New Research: Mom, Dad, Jesus or AI? Who Teens Turn to for Advice

Seven in 10 teens (70%) feel pressure to answer the question of who they really are. When they need advice on it, the people they say they’d feel most comfortable asking are still at home: mom (84%) and dad (78%), ahead of friends (75%), teachers (67%) and AI (35%), according to new data from Reimagining Ministry for Gen Alpha, a report from Barna produced in partnership with Christ In Youth.

Mom and Dad Still Lead

Beyond parents, teens draw guidance from a recognizable circle: close friends (75%), adult mentors (67%) and teachers (67%). More than two-thirds say they’re comfortable getting wisdom from Jesus (68%) and the Bible (66%), a stronger showing for faith sources than many leaders might expect. Roughly half turn to a pastor (56%) or youth pastor (51%). Online sources trail well behind: YouTube (39%), social media (35%) and AI (35%) all rank below every personal relationship on the list.

For Faith-Activated Teens, Faith Sources Rank With Family

Faith-Activated teens—the most spiritually engaged segment of 13- to 18-year-olds that Barna surveyed—look first to their moms too (80%). But rather than reaching for dad or friends next, they turn almost equally to Jesus (78%) and the Bible (78%), with youth pastors trailing behind slightly (71%). These teens are placing faith sources on par with their closest human relationships. 

Overall, roughly three-quarters of Faith-Activated teens feel comfortable with nearly every source Barna asked about, suggesting a broadly open posture toward guidance. Social media is the one exception, but even there, nearly three in five Faith-Activated teens (59%) say they’d feel comfortable getting advice from it, 24 percentage points higher than all U.S. teens (35%).

Faith-Activated Teens Are Far More Open to AI

AI ranks near the bottom of teens’ advice sources overall (35%), but a separate set of questions shows Faith-Activated teens trust it at much higher rates than their peers. Almost half of Faith-Activated teens (49%) strongly agree they trust technology and AI to give them helpful information, compared to 29 percent of all teens. Another 46 percent strongly agree AI feels like a safe place to ask questions they wouldn’t ask out loud, versus 28 percent of all teens. And 45 percent say they’d rather ask a digital tool than a person when they’re unsure about something, compared to 26 percent of all teens. Across all four measures in the chart, Faith-Activated teens score 14 to 20 percentage points higher than all teens.

“When students are questioning who they are, they’re going to go somewhere,” says Richard Hamilton, a youth pastor at Castle Hills Christian Church. “Our job is to make sure a trusted adult, not an algorithm, is in that space.”

This connects to a related pattern in the same research: teen boys, who attend youth group at higher rates than teen girls, also report absorbing more identity-shaping influence from YouTube, gaming and AI than girls do, in exactly the spaces where adult oversight tends to be lowest.

Parents Remain the Most Trusted Voice

Barna’s researchers point to a practical implication in the data: parents remain the most trusted voice in a teen’s life by a wide margin, and the youth ministries best positioned to shape the next generation may be the ones that equip parents to keep discipling their teens at home, rather than treating that influence as competition.

“Students are listening more than it seems,” says youth ministry leader, Deborah Spooner. “Students show at youth group how much they love their parents in ways their parents never see or hear.”

The data on who teens trust doesn’t point to a single source. Teens consult many voices, but family still comes first. For youth leaders, that makes parents the place to start.

To learn more about how to help your teens integrate their faith with everyday life, grab your copy of Reimagining Ministry for Gen Alpha.