The Religious Time Bind: U. S. Work Hours and Religion

Abstract

This article assesses the degree to which couples' joint employment patterns affect their religious participation, examining in particular the social status and time scarcity hypotheses. The social status hypothesis views religious participation as linked with position in the community and as a form of "conspicuous consumption" (Veblen 1899) or status display (Demerath 1961; Hertel 1988). This social status hypothesis suggests that individuals with higher status have greater involvement in religious activities, thus higher income and higher education predict higher participation. In contrast, the time scarcity hypothesis suggests that as people allocate more of their time to market work, they may reduce the amount of time invested in nonmarket activities including religion (de Vaus 1984; Hertel 1995). For instance Iannaccone (1990) shows that higher income individuals engage in input substitution by giving more money to religious organizations but attending services less. This time scarcity hypothesis has been used to explain the gender difference in attendance (Azzi and Ehrenberg 1975; Becker and Hof meister 2001). In addition the time scarcity hypothesis is particularly useful in understanding couples* attendance and participation patterns (Hofmeister and Edgell 2003).