2011/06/01 by Brandon Vaidyanathan · 50 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Attendance #Biology #Church attendance #Demographic economics #Demography #Developmental psychology #Differential (mechanical device) #Differential effects #Economics #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving #Political science #Psychology #Religion and Society Interactions #Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology #Religiosity #Religious identity #Social psychology #Socialization #Sociology #Survey data collection
paper · open access · doi:10.1111/j.1468-5906.2011.01573.x
published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 50(2), 366-387 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2011/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The transition from adolescence into emerging adulthood is usually accompanied by a decline in religious participation. This article examines why such decline occurs at different rates across major Christian traditions and whether this variation can be explained by early socialization factors. Using data from waves 1 and 3 of the National Study of Youth and Religion (N = 1,879), I examine the effects of parental religiosity, church support, religious education, and youth group involvement on the decline in attendance five years later. Results show that these socialization processes adequately explain why attendance declines at different rates across religious traditions. However, these socialization factors do not have the same effect across traditions and often yield differential returns for attendance outcomes. These findings also suggest that comparisons across religious traditions can resolve the “channeling hypothesis” debate about whether parental influence on an offspring's future religiosity is primarily direct or indirect.