Does God Comfort You When You Are Sad? Religious Diversity in Children’s Attribution of Positive and Negative Traits to God

Children actively construct their understanding of God in early childhood, an that incorporates affect-laden mental representations often referred to as images. To explore religious variations children’s association positive and negative traits God, 254 preschool-aged children from Protestant Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Non-Affiliated backgrounds indicated certainty scares them, punishes is angry at loves comforts helps people. Parents the frequency engagement. Older were more certain than younger did not scare or punish them loved comforted helped Moreover, affiliation differences emerged attribution both positively negatively valenced properties frequent engagement was related a higher degree loves, comforts, helps, becomes angry, but unrelated punishes. The findings suggest plays important role developing image.