Abstract
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.
Highlights
RELIGIOUS RESOURCES OR DIFFERENTIAL RETURNSDeclining religious service attendance during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood is a consistent finding across religious traditions (Petts 2009; Uecker, Regnerus, and Vaaler 2007; Willits and Crider 1989)
Model 1 estimates the effects of religious tradition without any controls and assesses how other traditions compare in attendance decline to Catholic
This study examines whether socialization agents and processes differ in significant ways across denominations and whether such differences during adolescence can explain denominational differences in attendance trends during emerging adulthood
Summary
Declining religious service attendance during the transition from adolescence into young adulthood is a consistent finding across religious traditions (Petts 2009; Uecker, Regnerus, and Vaaler 2007; Willits and Crider 1989). Research on religious socialization suggests that factors from earlier in the life-course—the influence of parents, church, religious education, and peer-groups—have important enduring effects on religiosity in young adulthood (e.g., Cornwall 1988; Himmelfarb 1979; Martin, White, and Perlman 2003). Such findings suggest that we need to consider proximate factors as well as long-term ones. While previous socialization studies examined single religious traditions and long-term factors, the present study will assess both the extent to which early factors can explain differences and compare these across religious traditions
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