Impacts of parents' and guardians' trust in confessional schools on students’ perceived performance and spirituality

Purpose: This study analyzes the impacts of trust in the confessional institution of primary education on a students’ spirituality and performance and the moderating effect of the families' religion on the relationship between trust in the school and the student's spirituality as perceived by parents and guardians.

Design/methodology/approach: This study takes the form of a survey with 346 parents and guardians from a Brazilian Adventist education network. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling by SmarPLS 4 to analyze the data.

Findings: The results reveal that parents' and guardians' trust in the confessional institution of primary education positively influences their perception of students' spirituality, which, in turn, has a positive impact on their performance. In addition, the families’ religion does not strengthen the relationship between school trust and students’ spirituality. It does not matter to which religious group the family belongs – as their overall spiritual development that favors the students’ academic performance.

Originality/value: The research contributes to the literature on school management, individual spirituality and relationship marketing – particularly customer relationship management in schools, involving parents, guardians and students.