity with varying degrees of strength of religious observance. While gender has often been associated with different patterns of religiosity, we found no discernible pattern of effects apart from some minor gendered relationships. As noted earlier, same-sex older siblings were sometimes instrumental in encouraging religious adherence, and, with respect to parents of mixed religion, most of the time the same-sex The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93–118 © 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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parental religion was transmitted to the respondents. The religion of the mother, however, tended to transfer to the next generation more often than the religion of the father, regardless of the gender of the respondent, a finding that stands in contrast to previous research. Furthermore, this pattern was more evident among the Catholic than the Protestant respondents. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION We presented here several key facets of family life that second-generation Asian Americans of various religious traditions cite as important influences on their own religious identities. This study expands the literature on family religious transmission by drawing together the link between family religious socialization and congregational religious socialization. We expand the cast of influential family members in Asian America to include siblings and extended relatives. Based on these results, we proposed a theoretical dynamic in religious socialization that accounts for diversity in both commitment and affiliation among Asian Americans. Like previous research, the family was mentioned as one of the key influences, if not the central influence, in religious socialization. We also noted that families were an important link to receive socializing influences in the ethnic church, a connection which has not been stressed in previous research on immigrant religious organizations. Parents not only provided the means by which children received religious training, simply by transporting them to a local religious center, they also provided a symbolic resource for strength of religious commitment by their roles as leaders in religious communities. Interestingly, such links were not necessarily for the express purpose of religious socialization but more for moral socialization, a distinction that was clearly important to some respondents in understanding their own religious trajectory. Similar to previous research among white Christian samples, we found that mothers played a specific role as the religious model that second-generation Asian Americans recall as being particularly central in their own religious development. Fathers, too, played a role but, in a number of cases, were mentioned as an indirect or distant influence. In addition, siblings often had an important place as exemplars or partners in understanding a parental faith tradition. Extended family, such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins, were also significant influences. These extended kin sometimes worked as supporting influences in concert with parents in reinforcing respondents’ religious socialization, and, at other times, worked as substitutes for a felt absence in their parents’ influence. Analyses also revealed that extended kin provide influences that appear within the bonds of family but across locales, whether nearby or exerting transnational influence, maintained through significant visits to a parental homeland. Last, our theoretical model takes into account the multiple religious compositions present within Asian America, both in terms of perceived observance and in terms of affiliations in the families. These patterns do not necessarily reflect a simple causal connection, but most likely reflect the ways in which second-generation Asian Americans construct a satisfactory narrative of their religious upbringing.12 110

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Our results indicate that the perception of families in religious transmission may be dependent on the larger contexts of immigrant generation and the institutional location of a particular religious tradition within broader American religion. For example, our Hindu respondents cited transnational ties as particularly important. This could reflect the position of Hinduism as a world religion that is more regionally specific and therefore encourages stronger ties with migrant communities in the United States. Such transnational ties could reduce the need for extensive organizational resources within the United States that are found among immigrant Christian religious communities and even among some non-Christian religious groups, such as American Muslims. Furthermore, possibly particular to the immigrant location of these respondents, extended families were important in developing religious identities. This finding confirms other research on Asian-American immigrants, which shows that many live with extended family members in addition to parents (Fong 2002). Such family configurations may be a product of cultural values embedded in Confucian and other traditional practices and/or as a result of chain migration patterns, where immigrants bring members of their families from the nation of origin to live with them in the United States. Over time, however, it is not clear whether future generations of Asian Americans will also perceive extended families to have such a prominent place in their religious socialization, particularly if transnational ties wane over generations. Although we did not ask respondents specifically if they were raised in an ethnic enclave setting, other research reveals that when children of immigrants become part of the mainstream economy, many leave ethnic enclaves and, with this transition, also leave close proximity to extended families (Alba and Nee 2003). Because of this, extended families may not be as influential in religious socialization for the third and fourth generations as they were for our respondents. Researchers who study religion and family among new groups of Americans will need to continue to explore the influence of extended families on the development of individual religious identities. Our finding that mothers were particularly significant in the lives of respondents not only confirms what the broader religion and family literature shows, but also joins with research in the immigration and religion literature, which argues that women may fulfill important positions in immigrant religious communities, emphasizing the particular ways women have used religion to gain status (Ebaugh and Chafetz 1999). By exploring religion and immigration outside the walls of the congregation, the findings of this article have added a new dimension to the religion and immigration literature by demonstrating that feminized religious leadership in the home may be a particular way that firstgeneration women gain status and power through the migration process as well as influence the second generation. Future researchers must ask if maternal influence on religious socialization will continue into the third and fourth generations, particularly if child rearing becomes less gendered for members of later generations. These findings point the way for several future research directions when considering the place of the family in religiosity for new ethnic groups and new religious traditions. This study used a sample of college-attending second-generation Asian Americans, making these findings primarily relevant to the experiences of young, highly-educated, Asian The Sociological Quarterly 48 (2007) 93â&#x20AC;&#x201C;118 ÂŠ 2007 Midwest Sociological Society

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Americans. As a consequence, we were not able to explore the class distinctions present within Asian America. Because of segmented assimilation patterns, ethnic identity salience may vary according to class position (Espiritu 2004). Future research should specifically explore class differences and the experience of family influences on AsianAmerican religious identity. In particular, qualitative studies ought to compare the differences in perceptions of Asian-American family influence on religious choices and practices among members of the first generation when compared to members of the second generation in additional contexts besides the religious organization. Survey researchers might broaden their studies to consider the differences in institutional resources available in the United States to members of Christian religions when compared to members of non-Christian religious traditions and how such resources might influence the role of families in religious socialization. Since the vast majority of scholarship on religious transmission has typically centered on the white Christian experience, future research should consider comparative analyses of religious transmission across racial groups within American Christianity as well as across various groups in America’s growing religious mosaic. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Wendy Cadge, Kristen Schultz Lee, Peter Kivisto, and anonymous TSQ reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. Portions of this project were funded by the Fichter Grant of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the Constant H. Jacquet Award of the Religious Research Association. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the 2005 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. NOTES 1

Studies on religious transmission have explored various ways to define and interpret the “religious factor” (Lenski 1961) and typically center on dimensions of affiliation and commitment. Given the inductive nature of this study, it was a deliberate research strategy to allow individual respondents to provide their own definitions of religion and explanations of how religious meaning was shaped by or not shaped by family experiences. As we will show, however, respondents of nearly all affiliations used either or both of the concepts of affiliation and commitment in their understandings of their own religious socialization. 2 The only exception appears in Arnett and Jensen’s (2002) study of “emerging adults” where they found little relationship between religious socialization and current religiosity. 3 The only exception to this appears in Gunnoe and Moore’s (2002) study, who compared multiple influences of teen religiosity and found that mothers’ influence took second place to peer influence. 4 In a handful of studies on religious intermarriage, religious transmission among white Protestants and Catholics follows the mother’s trajectory except when the father has more traditional religious beliefs than the mother (Nelsen 1990; Davidson et al. 1997). 112

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Unique in this regard is the work by Prema Kurien and Jean Bacon. Kurien’s research on gender dynamics in Hindu associations (and Indian Christian congregations) has emphasized the specific role of women in religious communities (Kurien 1999, 2002). Kurien’s work shows that Hindu women in the United States are often the central articulators of the Hindu religion to the children. They do so in their leadership capacity as teachers in the temple bala vihars as well as at home (home influence is mentioned only briefly). Bacon’s (1996) study of an Indian Hindu and an Indian Christian community shows that religious identity can sometimes act as a “third identity,” where it functions as a bridge between Indian ethnic values and mainstream American values. From this research, we gather that women also play an important role in religious socialization, but that this role exists simultaneously at home and in the ethnic congregation. 6 Variations of the following questions were asked and responses to these were used in this analysis: How would you describe your religious preference? Is that an important part of your life, to be [religious label]? What sort of influences in your life helped you to understand what it means to be [religious label]? 7 In some instances, as we will see in more depth later, mothers’ influence was highlighted in contrast to fathers’ lack of, or weaker, influence. Nikhil, an Indian-American Hindu, provides a good example of this dynamic: My dad? He’s religious but I wouldn’t say he’s as religious as my mom. My mom and I would go to temple and my dad wouldn’t go. Not that he actually said he wouldn’t go, but he’d have work to do. My mom would make time for temple. My dad, when he had time to go to the temple, that sort of thing, so he’s not quite as religious. My mom stopped what she was doing and scheduled her day around it. My dad would like go out and do and maybe he’ll go next week. 8 We did not find any mention of the role that siblings played among the Buddhist and Muslim respondents but this may be due to low sample sizes. 9 In these examples, we noticed a same-gender interplay, where the positive example of an older sibling was usually the same sex as the respondent. However, we cannot ascertain if this was a regular enough occurrence to warrant further exploration. 10 We appreciate the comments of an anonymous reviewer who pushed our thinking in this direction. 11 In one particularly anomalous case, one respondent, a Filipina Catholic, described that her Catholic mother had no influence in her religious upbringing since her divorce to her father, a Buddhist, with whom the respondent lived in her precollege years. This was the only example we found of such a claim. 12 Some studies (e.g., Suh 2004) suggest that there are differences in explanations of religious socialization in faith traditions where some groups are more committed (e.g., Protestants and Muslims) among Asian immigrant families than others (e.g., Catholics, Hindus, and Buddhists). Based on this research, we might expect that Buddhist Asian Americans would describe their parents as encouraging flexibility and agency when choosing a tradition. Ellison and Sherkat (1993) show, however, that while conservative Protestant parents prize obedience in their children, they do not devalue autonomy. This suggests that agency is also present in some Christian traditions. We were unable to find a clear distinction across religions in this particular sample of religious Asian Americans. In this respect, our analysis corroborates with Cadge and Davidman’s (2006) recent articulation that ascription and agency in understanding religious identities often appear simultaneously in the narratives of individuals.

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