Abstract
This study integrates research in the civic community tradition and structuralist and individualist perspectives on poverty to assess the relationship between religious-based civic community structures and family poverty in the United States. Using multilevel analyses of 2006-2008 American Community Survey, 2000 Census of Population and Housing, and 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Survey data, results demonstrate that the presence of Mainline Protestant and Catholics adherents within communities - measured as the percentage of a community's population comprised of Mainline Protestant and Catholic adherents - is significantly and negatively associated with family poverty risks, net of other family and community factors. That is, in communities with a greater presence of Mainline Protestants and Catholics, there were also lower risks of families being in poverty. These findings suggest the importance of the ecology of religion within communities in understanding poverty outcomes for families.
Highlights
This study integrates research in the civic community tradition and structuralist and individualist perspectives on poverty to assess the relationship between religious-based civic community structures and family poverty in the United States
The primary research question guiding this analysis is: Above and beyond family-level factors and other macro-level considerations, how is the civic community religious environment within communities related to familylevel poverty? The civic community tradition suggests that the theological nature of Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism enhances the network structures of localities through civic engagement and bridging social capital
This study focuses on adherents belonging to those denominations that promote civic engagement and cultivate bridging social capital, as well as support the poor and social welfare: Mainline Protestantism and Catholicism
Summary
While much civic community research has explicated the association between religious-based civic community structures and family poverty at the macro-level (i.e., county-level), little has explored how this relationship operates across multiple levels of analysis.1 This caveat is of particular importance given recent poverty research that has identified the multilevel nature of poverty dynamics by jointly modeling macro- and microlevel factors on family-level poverty outcomes (Brady, Fullerton, and Cross 2009; Cotter 2002; Cotter, Hermsen, and Vannerman 2007; Poston et al 2010). Structuralist perspectives focus on macro-level characteristics that generate aggregate levels of poverty, such as community social structures and institutions or local labor market conditions
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