Still Soul Searching? Remapping Adolescent Religious Commitment

Abstract

Abstract Sociologists know very little about the religious lives of the current generation of American adolescents. This study provides an updated portrait of adolescent religious commitment and direct tests of religious change across cohorts by comparing data from the 2017–2018 National Survey of Moral Formation to the 2002–2003 National Study of Youth and Religion. There has been a significant growth in the percentage of adolescents who are not at all religious (by multiple measures). There has been a less substantial decline in the percentage of adolescents who are highly religious. Changes in religiosity have occurred across sociodemographic groups, though not always at the same rate, resulting in new patterns across gender, race, regional, and socioeconomic lines on some aspects of religiosity. Despite declines in religiosity, however, parental transmission of religion is similar to what it was in the previous generation. The decline in adolescent religiosity, notably, reflects a decline in parental religiosity.