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The Attitudes of Buddhist teenagers from 'broken' families in Britain

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Phra Nicholas Thanissaro

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The Attitudes of Buddhist teenagers from
‘broken’ families in Britain
presented at the Nordic Conference on Religious Education, NTNU Trondheim, Norway, 11 June 2019.
by Phra Nicholas Thanissaro, Associate Fellow
WRERU, Centre for Education Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Abstract
This presentation explores the attitudes, religiosity, self-esteem
and Psychological Type Buddhist teens in Britain have
experienced in correspondence with going through a parental
divorce. A quantitative study compared attitudes of teens with
divorced parents with those from intact families. A variety of
attitude statements concerning school, RE, family, friends and
religion were rated for levels of agreement by 413 self-identifying
Buddhists aged between 13 and 20. Buddhists were found to
have an average divorce rate lower (31%) than the average
divorce rate in Britain (42%), although divorce rate for
Buddhists from heritage families was much lower (18%) and
for converts higher (51%) than the average. Buddhists from
‘broken’ families were generally less positive in their attitudes
towards school & authority and had lower self-esteem. Any
upside of divorce came in the form of motivation to ordain (for
late teens), more sense of empowerment to solve problems in the
world, increased spirituality and less reliance on the internet
and TV. Divorce in Buddhists did not damage affective religiosity
or attitude to RE, even for low income families, but changed the
manner of religious engagement from the Psychological Type
preference of Judging (J) to Perceiving (P) – which is reflected
in certain attitudes to authority and morality. This is different
from findings in Christianity where disillusionment with church
followed divorce. The paper reflects how RE teachers might
rekindle interest in religion for teens left disillusioned by divorce
and to leverage adversity to stimulate them to become more
spiritually reflexive and mature.
Correspondence: 865 E. Monrovia Pl, Azusa CA 91702, USA
Email: p.thanissaro@warwick.ac.uk.
-1-
G rowing up in a family with a stable marriage brings many advantages that
contribute to a child’s subjective wellbeing including a predictable income,
presence of a father, parents blessed with mental and physical health, quality
parenting and extended family (Ribar, 2015). By contrast, insecurity arising from divorce
has been observed to damage childrens’ school exam performance (ComRes, 2014),
cause higher levels of fear and preoccupation, diminished subjective wellbeing and
self-esteem (Amato, 2010), and impeded ability later in adulthood to trust others (Bartell,
2013, 342-3). Social psychologists have theorized that the impact of divorce on
adolescents and teenagers can be explained by insecure attachment to their parents or
guardians (Feeney and Monin, 2016, 950).
Mitigation of the´ negative impact of divorce is connected with several variables
.
such as children not blaming themselves for the parents’ breakup, divorce taking
place in adolescence rather then in early childhood (Pickhardt, 2011), living in a country
with stronger family ties (Kalmijn, 2010), being in a lower-income family (Ryan et al.,
2015), lower levels of parental distress and co-parent conflict, more structured parenting
(Stallman and Ohan, 2016) and availability of the father after the separation (especially
for male children)(Kalmijn, 2015).
On the subject of religion and divorce generally, growing up in a single-parent family
corresponds with religious disassociation and changing religion and is negatively
associated with religious attendance (Uecker and Ellison, 2012). The passing on of
religious values from parents to children has been found to be hindered if those
parents have been through a divorce (Max et al., 1997).
Buddhism as a religion is fairly casual about marriage (as it is not considered to be
a sacred ceremony)(Morgan and Lawton, 2007, 76), but advocates faithfulness of the
partners within a marriage. Divorce is allowed in Buddhism (Harvey, 2000, 195), but is
considered undesirable, especially when there are children of an impressionable age
still living at home (Dhammakaya Foundation, 2007, 174) since it is seen as symptomatic
of selfishness or lack of loving kindness (Dhammakaya Foundation, 2008, 18, 32). The
availability of divorce may depend on any Buddhist denomination’s degree of patriarchy
(Harvey, 2000, 404). For Buddhists living in the West, divorce may be relatively
accessible and while the percentages of cohabitation and marriage for Buddhists in
Britain did not show great differences between the periods 1983-1995 and 1996-2005,
the divorce rate for Buddhists almost doubled (Francis et al., 2011). Since Buddhists
are a tiny minority of pupils in western schools, achieving a representative sample has
left the impact of divorce in this community under-researched. To redress this gap,
this quantitative study set out to compare attitudes, religiosity, self-esteem and
Psychological Type of Buddhist teens with divorced parents with those of teens from
intact families.
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Methodology
Sample
A variety of attitude statements concerning school, RE, family, friends and religion
were rated for levels of agreement by 413 self-identifying Buddhists aged between 13
and 20 attending Buddhist events in Britain or displaying an interest in Buddhist
keywords1 on their Facebook page. The sample consisted of 225 male (54%) and 192
females (46%) aged between 13 and 20 and had an ethnic composition of Asian (52%),
White (34%), Mixed (11%) Chinese (2%) and Black (1%) descent. In terms of the
temple institutions attended, to give some idea of the national Buddhist traditions
included, the sample could be said to include Sinhalese (23%), Thai (16%), Tibetan
(12%), Burmese (11%), Vietnamese (9%), Japanese (5%), Bangladeshi (3%), Western
(2%) Chinese (2%), Nepalese (2%) and Cambodian (1%). In this sample, of those for
2
whom religious style could be ascertained, 61% were heritage and 39% were convert.
Instrument
A composite questionnaire fielded general questions including ethnicity, age, religious
affiliation and denomination. This general section was followed by 161 Likert five-
point scale (strongly agree, agree, not certain, disagree, disagree strongly) questions
pertaining to Thanissaro’s (2016) 24-item scale of attitude towards Buddhism (TSAB-
R)[used here as the measure of affective religiosity], the Short scale of attitude towards
RE [ScAttRE-s](Thanissaro, 2012) and the 25-question Coopersmith Self-esteem
Inventory (Coopersmith, 1981). Also included were 5-point Likert scale Values Mapping
questions from values domains selected from a consensus of previous Youth Values
Surveys (Francis and Penny, 2013). The questions in this study attempted to quantify
the attitudes corresponding to having been though a divorce in Buddhist teens.
1
The keywords included the words: arhat (Buddhism), Buddhism, Buddhism Theravada, Buddhist,
Buddhist meditation, Burmese Buddhist temple, Dha
mmakaya meditation, Dhammakaya movement, Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana
Tradition, FWBO, Gautama Buddha, interbeing, Karma Kagyu, Mahayana, merit (Buddhism),
New Kadampa Tradition, Order of Interbeing, Samatha, Soka Gakkai International SGI, Theravada,
Theravada Buddhism, Theravada Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhism, Triratna Buddhist Community,
Vietnamese Family of Buddhism, Vipassana, Vipassana meditation, Zen, Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhism
in Bangladesh, Buddhahood, Diamond Way Buddhism, Buddha’s Dharma, Pure Land Buddhism,
Buddha’s Light International Association.
2
Not possible where ethnicity was ‘mixed’
-3-
Procedure
Surveys were distributed in the period 2013-14. In some participating temples,
gatekeeper monks or staff handled survey distribution on the researcher’s behalf. For
most temples, however, the researcher had to visit in person and was given permission
by monks or staff to present the research project at Buddhist youth events. Surveys
were completed in the participants’ own time and for those unable to complete them
immediately, a stamped addressed envelope was provided to facilitate return. For the
online version, a Qualtrics web-based survey was hosted on the St Mary’s Centre
website.3 Teenagers were directed to this survey by clicking sidebar advertising banners
that appeared on their Facebook page if they belonged to a Buddhist interest group.
The online sample was limited to those both resident in the UK and falling within the
target age-group. The resulting dataset was analyzed by means of cross-tabulation
and independent samples t-test routines from the SPSS statistical package (SPSS Inc.,
1988).
Results
Attitudes: All Buddhists
Buddhists were found to have an average divorce rate lower (31%) than the average
divorce rate in Britain (42%). As shown in Table 1, it was found that teens that came
from families that had experienced a divorce were more likely to agree that school was
boring and to describe themselves as a spiritual person, to be less likely to socialize
with friends of the same sex, identify themselves as a religious (rather than spiritual)
person, be less addicted to TV, feel more sympathetic towards the unemployed, think
it less wrong to smoke cigarettes and have less respect for those in authority.
3
www.st-marys-centre.org.uk
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Attitudes: sex differences
As might be expected there was not much difference between divorce rate for male
Buddhist teens (29%) and female Buddhist teens (34%). As shown in Table 2, it was
found that male Buddhist teens that had experienced a divorce in particular, were less
likely to agree that the police did a good job and to think drunkenness to be wrong.
Attitudes: age differences
As might be expected there was not much difference between divorce rate for Buddhists
in their early teens (31%) and Buddhists in their late teens (32%). As shown in Table 3,
it was found that late Buddhist teens that came from families that had experienced a
divorce in particular, were more likely to seriously consider becoming a monk or nun
but less likely to be addicted to internet access.
Attitudes: Religious style
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The divorce rate was 2½ times higher for convert Buddhist families (51%) than it was
for heritage Buddhist families (18%). As shown in Table 4, it was found that teens that
came from heritage Buddhist families that had experienced a divorce in particular, were
less likely to agree that they could do nothing to help solve the world’s problems,
avoid signing a petition or buy things they had seen advertised on TV. Teens that
came from convert Buddhist families that had experienced a divorce in particular, were
less likely to agree that Buddhists should avoid drinking alcohol.
Attitudes toward Buddhism and Religious Education
In contrast to the findings of research for non-Buddhist children involved in divorce,
attitude by Buddhists teens toward their religion4 and toward Religious Education5 in
general showed no difference between divorced and non-divorced groups. Even when
comparing attitude toward Buddhism in high-6 and low-income7 families and attitude
toward Religious Education in high-8 and low-income9 families, divorce was not found
to cause any significant impact.
Self-esteem
In keeping with the findings of research for non-Buddhist children involved in divorce,
the self-esteem of by Buddhists teens from families that had experienced divorce was
significantly lower than for Buddhist teens from intact families.10 When comparing the
effect of divorce on self-esteem for different socio-economic classes divorce had a
significant detrimental effect on self-esteem only for high-income families11 but for
low-income families, divorce was not found to cause any significant impact on self-
esteem.12
4
Mnot_divorced= 96.44, S.D. = 12.75 Mdivorced= 95.70, S.D. = 14.24, t[221] = 0.498, NS.
5
Mnot_divorced= 24.22, S.D. = 4.85, Mdivorced= 24.15, S.D. = 5.10, t[405] = 0.150, NS.
6
Mnot_divorced= 96.80, S.D. = 11.34, Mdivorced= 92.72, S.D. = 15.09, t[146] = 0.596, NS.
7
Mnot_divorced= 96.66, S.D. = 12.90, Mdivorced= 98.81, S.D. = 11.52, t[183] = -0.911, NS.
8
Mnot_divorced= 24.00, S.D. = 4.91, Mdivorced= 23.51, S.D. = 5.47, t[146] = -1.107, NS.
9
Mnot_divorced= 24.86, S.D. = 4.98, Mdivorced= 25.55, S.D. = 4.55, t[183] = 1.797, NS.
10
Mnot_divorced= 15.94, S.D. = 5.08, Mdivorced= 14.13, S.D. = 5.41, t[323] = 2.809, p<.01.
11
Mnot_divorced= 17.52, S.D. = 4.19, Mdivorced= 15.48, S.D. = 4.70, t[119] = 2.168, p<.05.
12
Mnot_divorced= 15.28, S.D. = 5.23, Mdivorced= 13.75, S.D. = 5.71, t[148] = 1.534, NS.
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 tendency towards spiritual rather than religious identification. It has previously been
Psychological Type observed that breakup may be painful, but that kids adapt well over time – that is, that
children have a degree of flexibility (Arkowitz and Lilienfeld, 2013). For Buddhists too,
there was a particularly high degree of resilience to the experience of divorce. Although
divorce impacted Buddhist self-esteem (more for high income families than low impact
families), it did not impact affective religiosity (as measured by TSAB-R) or attitude to
Religious Education (as measured by ScAttRE-s).
Any upside of divorce for Buddhists came in the form of motivation to ordain (for
late teens), feeling more empowered to change the world, increased spirituality and
less reliance on the internet and TV. Since interest in RE does not seem to suffer from
being through divorce, it can be inferred that RE teachers may have a particularly
positive role I helping teens left disillusioned by divorce and to leverage adversity to
stimulate them to become more spiritually reflexive and mature. Divorce in Buddhists
did not damage affective religiosity or attitude to RE, even for low income families, but
changed the manner of engagement from a Psychological Type Judging preference to

As shown in Figure 1, as compared with Buddhists that came from intact families, a Perceiving preference – which is reflected in diminished affinity for authority and

those who came from a family that had experienced a divorce had significantly higher moralizing. This is different from findings in Christianity where disillusionment with

percentages of Introversion [I](over 1½x), Intuition [N](over 11/3x) and over 1¾x with church followed divorce. Buddhism appears to be able to accommodate for more non-

Dominant Intuition [Dt.N] and the NT dichotomies, over twice as many with the IP and authoritative modes of religiosity, such as encouraging improvisation and self-reliance

IN dichotomies, 1½x with the IJ, IT and IF dichotomies. In terms of complete types, – and awareness of this potential may help educational stakeholders, RE teachers and

Buddhist teens who had experienced a divorce also had higher percentages of the Buddhist clergy to avoid misinterpreting ‘acting out’ as a failure of religiosity in the

INTJ (over 3x), INTP (over 8x) types and the I-TP (over 4x) and IN-J Jungian Types case of Buddhist teens who have been through divorce.

(over 2x). Apart from becoming more inward looking and less traditional, it would References

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................................................................................................................. Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Revd. Canon Prof. Leslie J. Francis
^ University) for
(University of Warwick) and Dr. Mandy Robbins (Glyndwr
.................................................................................................................
supervision of this research.

................................................................................................................. The Author

.................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................
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Phra Nicholas Thanissaro is an Associate Fellow of Warwick Religions
and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick’s Centre for
Education Studies. He is currently a visiting scholar teaching Buddhism
at Claremont School of Theology, California and finalizing his book The
Intuitive Buddhist for publication with Peter Lang. A Buddhist monk affiliated
with the Dhammakâya Foundation, he is also a qualified school teacher
and MBTI practitioner.

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