Religious Children show up as less altruistic: but why?

I found myself very intrigued by this report of research. Partly because it sems to contrast markedly with a lot of research which indicates that te pattern is reversed in adults who tend to show up as having greater altruism and empathy where religion or spirituality is positively involved in their lives.

Family religious identification decreases children’s altruistic

behaviors.Religiousness predicts parent-reported child sensitivity to

injustices and empathy.Children from religious households are harsher in their punitive tendencies

The best explanation by way of working hypothesis to bridge the gap might be to investigate how far it might be to do with children growing into their faith and negotiating identity. Also the forms of religiousness in the background might need closer investigation and by contrast the social and political views of the groups involved: I'm wondering how far 'religion' in parents correlates to socially conservative expressions of faith to. What if we controlled for social attitudes and then investigated whether that correlated. Would socially conservative and non-religious be different to their religious counterparts? Would socially 'liberal' non-religious be different to theirs?
Once we know things like that, we might be able to assess more helpfully.


The Negative Association between Religiousness and Children's Altruism across the World - S0960-9822(15)01167-7.pdf: Family religious identification decreases children’s altruistic
behaviors