Religious Socialization and Non-Religious Volunteering: A Dutch Panel Study

Abstract

Despite the fact that churches are still important sources of social capital in the Netherlands, the ongoing secularization of Dutch society has as yet not resulted in a drop of non-religious volunteering. In order to account for this apparent paradox, panel data are used to test the hypothesis that non-religious volunteering is in part an aftereffect of the religious socialization today’s volunteers enjoyed as youths. The following research question is addressed: To what extent does a religious socialization in Christian families during adolescence, independent of individual and collective religious characteristics, determine non-religious volunteering later in life? Results show that collective religious characteristics, i.e. being active in a religious community and religious affiliation, are the most important determinants in this respect. However, next to the effects of these collective aspects, also an independent effect of a religious socialization on non-religious volunteering is found. Especially a religious socialization which is not too strict was found to be influential on adult non-religious volunteering.