Catholic schools and attitudes toward religious diversity: An empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old students in Scotland

Abstract

Recognition that the United Kingdom has increasingly become a multi-cultural and multi-faith society has raised questions about the place of church schools or schools with a religious character within the state-maintained sector. The issue was given particular focus by the Runnymede Trusts report Right to divide? Faith schools and community cohesion published in 2008. In response to this challenge, the present study examines attitudes toward religious diversity among 1,012 students attending Catholic schools and 1,518 students attending schools without a religious foundation in Scotland (13- to 15-years of age). Employing a multilevel linear model to allow for the fact that students were nested within schools and after controlling for individual differences in personality and religiosity, the data demonstrated that students attending Catholic schools held a more positive attitude toward religious diversity, compared with students attending schools without a religious foundation.