People whose parents divorced when they were children are significantly more likely to grow up not to be religious as adults, the study found. Thirty-five percent of the children of divorced parents told pollsters they are now nonreligious, compared with 23 percent of people whose parents were married when they were children.<\/p>\n
Other studies on the rise of the \u201cnones\u201d\u009d \u201d\u201d those who say they have no religion \u201d\u201d have focused on millennials\u2019 changing preferences. This study found that 29 percent of adults who were raised religious and left their faith say they left because of their religion\u2019s negative teachings about gay and lesbian people. Nineteen percent say they left because of clergy sexual-abuse scandals. Sixty percent say they simply do not believe what the religion teaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the narrative around the rise of the nones, or the rise of the non-affiliated, has focused on how there\u2019s changing cultural preferences, that people are choosing to move away from religion,\u201d\u009d said Daniel Cox, one of the researchers on the new study. \u201cI think there\u2019s also a structural part of the story that has not gotten as much attention. We wanted to focus on the way millennials were raised, which is different from any previous generation. And part of that is they\u2019re more likely to have grown up with parents who are divorced.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n