The Three-Generations Hypothesis

Abstract

Herberg maintains that the children of immigrants weakened their religious ties while the grandchildren of immigrants exhibit greater religious participation. Lenski, in Detroit, however, found increasing church attendance associated with increasing Americanization for Protestants and Catholics. National sample survey data on Protestants and Catholics support Lenski's Detroit findings. However, when Protestants and Catholics are subdivided by sex and the children-of-immigrants category is confined to people both of whose parents were foreign-born, it is found that (1) Protestants of both sexes show an increasing frequency of church attendance with more generations in the United States; (2) among Catholic men who are children of immigrants church attendance drops; (3) Catholic women show no meaningful changes in church attendance for the various generations. It is thought that these Protestant-Catholic differences stem from the secular orientation of Protestant immigrants.