Religious service attendance at age 12 emerged as the top predictor of adult afterlife belief, especially in secular societies, while childhood adversity and maternal bonds also played subtle roles.
Study: Childhood predictors of belief in life after death across 22 countries. Image Credit: NeoLeo / Shutterstock
Is belief in the afterlife a product of faith or childhood experiences? A recent global study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, revealed that the experiences we have in our early years, from religious practices to family bonds, can shape our spiritual views in adulthood. The researchers explored childhood experiences to understand why people believe in life after death.
Is there an afterlife?
Belief in life after death is one of humanity’s oldest and most widespread spiritual ideas. Most major religions, from Christianity to Hinduism, share the notion that life continues beyond death in some form. These beliefs offer more than spiritual comfort; they are linked to mental and emotional well-being. People who believe in an afterlife often report lower anxiety about death, less despair after losing loved ones, and stronger feelings of peace and purpose.
However, much of the current research on beliefs about the afterlife originates from Western societies, making it challenging to understand how these beliefs evolve globally. Gender and age also seem to play a role, with women and older adults often having stronger afterlife beliefs in some contexts. But it’s unclear how these patterns hold across diverse cultural contexts, and the paper notes significant variations.
Researchers also know that religion shapes afterlife beliefs, especially through practices like attending religious services. However, there's a lack of global research on how early-life experiences, such as family relationships, trauma, or childhood health, contribute to these beliefs in adulthood.
The current study
To explore the factors that shape belief in life after death, researchers used data from the first wave of the Global Flourishing Study, which surveyed over 202,000 adults across 22 countries. The goal was to examine whether 13 childhood factors, including family structure, religious exposure, and early-life experiences, were associated with belief in an afterlife during adulthood.
The researchers collected data between 2022 and 2023 across six continents to ensure broad geographic and cultural representation, and used self-reported answers from participants regarding their childhood experiences and current beliefs. The childhood factors included relationships with parents, religious attendance at age 12, abuse, health, financial conditions, and immigration status. The primary outcome variable was a binary response to the statement “I believe in life after death.”
Due to inconsistent measures across nations, additional variables, such as race/ethnicity and religious affiliation, were considered in country-specific models but excluded from the pooled meta-analysis. Moreover, to improve accuracy and transparency, all analytic methods were pre-registered, and the dataset is openly available through the Center for Open Science.
Major findings
The study found that several childhood experiences are linked to belief in life after death in adulthood, with religious attendance at age 12 emerging as the strongest and most consistent predictor. People who attended religious services at least once a week during childhood were significantly more likely to believe in an afterlife as adults.
Surprisingly, this effect was stronger in countries where regular religious attendance was less common, suggesting that participation in religious practices stands out more — and may have a greater influence — in more secular societies. In contrast, in highly religious countries, these practices may blend into the cultural norm and exert less individual impact.
Beyond religious attendance, other early experiences also showed important associations. Adults who had experienced abuse or felt like outsiders in their families during childhood were more likely to believe in an afterlife in the pooled analysis. These findings suggest that spiritual beliefs may sometimes emerge as a means of finding meaning or healing after experiencing childhood adversity. However, the study also highlighted significant cross-national variation for nearly all predictors; for instance, while abuse generally correlated with higher belief, it was linked to a lower likelihood in Kenya, and feeling like an outsider was linked to lower belief in the United States.
A strong maternal bond was weakly associated with afterlife belief in the overall results, while the father-child relationship, family income, and childhood health showed little consistent effect across all countries combined. Female participants were also more likely to report belief in an afterlife, especially in less religious countries. Age patterns were particularly mixed across regions; while the pooled results showed slightly higher belief among some middle-aged cohorts (compared to the youngest adults) and hinted at a possible inverted U-shape peaking in middle age and potentially declining after 60, country-specific results varied dramatically. Notably, older age was linked to higher belief in places such as Poland and Kenya, but was associated with lower belief in Japan and Sweden, indicating strong cultural or generational influences that are independent of religious attendance.
Although the study was comprehensive, it had some limitations. All childhood data were self-reported retrospectively, which could have introduced memory bias. Furthermore, possible influences, such as personality traits or cultural storytelling, were not measured but could have contributed to belief formation.
Despite these constraints, the findings offered the first large-scale, cross-national evidence that belief in an afterlife is shaped not only by religion but also by emotional, familial, and cultural experiences during childhood, while underscoring considerable differences in how these factors operate across diverse societies. This has meaningful implications for how societies understand faith, resilience, and the long-term effects of childhood experiences on adult worldviews.
Conclusions
Overall, the study revealed that belief in an afterlife is shaped by factors beyond religion, it is also influenced by childhood relationships, gender, and early adversity, although the impact of these factors varies significantly across countries. However, religious service attendance during youth was the most consistent predictor globally. These findings underscore the enduring influence of childhood experiences on adult spiritual beliefs, providing new insights into how early environments shape human perspectives on mortality across diverse cultural contexts.