Religious Trends Among College Students, 1948-79

Abstract

Identical surveys of Williams College men in 1948, 1967, 1974, and 1979 asked about religious beliefs and behavior. The trend from 1948 to 1967 was one of liberalization and disengagement from church life; from 1967 to 1974 there was little change;from 1974 to 1979 there was a slight shift toward conservative beliefs and greater church participation. Apparently a lowpoint in traditional religiosity occurred on many campuses in about 1972-75. The percentage of students reporting that they had once reacted against the beliefs taught them increased from 1948 to 1974 but not thereafter; the median age of the reaction fell two years from 1948 to 1974, but it did not change to 1979. The hypothesis that church rejection by some students is a part of a general rejection of institutions found little support. Of all population groups, none is more sensitive to shifts in the cultural climate than college students. Past research shows that college students shift in attitudes from decade to decade or from half-decade to half-decade much more than does the total adult population (Hoge, b). This greater volatility of students seems to result from both their greater independence from institutional commitments and their greater proximity to intellectual life. Yankelovich argues that college students are a kind of forerunner group for cultural innovation generally, and that the basic pattern of cultural change in America is diffusion from college students to other young people, then to the total population. Thus college students are important to anyone attempting to understand religious change in America. A number of trend studies have been done on college students, spanning the past half-century. They have found a fall-rise-fall pattern in traditional religious commitment, with a high level *Financial support for this research came from the Spencer Foundation and from the Boys Town Center at Catholic University. ? 1981 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/81/020517-31$01.50