Parents’ Religiosity, Family Socialization and the Mental Health of Children in Hong Kong: Do Raters Make a Difference?

Family socialization is important for the development and well-being of children. However, few studies have investigated how parents' religiosity influences childrens mental health through parental psychological health and family socialization. Whats more important, prior family studies generally drew their conclusions by heavily relying on the perspective of either the parents or the offspring and considering family socialization as tantamount to parenting. The current study uses multi-informant perspectives of the parents or the children or average of the both to investigate the above mentioned relationships, and treats family socialization as a multi-faceted concept. The findings generally support the beneficial effects of parents religiosity on their psychological health and family socialization, which in turn contribute to the mental health in children. To support its validity, the structural model is tested by different raters, which subsequently enhances personal receptivity theory. Contributions of the study and future research directions are also discussed.