“What else could we have done?”
-
Anja Moesker
,
Bram de de Muynck
and
Ronelle Sonnenberg
Abstract
There is ample research available about church disaffiliation among millennials, but no study has addressed their parents’ experiences: how it affects them, and what they see as contributing factors. The central question of our qualitative study is how parents experience their children’s church disaffiliation. This exploratory study used focus groups to determine how parents experienced their children’s disaffiliation. Appraisal theory was used to interpret parents’ emotions. A wide variety of emotions were expressed, with disappointment and guilt prevailing. Overall, the study showed that most parents experienced their child’s church disaffiliation as a parental failure and that their faith was problematised by it.
Zusammenfassung
Es gibt zahlreiche Untersuchungen über den Kirchenaustritt von Millennials, aber keine Studie hat sich bislang mit den Erfahrungen ihrer Eltern befasst: wie sie davon betroffen sind und welche Faktoren sie dafür verantwortlich sehen. Die Kernfrage dieser qualitativen Studie ist, wie Eltern den Kirchenaustritt ihrer Kinder erleben. In dieser explorativen Studie wurden Fokusgruppen eingesetzt, um herauszufinden, wie Eltern den Kirchenaustritt ihrer Kinder erleben. Zur Interpretation der Gefühle der Eltern wurde die Appraisal-Theorie herangezogen. Es wurde eine breite Palette von Emotionen zum Ausdruck gebracht, wobei Enttäuschung und Schuldgefühle überwogen. Insgesamt zeigte die Studie, dass die meisten Eltern den Kirchenaustritt ihres Kindes als ein elterliches Versagen erlebten und ihr Glaube dadurch problematisiert wurde.
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- International Report
- Pakikibaka at Pagsamba: Country Report on the State of Practical Theology in the Philippines
- Research Report
- Comprehensive Schools as the Frontier of Religious Education: Current Developments and Emerging Principles in Germany
- Research Articles
- Hope, Meaning, and the Goodness of Life on the Whole: A Trauma-Informed Eschatological Practical Theology
- Waiting, Witnessing, Embodying: A Trauma-informed Approach for Theological Qualitative Research
- Character of Protestant pastors: A focus group study
- “What else could we have done?”
- Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Findings on Scrupulosity Among Hong Kong Catholics and Protestants
- Faith in Flux: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Explore Religious Doubt in Adult Christians
- Pain as a Profound Mystery: Proposing Hopeful Anthropocene Pastoral Care and Counseling through Eschatological Self
- Book Reviews
- Manual Stetter, Die Konstitution der Toten. Eine Religionsethnografie der Bestattungspraxis, Leipzig (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) 2024, 323 pp., ISBN 978-3-374-07569-0, 98 €.
- Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience, Lanham (Lexington Books) 2024, 153 pp., ISBN 978-1-7936-3864-9, $39.99 USD.
- Philipp Öhlmann, Ignatius Swart, Birgit Weyel, Simangaliso Kumalo, Marie-Luise Frost (Eds.), Lived Religion and Lived Development in Contemporary Society. Essays in Honour of Wilhelm Gräb. Research in Contemporary Religion (RCR), Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2024, 511 pp., ISBN 978-3-525-50071-2, 99 €.
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- International Report
- Pakikibaka at Pagsamba: Country Report on the State of Practical Theology in the Philippines
- Research Report
- Comprehensive Schools as the Frontier of Religious Education: Current Developments and Emerging Principles in Germany
- Research Articles
- Hope, Meaning, and the Goodness of Life on the Whole: A Trauma-Informed Eschatological Practical Theology
- Waiting, Witnessing, Embodying: A Trauma-informed Approach for Theological Qualitative Research
- Character of Protestant pastors: A focus group study
- “What else could we have done?”
- Comparing Qualitative and Quantitative Research Findings on Scrupulosity Among Hong Kong Catholics and Protestants
- Faith in Flux: Using Transformative Learning Theory to Explore Religious Doubt in Adult Christians
- Pain as a Profound Mystery: Proposing Hopeful Anthropocene Pastoral Care and Counseling through Eschatological Self
- Book Reviews
- Manual Stetter, Die Konstitution der Toten. Eine Religionsethnografie der Bestattungspraxis, Leipzig (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt) 2024, 323 pp., ISBN 978-3-374-07569-0, 98 €.
- Phillis Isabella Sheppard, Tilling Sacred Grounds: Interiority, Black Women, and Religious Experience, Lanham (Lexington Books) 2024, 153 pp., ISBN 978-1-7936-3864-9, $39.99 USD.
- Philipp Öhlmann, Ignatius Swart, Birgit Weyel, Simangaliso Kumalo, Marie-Luise Frost (Eds.), Lived Religion and Lived Development in Contemporary Society. Essays in Honour of Wilhelm Gräb. Research in Contemporary Religion (RCR), Göttingen (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2024, 511 pp., ISBN 978-3-525-50071-2, 99 €.
