"What else could we have done?" Parents' experiences of their children's church disaffiliation in four Dutch conservative Reformed congregations

There is ample research available about church disaffiliation among millennials, but no study has addressed their parents' experiences: how it affects them, and what they see as contributing factors. The central question of our qualitative study is how parents experience their children's church disaffiliation. This exploratory study used focus groups to determine how parents experienced their children's disaffiliation. Appraisal theory was used to interpret parents' emotions. A wide variety of emotions were expressed, with disappointment and guilt prevailing. Overall, the study showed that most parents experienced their child's church disaffiliation as a parental failure and that their faith was problematised by it.