Parental religiosity is associated with changes in youth functional network organization and cognitive performance in early adolescence

Abstract

Parental religious beliefs and practices (religiosity) may have profound effects on youth, especially in neurodevelopmentally complex periods such as adolescence. In n = 5566 children (median age = 120.0 months; 52.1% females; 71.2% with religious affiliation) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, relationships between parental religiosity and non-religious beliefs on family values (data on youth beliefs were not available), topological properties of youth resting-state brain networks, and executive function, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility were investigated. Lower caregiver education and family income were associated with stronger parental beliefs (p < 0.01). Strength of both belief types was correlated with lower efficiency, community structure, and robustness of frontoparietal control, temporoparietal, and dorsal attention networks (p < 0.05), and lower Matrix Reasoning scores. Stronger religious beliefs were negatively associated (directly and indirectly) with multiscale properties of salience and default-mode networks, and lower Flanker and Dimensional Card Sort scores, but positively associated with properties of the precuneus. Overall, these effects were small (Cohen's d ~ 0.2 to ~ 0.4). Overlapping neuromodulatory and cognitive effects of parental beliefs suggest that early adolescents may perceive religious beliefs partly as context-independent rules on expected behavior. However, religious beliefs may also differentially affect cognitive flexibility, attention, and inhibitory control and their neural substrates.

Figure 1

(a) Diagram of statistical (mediation) model assessing the direct (path A) and indirect (through modulation of connectome properties; Path B) effects of religiosity on performance in higher-level cognitive tasks. Path D represents the full model, which includes brain connectome properties as the mediator. (b) Diagram of moderating effects of religiosity on the relationship between connectome organization and cognitive task performance.

Figure 2

Significant positive and negative associations were estimated, between strength of religious (God is first, family is second, and parents should teach their children how to pray), one religion-independent belief (children should always do things to make their parent happy), and node centrality (regional importance in a network). The colorbars represent the range of positive (yellow–red) and negative (green–blue) standardized regression coefficient values in statistical models that assessed these effects. Two and three-dimensional views of both hemispheres are shown.

Figure 3

Significant negative associations were estimated, between strength of religious beliefs, including God is first, family is second, parents should teach their children how to pray, and religion should be an important part of one’s life and regional connectedness (degree). The colorbars represent the range of negative (green–blue) standardized regression coefficient values in statistical models that assessed these effects. Two and three-dimensional views of both hemispheres are shown.