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Catholic Guilt?
Well - at least among teens it doesn't exist.
There's a story in The News & Observer today about a study by a UNC-Chapel Hill researcher who found that Catholic teens feel no more guilt than anyone else despite cultural stereotypes. Now he's going to study Jewish guilt.
My daughter is being raised Catholic and I'm slightly disappointed. Guilt pretty much is why I followed most everything my parents said. Of course, I was raised Baptist. Maybe he should look at that.
What do you think?


Comments
intriguing article. Perhaps the "catholic guilt" will kick in after teenage years? I wonder if this trend is only true of current teens or if Catholic teens never felt any more guilt than others? Could be good news if your daughter develops internal control instead of guilt-driven external control over her behavior. More effective in the long run...
I have to say I’m not terribly impressed by this study (or at least the summary of it in this article). The results say that Catholic teens feel about the same amount of guilt as non-Catholics. Does this mean anything? Guilt is simply a feeling that you’ve done something wrong. Obviously different value-systems lead to different conclusions about what is wrong, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Catholic teens go against their own value-system about as often as other teens. He’s going to study Jewish guilt next? Maybe we’ll learn that Jewish teens aren’t that different either. Groundbreaking.