While research in the United States reveals favorable associations between religiosity and well-being during childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, whether childhood religiosity improves flourishing among U.S. adults remains unclear. Following a life-course approach, we examine whether childhood religiosity, measured in terms of the importance of religion growing up, associates with improved midlife flourishing. Drawing on national longitudinal data from the United States (1995–2014 MIDUS study), we find significant and large associations between childhood religiosity and midlife flourishing, measured in terms of overall and domain-specific flourishing. Its effect size was on par with key demographic predictors. However, in line with the deeply interlinked nature of family and religion, childhood religiosity was linked to midlife flourishing only in the presence of a favorable mother–child relationship growing up. Men raised in religious homes with high maternal warmth reported nearly three-quarters of a standard deviation higher flourishing than those with low maternal warmth. Further analysis confirmed that this combination of religion and family among men in particular increases the odds of adult religiosity, as men seem more susceptible to “losing their religion” when experiencing strained maternal relationships. Analysis of 20-year follow-up data collected in 2005 and 2014 finds continued associations between childhood religiosity and later-life flourishing, suggesting a beneficial trajectory carrying into old age. Overall, we conclude that any robust effects of religion on well-being across the life course are likely to be interwoven with family, gender, and other social institutions, perhaps tracing in part to the distinctive, personalized culture of American religion.

尽管美国的研究表明，儿童期，青春期或成年期的宗教信仰与幸福感之间存在良好的联系，但尚不清楚美国成年人口的儿童时期宗教信仰是否能得到改善。遵循人生过程的方法，我们检查以宗教成长的重要性衡量的儿童宗教信仰是否与改善中年繁荣有关。利用美国的国家纵向数据（1995-2014年MIDUS研究），我们发现儿童宗教信仰与中年繁荣之间存在着显着且巨大的联系，以总体和特定领域的繁荣来衡量。其影响大小与主要人口预测指标相当。但是，鉴于家庭与宗教之间的深层联系，只有在良好的母子关系不断发展的情况下，儿童的宗教信仰才与中年繁荣联系在一起。据报道，在产妇温暖度较高的宗教家庭中养育的男人，与那些产妇温暖度较低的人相比，蓬勃发展的标准差接近四分之三。进一步的分析证实，男性中宗教和家庭的这种结合尤其增加了成人宗教信仰的可能性，因为男性在经历紧张的母性关系时似乎更容易“失去宗教信仰”。对2005年和2014年收集的20年随访数据的分析发现，儿童的宗教信仰与晚年的繁荣之间存在持续的联系，这表明进入老年人的有益轨迹。总体，