Quality of parent-child relationship: Precondition of the children s religious education

The goal of the present research was to investigate the quality of parent-child relationship as the precondition of the children religious education. Three hundred seventy four students of Shahid Beheshti Universities and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were selected through accessible proportional stratified sampling and completed questionnaires measuring parenting style scale (Naghashan, 1979).Data were analyzed using Chi square and one way ANOVA. Results showed that parenting style has a main effect on the children religious education. Authoritative parenting style was significantly more frequent in parents who invested on religious training of children in comparison with those who had neglective parenting style. It was also found that in different sources of religious cognition, a significant difference between different kinds of parenting exists. Based on the results, parent-child relationship can be interpreted in the light of theories of object relations, attachment and social learning. These theories suppose that children with a more optimal parents-child relationship would develop a more positive religious socialization.