Boys from working-class families who grow up religious are defying the trends that see their non-religious male counterparts fall behind in society.

That’s according to Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz, an assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology at Tulane University and the author of “God, Grades, and Graduation.”

Writing in the New York Times, she reveals the results of her research on the relationship between teenagers’ religious upbringing and its influence on their education: their school grades, which colleges they attend and how much higher education they complete.

Interestingly, she found that what religion offers teenagers varies by social class because of religion’s pro-natal beliefs.

“Those raised by professional-class parents, for example, do not experience much in the way of an educational advantage from being religious. In some ways, religion even constrains teenagers’ educational opportunities (especially girls’) by shaping their academic ambitions after graduation; they are less likely to consider a selective college as they prioritize life goals such as parenthood, altruism and service to God rather than a prestigious career”.

“However, teenage boys from working-class families, regardless of race, who were regularly involved in their church and strongly believed in God were twice as likely to earn bachelor’s degrees as moderately religious or nonreligious boys”, she writes.