PARENTAL INFLUENCES ON GOD IMAGES AMONG CHILDREN - TESTING DURKHEIM METAPHORIC PARALLELISM

According to Durkheim, religion provides society with a collective con science, conferring supernatural validation of the dominant values, no rms, and social structure. Winter (1977:27) characterizes this perspec tive as metaphoric parallelism whereby ''theistic assertions are metap horical representations of social facts, that is,... there is a parall el between the characteristics attributed to the gods and real propert ies of the social world.'' Durkheim's thesis is tested for parallels b etween parenting styles reported by children and the images of God hel d by both generations. Clear evidence was found for parallel between t he God-human and parent-child relationships, indicating some degree of congruence between intrafamilial social structure and the images beli evers hold of the devine. These findings are based on data for more th an 3,400 mother-father-youth triads in a nationwide sample of families who completed surveys in 1982-1983 by Search Institute. Support for D urkheim's thesis for this sample of 5th through 9th graders and their parents withstood the introduction of controls for a battery of other relevant influences on God images including social class, age of child , denomination, and church attendance of parents and youth.