Measuring Intergenerational Religious Behavior Patterns: A Comment on Alternative Representational Strategies

Abstract

Despite a sizable amount of data on and conceptualization about intergenerational relationships, theoretical refinement remains to be realized and data remain somewhat disparate. Increments in the sociology of religion where intergenerational patterns are concerned will depend in part on theories sufficiently comprehensive to interpret and explain the complex empirical patterns obtained in research. However, clear understanding and careful development of measurement strategies to represent intergenerational religious phenomena are also needed, and these latter topics are the concern of this paper. The argument is made that some of the theoretical and empirical confusion may result from a lack of clarity over the exact empirical status of the data provided in measurement. Four representational theories suitable for measuring religious behavior are compared to ascertain the nature of the data that are generated in the respective measurement options: viz., structuralism, ethnoscience, phenomenology, and psychometric theory. Some implications of these comparisons are drawn for the study of intergenerational relationships in religious behavior. The literature and research commenting on and documenting patterns of intergenerational relationships are now massive. There are studies of sex practices and attitudes (e.g., Reiss, 1967) and of political practices and attitudes (e.g., Hess and Torney, 1967; Flacks, 1967; Braungart, 1971; Langton, 1969; Jennings and Niemi, 1968). Too, there are several intergenerational studies on mobility and educational aspirations (e.g., Kandel and Lesser, 1969; Sandis, 1970; Furstenberg, 1971). There are some integenerational studies, though relatively few, in the area of religion (e.g., Stark and Glock, 1968; Tomasson, 1968, 1968; Strommen et al., 1972; Braun and Bengtson, 1972;