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Religious Resources or Differential Returns? Early Religious Socialization and Declining Attendance in Emerging Adulthood
Author(s) -
Vaidyanathan Brandon
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal for the scientific study of religion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.941
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1468-5906
pISSN - 0021-8294
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01573.x
Subject(s) - religiosity , socialization , church attendance , attendance , differential effects , demographic economics , differential (mechanical device) , religious identity , survey data collection , psychology , social psychology , developmental psychology , demography , sociology , political science , biology , economics , statistics , mathematics , engineering , aerospace engineering , law , endocrinology
The transition from adolescence into emerging adulthood is usually accompanied by a decline in religious participation. This article examines why such decline occurs at different rates across major Christian traditions and whether this variation can be explained by early socialization factors. Using data from waves 1 and 3 of the National Study of Youth and Religion (N = 1,879), I examine the effects of parental religiosity, church support, religious education, and youth group involvement on the decline in attendance five years later. Results show that these socialization processes adequately explain why attendance declines at different rates across religious traditions. However, these socialization factors do not have the same effect across traditions and often yield differential returns for attendance outcomes. These findings also suggest that comparisons across religious traditions can resolve the “channeling hypothesis” debate about whether parental influence on an offspring's future religiosity is primarily direct or indirect.