I'm sure that many Catholics have less-than-orthodox belief in the Real Presence. However, I'm sure that that has always been the case.
If you ask Catholics, "Is Jesus truly present in the Eucharist?", large majorities will answer in the affirmative.
If you ask Catholics precisely what that means, you'll receive a wide range of answers from the completely orthodox to the somewhat heterodox, even to the largely outlandish. Because Catholics have lost faith in the Real Presence? No. Because the Real Presence is one of the hardest mysteries of our faith to understand. Because they may have faith without a full intellectual understanding.
The studies you cite often confuse defective intellectual apprehension with lack of faith. Defective intellectual apprehension has nothing to do with how one receives the Eucharist. It is a result of the fact that the teaching is difficult to apprehend intellectually.
I've seen people receive very reverently in the hand, and irreverently on the tongue. And vice versa.
As to what is best for souls, well, my view is that it isn't dependent on the method of reception, but the effort that goes into teaching a child how to receive. I know that my not-always-terribly-orthodox Catholic high school used the occasion of the formal introduction of reception in the hand to thoroughly re-catechize us in the Real Presence. We were taught to adore our Lord in the Eucharist as we received.
That teaching stayed with me through dark days at the Catholic University of America where full professors of theology tried to dissuade us of the truth of the Real Presence. So, in my case, the introduction of reception in the hand was used by my religious teachers to deepen my understanding, appreciation, and love for Jesus present in the Eucharist.
I've tried hard to pass those lessons on to my own son, as this past winter, he received for the first time.
In the hand.
sitetest
Loss Of Faith In SacramentsA major component of many stories of clerical sexual abuse, which have come to light in recent weeks, is the abuse of the new rites of Baptism and Confession, with victims charging that they were abused during "reconciliation" or in the baptismal pool.
Allegations that the sacraments were used to abuse of unwitting and vulnerable children (and even adults) raise concerns that some postconciliar innovations provided opportunities for sexual predators.
Indeed, the July 7 edition of Our Sunday Visitor includes a report, "Clergy Re-Examine Confessional Design," which revisits the issue of personalized, face-to-face Confessions in "reconciliation rooms" — not only for penitents’ protection, but also for priests’.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/712880/posts
What you are doing -- what every father ought to do is correct. Teaching your children reverence, piety and the Catechism. But that education is also a duty of our Holy Mother the Church and the unfortunate reality today is that Her Liturgy, one of Her most important tools, is under assault. Have you seen the problems the ICEL has had translating the Mass? Has there even yet been one translation approved by Rome?