"Children who change religions or reject their parents' religious beliefs and values may lose opportunities to engage in intimate communication with their parents," said lead study author Woosang Hwang, a doctoral candidate in human development and family science at Syracuse University. In the new study, the researchers focused on data from 635 of the survey participants who were young adults in 1971. In the 1971 survey, 31 percent of the young adult respondents said they had religious affiliations different from that of their mothers, and 32 percent had different affiliations from their fathers.