Every adult has a worldview. That worldview is typically fully developed and operational before a
person becomes a teenager. Few people would deny the fact that parents play a significant role in the
shaping of their children’s worldview.
But there’s a problem.
New research from the American Worldview Inventory 2022, conducted by the Cultural Research
Center at Arizona Christian University, shows that more than nine out of 10 parents of children under
age 13 have a muddled worldview.
Two-thirds (67%) of pre-teen parents claim to be Christian, but only 2% of all pre-teen parents
actually possess a biblical worldview, according to the new research. In fact, the study shows that a
majority of today’s parents are Millennials, the adult generation in America least likely to possess a
biblical worldview. And according to the research, the younger the parent, the less likely they are to
have a biblical worldview.
The Worldview of Parents
George Barna, Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center and creator of the national
American Worldview Inventory, explained that this year’s initial wave of worldview studies focuses on the
life-defining beliefs and behaviors of parents because of the substantial influence they have on the
worldview developed by their young children.
“Every parent teaches what they know and models what they believe. They can only give what they
have, and what they have to give reflects their driving beliefs about life and spirituality,” Barna
explained. “Parents are not the only agents of influence on their children’s worldview, but they remain
both a primary influence and a gatekeeper to other influences.”
The new AWVI 2022 study found that although two-thirds of the parents of pre-teens claim to be
Christian (67%), only 2% possess a biblical worldview. The outcome is barely different among the
two-thirds who claim to be Christian. A mere 4% of them possess a biblical worldview.
Equally shocking was the finding that none of the six alternative worldviews tested is embraced by
even 1% of parents. These alternative worldviews include: Secular Humanism, Moralistic Therapeutic
Deism, Nihilism, Marxism/Critical Theory, Postmodernism, and Eastern Mysticism/New Age.
That leaves more than nine out of 10 parents of pre-teens—a full 94%—having a worldview known as
Syncretism, a blending of multiple worldviews in which no single life philosophy is dominant, producing
a worldview that is diverse and often self-contradictory.
The research further indicates that large majorities of parents possess comparatively minimal
elements of four competing worldviews in their own worldview, while three other worldviews are more
substantially represented in the syncretistic views of those parents.
At least six out of 10 parents reflect very limited advocacy of the ideals found in Nihilism, Marxism,
Postmodernism, and Secular Humanism. The parents of pre-teens are much more likely to harbor
ideas drawn from Eastern Mysticism/New Age thinking, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, and Biblical
Theism (i.e., the biblical worldview).
CRC’s American Worldview Inventory 2021 was the first national research study to measure both
biblical and competing worldviews held by American adults. More information about the beliefs of
these competing worldviews is available here.
American Worldview Inventory 2022: Dr. George Barna, Director of Research Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University Release Date: May 10, 2022