British parents not passing on religion to their children for fear that they will be ostracized

A new study has revealed that about a quarter of British parents are not passing on their religious beliefs to their children for fear that it may alienate them at school.

The survey, conducted by ComRes and sponsored by the think tank Theos, has shown that many British parents are not too concerned about sharing their religion to their children. Only 31 percent said they want their children "to hold the same beliefs about whether or not there is a God or Higher Power as me when they are older."

The concerns about passing on religious beliefs were lowest among parents who are agnostics (9 percent), atheists (19 percent) and those who claim to be indifferent about God (15 percent).

Thirty-six percent of Christian parents are keen to share their faith with their offspring while 69 percent of parents from other religions want to pass on their beliefs to their young ones.

When considering only the Christian parents who go to church at least once a month, 69 percent said they want their children to share their beliefs.

Only 40 percent of parents admitted having conversations about the topic with their children but 67 percent said that they are confident about addressing the topic with their offspring.

Twenty-three percent are concerned that their offspring may suffer alienation in school while 26 percent are worried that the children "may have questions I couldn't answer." As many as 34 percent of the parents are concerned that "technology and social media would have more of an impact on my children's beliefs than my input."

Nick Spencer, head of research at Theos, maintains that parents are still influential in the religious beliefs of their children.

"Parents do have the greatest influence on their children's faith, not least through the integrity and authenticity of their own beliefs. That noted, just calling yourself Christian makes little difference here; the more serious parents take their own faith, the more concerned they are to want to pass it on," he said, as reported by Telegraph.

ComRes interviewed 1,013 parents, with 458 saying they were Christians, 113 were from other religions and 423 claimed to hold no religious beliefs.