Parents who want to raise generous kids should model generosity, a new report from Barna Group suggests.

The survey of U.S. Christian adults asked respondents to rate their parents’ level of generosity as extremely generous; very generous; somewhat generous; or not very/not at all generous. The survey then asked: “How important is generosity to you?”

Respondents who said generosity was extremely or very important to them were most likely to report having extremely or very generous parents. On the other hand, people who placed little or no importance on generosity tended to rate their parents as less generous.

“But how do Christians actually become generous?” the report said. “Academic research has indicated that parental modeling is a major factor, and responses to this study appear to bolster those findings. Christians’ perceptions of their parents’ generosity during their childhood tend to correlate with how important generosity is to them as an adult.”