Browsing by Subject "uskonnollisista yhteisöistä irtautuminen"

The purpose of this Master’s Thesis is to explore how disaffiliation from Conservative Laestadianism impacts parenthood. The first research examined how parents felt Conservative Laestadianism had influenced their parenthood and their parenting. The second research question studied the subjective implications of religious disaffiliation on parenthood and parenting. The originality and importance of this thesis derive from the fact that religious disaffiliation had not been previously researched from the particular viewpoint of parenthood. This qualitative research applied inductive content analysis on a corpus of ten autobiographical essays reflecting on their authors’ experiences about disaffiliation, parenthood and parenting. All authors had become parents while still belonging to the Conservative Laestadian movement and had subsequently left the movement. Experiences about conservative laestadian parenthood varied depending on the former degree of self-identification as a conservative laestadian. The very fact of having children as well as parenting decisions had been driven by an embraced religious worldview, obedience or compliance with experienced social pressure regardless of contradictory opinions. Parents felt that their life choices or parental choices had not been fully personal. All parents had given religious upbringing at least to some extent. Disaffiliation had been experienced as a lifestyle change for the leaving individual as well as for the whole family. Disaffiliation had been, depending on the cases, simultaneous, mutual decisions of both parents, non-simultaneous decisions of both parents, or unilateral decisions of one the parents. Situations where only one of the parents had left the movement complicated at least temporarily family life. Disaffiliation required in this case negotiation about parenting, with children often remaining under the influence of the Conservative Laestadian movement. Disaffiliation leads to the freedom of thinking independently as a parent and an educator. If compromises are found with the partner despite potential beliefs differences, disaffiliation can also lead to the freedom of acting as seen fit and to parenthood being experienced more personally. Attitudes towards religious upbringing after disaffiliation varied and parents valued respecting and taking into consideration their children’s own views.