Mapping America (Religion) Paper

Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation
Author(s): Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Robert Faris and Mark Regnerus
Source: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 41, No. 4 (Dec., 2002), pp. 597-612
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Mapping American Adolescent
Religious Participation
CHRISTIANSMITH
MELINDALUNDQUISTDENTON
ROBERTFARIS
MARK REGNERUS
Sociologists know surprisinglylittle about the religious lives of adolescents in the United States. This article
begins to redress that unfortunatelack of knowledgeby examiningdescriptivefindings on adolescent religious
participationfrom three recent, reputablenational surveys of Americanyouth. Wepresent descr-iptivestatistics
on threefundamentalaspects of youth religiouspar-ticipation:religious affiliation,religious ser-viceattendance,
and involvementin churchyouthgroups. Wealso examinethe influencesof gender,race, age, and region on these
religious outcomes.This desc-iptive inquiryshould help to heightenbroade- understandingof and to lay down a
baseline of essential informationabout Americanadolescent religiousparticipation.Furtherresearchis needed
to investigatethe social influenceof differentkinds of religiosity on various outcomes in the lives of American
youth.
We know relativelylittle aboutthe religiouslives of Americanadolescents.The vast majority

of researchin the sociology of religion in the United States focuses on Americanadults,ages 18
andolder.And few scholarsof Americanadolescentsin otherfields pay close attentionto youth's
religious lives. As a result,our social scientificknowledge of the religious affiliations,practices,
beliefs, experiences,and attitudesof Americanyouth is impoverished.'
This is a problemfor many reasons. Americanadolescentsbetween the ages of 10-19 rep-
resent about 14 percentof all Americans(adolescentsages 10-24 represent21 percent),an age-
minoritypopulationdeservingscholarlyattentionas much as any othergroup.Indeed,American
adolescents may deserve extra scholarly attentionby sociologists of religion. Adolescence rep-
resents a crucial developmentaltransitionfrom childhood to adulthoodand so can disclose a
tremendousamount of knowledge about religious socialization and change in the life course.
Adolescents are a populationthat many religious organizations,both congregationsand para-
churchministries,particularlytargetin orderto exert influence in their lives. Adolescence and
young adulthoodis also the life stage when religious conversion is most likely to take place.
Adolescence furthermoreprovides a unique opportunityto study religious influences on family
relationshipsand dynamics,peer interactions,risk behaviors,and many otheroutcome variables.
Finally,adolescenceprovidesan ideal baseline stage for longitudinalresearchon religious influ-
ences in people's lives.
ChristianSmithis Professorand Associate Chair of Sociology at the Universityof North Carolina,ChapelHill, Depar-t-
ment of Sociology, CB 3210, Hamilton Hall, Universityof North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599. Email: cssmith@
email.unc.edu
Melinda LundquistDenton is a graduate student in the Departmentof Sociology at the Universityof Nor-thCarolina,
Chapel Hill, Departmentof Sociology, CB 3210, HamiltonHall, Universityof North Car^olina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599.
Email: mlund@email.unc.edu
Robert Fanis is a graduate student in the Departmentof Sociology at the Universityof North Ca-olina, Chapel Hill,
Departmentof Sociology, CB 3210, HamiltonHall, Universityof North Ca-olina, ChapelHill, NC 27599. Email:faris@
email.unc.edu
Mark Regnerus is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Universityof Texasat Austin,BurdineHall 336, Austin, TX
78712-1088. Email: regnerus@prc.texas.edu
for the ScientificStudyof Religion 41:4 (2002) 597-612

Jour^nal

598 JOURNALFOR THE SCIENTIFICSTUDY OF RELIGION
Gaining a solid understandingof the religion of Americanadolescentscan also enable so-

ciologists of religion to make useful contributionsto a variety of nonacademicaudiences for
whom our findings might have relevance. A series of high-profileevents-including multiple
school shootings and local epidemic outbreaksof sexually-transmitteddiseases among youth-
have heightenedbroad public concern about problems in youth culture.There appearsto be a
growingawarenessof andinterestin religious,spiritual,andmoralinfluencesin the lives of youth
among not only religious leaders, but also educators, social service providers,public policy-
makers,philanthropists,andjournalists.Unfortunately,althoughimpressionisticandjournalistic
workson youthreligion abound(for example,Lewis, Dodd, andTippens 1995; McAllister 1999;
Mahedy and Bernardi 1994; Zoba 1999; Beaudoin 1998; Rabey 2001) and a few suggestive
opinion-poll-basedstudies on Americanyouth religion exist (Gallup 1999; Barna 1997, 1999,
2001), sociologists of religion currentlyhave very little solidly dependable,nationallyrepresen-
tative,empiricalknowledgeaboutadolescentreligiosityto contributeto these public discussions.
Some good qualitativestudies of Americanyouth religion do make helpful contributionsto our
knowledge (for example, Lytch 2000; Flory and Miller 2000; Davis 2001; Myers 1991), yet
these are not designed to make nationally representativeclaims about the religious participa-
tion of American youth. Of the few good works on adolescent religiosity, most focus specifi-
cally on intergenerationalreligious transmission(Hoge, Petrillo, and Smith 1982; Ozorak 1989;
Parkerand Gaier 1980; Cornwall 1988; Erickson 1992; Keysar,Kosmin, and Scheckner2000).
In general,much of the existing social science literatureon youth and religion is simply out of
date.2
The problemis, to some degree, a simple lack of interestand attentionamong sociologists.
But the problemalso stems from failing to put useful religion questions on many good surveys
of youth, which typically understandand measurereligion in narrowand deficientterms. Of 18
of the best nationalsurveys of youth that we investigatedin our research,for example, fully 12
contain a mere threereligion questionsor less; only threehigh-quality,nationallyrepresentative
surveysof adolescentsincludesix or more questionsaboutreligion.3Moreover,it appearsthatno
studies have analyzed these few religion questions systematically-which is what we intend to
do here. Sociologists of religion who get involved in this researchneed to advise other scholars
in family and adolescenceon the importanceof measuringreligion well. We also need to conduct
our own surveysof adolescentreligion.
Meanwhile, however,we can move in the right direction in redressingour lack of knowl-
edge about youth religion by analyzing and compiling available survey data, as inadequate
in some respects as they may be, to provide a big-picture view of adolescent religious par-
ticipation. It is possible to scour reputable existing survey data on youth to learn
about some religious aspects of their lives. Even simple descriptivework can serve to heighten
broader understandingof and help lay down a baseline of essential information about
American adolescent religion. That is the goal of this article. Here we analyze existing data
from three recent, reputablenational surveys of American youth to present descriptive statis-
tics on three fundamentalaspects of youth religious participation:religious affiliation, reli-
gious service attendance, and involvement in church youth groups. We also examine the
influences of age, race, gender, and region on these religious outcomes, as the survey data
allow.
We believe thatsince our collective substantiveknowledgeof Americanyouth religion is so
thin, and since availabledata sets do containa greatdeal of interestingand importantdescriptive
informationon the religious participationof Americanadolescents, a purely descriptivearticle
mappingthe contoursand correlatesof youth religion using frequenciesand cross-tabsis more
thanwarranted.Having mappedthe religious terraindescriptivelyhere, we intendin subsequent
work to conduct multivariateanalyses to predictfactors explaining variancein youth religious
participation.But first, in this article,we concentrateon one of the crucial tasks of sociological
work:describingthe configurationsof (religious) social life.

MAPPINGAMERICANADOLESCENTRELIGIOUSPARTICIPATION 599
DATAAND METHODS
Ourfindingsare based on analyses of the following data sets.
Monitoring the Future, 1996
The Monitoringthe Future(MTF) survey is a nationallyrepresentativesurvey of American

high school students,administeredto 12th graderssince 1975, and to 8th and 10th graderssince
1991. Subsamples of students in each grade are administereddifferent versions of the ques-
tionnaire,while each covers the core areas of demographicinformationand drug use, as well
as questions on a range of other topics, including social life in school, academic achievement,
parentalinvolvement,political preferences,and religion. MTF uses a multistageareaprobability
sample design, with three selection stages: (1) geographicareas, as the primarysampling unit
(PSU); (2) schools within the PSU; and (3) studentswithin each sampledschool. MTF includes
80 PSUs, eight of which were selected with certainty;the remainingPSUs were selected with
probabilityproportionateto the size of the senior class, as were schools within each PSU. Typi-
cally, one school was selected from each PSU, althoughmultiple schools were drawnfor some
majormetropolitanareas.Foreach school, 400 studentswere randomlyselected;for schools with
less than400 studentsin a given grade,the entireclass is surveyed.The responseratefor schools
has rangedfrom 66 to 88 percentfor every survey year, and the studentresponse rate in 1996
was 83 percent. Total Ns for MTF surveys vary by year and grade. However, the N for 1996
12th gradersis 14,823; for 1996 10thgradersis 7,895; and for 1996 8th gradersis 9,167-class
samples were weighted in proportionto theirnationalrepresentation.By design, MTF datadoes
not include school drop-outsand home-schooled youth. The MTF survey includes two religion
questions on its core questionnaire:(1) "How often do you attendreligious services?"and (2)
"Whatis your religious preference?"(we are using up through 1996 MTF data here ratherthan
1999 data, because MTF surveys after 1996 did not ask subjects in the western region any of
these core religion questions).Demographicinformationincludes age, gender,race (to maintain
confidentiality,race is only coded for whites and AfricanAmericans;all otherraces are labeled
simply "other"),and geographicregion (following standardCensus divisions).
Survey of Adolescent Health, 1995
The NationalLongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health(Add Health)is a nationallyrepre-

sentative school-based study of adolescents focusing on the social context of healthy behavior.
Eighty eligible high schools-both public and private-were drawn from a national sampling
frame of high schools, drawnup by QualityEducationData. To be eligible for selection, a high
school needed to have an 11th grade and total enrollmentgreaterthan 30. The samplingdesign
ensuredrepresentativenessaccordingto geographicregion, urbanicity,school type, and school
size. Once the high schools were selected, one "feeder"middle school or juniorhigh school was
selected with probabilityproportionateto the studentbody it sent to the selected high school
in the past year. Because some high schools contain grades7 through 12, the numberof feeder
schools is smallerthanthe numberof high schools. Thereare a total of 132 schools in the survey.
The recruitmentrateof the originallysampledhigh schools was over 70 percent.The Add Health
survey was administeredin school, from the fall of 1994 to the spring of 1995, to all students
grades 7 to 12 presenton the surveydate, and was completedby more than90,000 students.An
equal numberof boys (49.5 percent)and girls (50.5 percent)completed the Add Health survey.
It is importantto note, however, that respondentswho answered"no religion" to the survey's
religious affiliationquestionwere not administeredsubsequentreligion questions;to be conser-
vative, we have coded these cases as the lowest categoryon otherreligionquestions,meaningthat
we no doubtunderestimatethe religiosity of Americanyouth on this survey (i.e., a "no religion"

respondentmay very well attenda religiousyouthgroup,but was nonethelesscoded in these data

as never having done so). Finally, note that by design, Add Health data do not include school
drop-outsand home-schooledyouth.
The Survey of Parents and Youth, 1998
The Survey of Parentsand Youth(SPY) was designed by PrincetonUniversity'sCenterfor

Researchon Child Wellbeing in conjunctionwith the National EvaluationTeam for the Urban
Health Initiativeat the Center for Health and Public Service at New York University Robert
F. WagnerGraduateSchool, and was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.SPY
was designed to monitor trends in youths' access to parentaland community resources. The
survey includes interviewswith parentsand youth. The youth survey generatedinformationon
parent-childrelationships,involvement in supervised activities, and outcomes such as health
status, educationalexpectations,and school achievement.The study, completed in 1998-1999,
was administeredas a random-digit-dialtelephone survey to a nationallyrepresentativesample
of youth ages 10-18; andto oversamplesof youthin five selected cities (Philadelphia,Baltimore,
Detroit, Oakland,Richmond,and Chicago). Parentswere screened and then interviewed,after
which the interviewersasked permissionto interviewthe youth. SPY did not provideincentives
for participation;it achieved an adult response rate of 89 percentand a parentconsent rate for
child interviewsof 74 percent. SPY was conductedin English, Spanish, or Chinese, and lasted
an averageof 30 minutes for youth, and 20 minutes for parents.Since we are interestedhere in
nationallyrepresentativestatistics, and not the urbanoversamples,we eliminatedthe latterand
only analyzedthe nationalsample of youth, providingfor analysis a weighted N of 743.
Forpurposesof this study,we have focused on Americanyouthin the standardteenageyears,

those between the ages of 13 and 18. All data are weighted to be nationallyrepresentative.To
provide the basic findings needed at this stage of a researchprogramon American youth and
religion,we haveprimarilyemployeddescriptivefrequenciesandcross-tabsfor analysis.We will
firstpresentthe descriptivefindingson ourthreemaindependentreligiousparticipationvariables.
Then we will turnto examine the effects of gender,race, age, and region on these variables.
RELIGIOUSAFFILIATION
Perhapsthe most basic task in mappingthe religious landscapeof Americanadolescents'

lives is to identify theirdistributionamong America'smany religious traditions.Figure 1, using
Add Health data, reveals the uneven distributionof youth's religious affiliationsin 1995. The
largest block of religious youth are Catholic, at 24 percent;followed closely by Baptists at 23
percent.Churchof Christ,Methodist,and otherProtestantgroupsfollow with small minoritiesof
the totalpopulation.4In 1995, 13 percentof Americanyouthclaimedto have no religion,roughly
proportionalto the size of nonreligious adults.5Adventist, Congregational,EasternOrthodox,
Muslim,ChristianScience, UnitedChurchof Christ,Hindu,Unitarian,Quaker,NationalBaptist,
and Baha'i each representedless than 1 percentof youth in this sample.
Figure2 uses Monitoringthe Futuredatato projectmajorreligiousaffiliationsover a 20-year
time frame,from 1976to 1996. We can see that,in the contextof overallstability,the proportionof
Protestantyouth has declined by 10 percent.Close inspectionshows thatmuch of the Protestant
decline appearsto have been located among Lutherans,Methodists, Baptists, and the United
Churchof Christ.Theproportionof Catholicyouthhasdeclinedvery slightly,andtheproportionof
Jewishyouthgrew slightly.By contrast,the proportionof Americanyouthof "other"religionsand
those who arenot religiousgrewnoticeably(5 percenteach) overthis 20-yearperiod.Althoughthe
vastmajorityof Americanyouthremainwithinthe Christiantradition,proportionatelymoreyouth
both considerthemselvesnot religious andare affiliatingwith non-Christiantraditionsover time.

FIGURE 1
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION OF ADOLESCENTS, 1995
30
24?o
25%:0 23?o
U Percent of Adolescents
200o4
15`0o
13%
9%
oo:
00o~~~~~~~~~f
5 2 o /0
U) ;- _ , - _ -X) '? ? t? V6) W
Easter Orthodox, Ml
a ni
>~
S t
ncZ
Ut
aO - c
-S ER 0~ -u
0
LU
(r <
NoteTh olwn (-)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~U

fiitosweeec ie ylshn 1 pecn faoecens/) ets, ogeainl
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, 1995.

Note: The following affiliations were each cited by less than 1 percent of adolescents: Adventist, Congregational,
Easter Orthodox, Muslim, Christian Scientists, United Church of Christ, Hindu, Unitarian, Quaker, National Baptist, and
Baha'i.
RELIGIOUSSERVICEATTENDANCE
Americanadolescentsexhibit a greatdeal of variancein theirfrequencyof religious service

attendance.Analysis of the religious service attendanceof 8th, 10th,and 12thgraders(combined)
shows that38 percentattendweekly, 16 percentattendone to two times a month,31 percentattend
rarely,and 15 percentnever attendreligious services.6 The youth of America, in other words,
widely vary in their levels of involvementin participationin religious worshipattendance.
Attendance also clearly varies by religious affiliation, as shown in Figure 3. These Add
Health data show that more conservativegroups, and those with larger proportionsof African
Americans-such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Holiness denominations, Mormons, Pentecostals,
AfricanMethodists,Assemblies of God, and Adventists-have higherratesof attendance.Youth
in mainline religious groups for the most partexhibit moderateamountsof church attendance.
And youth in minorityreligious groups-Jewish, Quakers,Buddhist,Hindu,Muslim, Unitarian,
FIGURE 2
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION OVER TIME, 12TH GRADERS
|
100? ml
80%'/ 0
+50!6 * iNc-
700% I o' rc
60%Of -
50%
*FPctes:a-
40% 1i0
300%/
20%/O -10oo
10% -
0%
76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96
Source: Monitoringthe Future, 1976-1996.

FIGURE 3
CHURCH ATTENDANCE BY AFFILIATION, ADOLESCENTS, 1995
*Weekly *1-2 x Mo. 0< lx Mo. 0 Never
90%
80%
70%-
600/-
500/o
40o/-
30%-
20%
10%
0%
4r~~~ S ~ r 0 n t l ( u) M_ '0,
t tr
c_6 007 5.
0 6
n 0
Source: National LongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health, 1995.
ChristianScience, and "other"religions-appear to attendthe least. These findings are clearly

confirmedby an analysis of Monitoringthe Futuredata (not shown).
Monitoringthe Futurehas trackedthe religious service attendanceof 12thgradersfrom 1976
to 1996. Figure 4, based on Monitoringthe Futuredata, shows a largely stable pattern,with a
slight but noticeable decline, however,in religious service attendanceover the 20 years. Weekly
religious service attendancein particularsuffered, losing 8 percent over that time period. The
categories
80% attendingnever and rarelygrew by04 percenteach duringthese 20 years.
NeverD 0
_jl - GO 1 L 09 !
YOUTHGROUP PARTICIPATION
Sore Natonl Ln IgitudinalSurve of Adoecn Helh 1995A
Abouthalfof Americanadolescentsparticipateinreligiousyouthgroups.Among 12thgraders

(see Figure5, whichuses MonitoringtheFuturedata),one-quarterhavebeeninvolvedin a religious
FIGUREdata
4
confirmed by an 1anl oi of oniorin the Fuur (oto shown).G )G)C)
CHURCH ATTENDANCE OVER TIME, 12TH GRADERS
100%o uL E E + ?
n76 < O !:,
W ZU Dl lE 1 l v l B!1 | e B ; U W
20% -o
10%
CO N CD C 0 C'J C') t *n CC s CC: 0) 0 CV 0 LO CCX

N 0 0 0 0 0
n- CD CD C O CD CO CD CD CO G)C O
G0 D S
Source: Monitoringthe Future,1976-1996.

FIGURE 5
PARTICIPATIONIN CHURCH YOUTH GROUPS, 12TH GRADERS, 1996
............ .......... ...............
.... .... . ... . . . ... ... ......
............. . ................................: ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . .
.....
El
60? o 44% Number of years participating in
church youth groups
O/ z:::::::.:
.
40%- .- 25%
/. - ~~~15% 16% _
20% ~~~~~~~~~.... .. .....;.;.
S
. . .E.U. .8._.U._
' . .. . _ . i<
..
~~~~~~~~~~~~.
...........
/'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..........:............
. ...
........
.;...
_.;; .. . ^.. .z
...... .....
A _..,.
0%- ........ .. . .. . .. . .....
None Up to 2 years 2 to 3 years 4 + years
Source:Monitoringthe Future,1996.
youth group for their entire four years of high school. Another 31 percent have been involved
for one to threeyears. Forty-fourpercentof 12th gradershave never been involved in a religious
youth groupduringtheir adolescentyears.
Youth group participationvaries by religious tradition.According to the SPY data used
in Figure 6, 58 percent of Mormon youth, about one-half of Protestantyouth, somewhat less
than half of Jewish and Muslim youth, and one-thirdof Catholic adolescents reportedhaving
participatedin a religious youth group in the seven days priorto the survey.Interestingly,three
out of 10 "nonreligious"adolescents are involved in religious youth groups, more than those in
the Jehovah'sWitnesses.
Figure7 uses Add Healthdatato breakdown the distributionsmore finely by denomination.
The overall patternmatches that of Figure 6 and what we saw about churchservice attendance
in Figure 3. In general, more conservativedenominationsand those with higher proportionsof
African Americanshave the greatestyouth groupparticipation,followed by mainlineProtestant
religious denominations.Religious minorityyouth tend to be involved in youth groupsthe least,
with Jewish and ChristianScience youth the possible exceptions. An analysis of Monitoringthe
Futuredata (not shown) verifies these findings.
This varianceof adolescentparticipationin religious youth groupsis evident not only when
comparingby religion and denomination,but also when consideringthe religious identityof the
adolescents' parents. The Survey of Parentsand Youth asked Protestantand Catholic parents
of surveyed youth in a separatebut linked survey to name the religious traditionwithin their
largerfaith with which they identify.Figure8 uses SPY datato revealthat,amongall Protestants,
youth with an evangelical (especially) or fundamentalistparentwere most likely to be involved
in a religious youth group (74 and 52 percent, respectively), followed by mainline Protestants
FIGURE 6
ADOLESCENTS AND CHURCH YOUTH GROUPS, BY AFFILIATION, 1998
100?o 3Participatedin
O.................................
80% /
I
...................................
58%
/ churchyouthgroup
in past 7 days
49% ~~~~
60%
6?o? 7 44% 43%
~~~~~~32%0
30%o
-__
40!0 20
_~~~~~~~~~~.......
V/
20%____;-0__ _
.
oX,..:.-.........
/.......
:.;
,....................
......... ....._..;-_:
_ _
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.~~~
.,.._ ....
.....
............
T
0%
....
00~
Mormon Protestant Jewish Muslim Catholic No religion Jehovah's
Witness
Source: Surveyof Parentsand Youth, 1998.

FIGURE 7
PARTICIPATIONIN CHURCH YOUTH PROGRAMS, BY AFFILIATION, 1995
*Weekly 131-2 x. Mo. 0< 1x Mo. O Never
100%11
80%,1
40%-
60 1 0 t--
It f i
20 - x 0 -
:-I; C o -0~~~~~~o
)
. _0
Source: National LongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health, 1995.
(44 percent) and liberal Protestants(28 percent). Among Catholics, youth with a "traditional"
Catholic parent were most likely to be involved in a youth group (at 43 percent) followed by
youth with a charismaticCatholic parent(38 percent), or liberal Catholic parent(33 percent).
Youth with a parent who self-identified as 'just Catholic" were the least likely Catholics to
be involved in a religious youth group (27 percent).Accordingto these data, Americanyouth in
Jewishhouseholdsareinvolvedin youthgroupsat the same rateas youthwith mainlineProtestant
parents(44 percent). |- A tn
L
c
It is worthnoting thatchurchattendanceandyouth groupparticipationarehighly correlated.

For example, Monitoringthe Futuredata shows that fully 72 percentof 12th graderswho have
, ~ ~
~~~~; C LJQ
_5
been involved in a religious youth groupfor six or more years also attendchurchonce a week or
more (90 percentattendonce a monthor more);by contrast,only 13 percentof 12thgraderswho
FIGURE 8
PARTICIPATIONIN CHURCH YOUTH GROUPS, BY PARENT'S RELIGIOUS
IDENTIFICATION, 1998
Protestants Evangelical.., _ .-._
FunCiarnentahs: % EParticipatedin a :
nine
MJai _4%past
- - ~~~~~~~~church
youthgroupIn
7 days
Liberal 28%_ _ __ _
Catholics T'aoi?iorai_43
Liberal3%
Just Cathlolic' CZ
0?% 10% 20% 30% 40% 5O0% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Source: Surveyof Parentsand Youth, 1998.

FIGURE 9
CHURCH ATTENDANCE AND YOUTH GROUP PARTICIPATIONBY GENDER, 1996
* S. ......... .. .... ..... ......
....... ..... .U .. ................ .............. ............... . ..... .....
0.8_
i Boys
0.6
O~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0.4; 33 03 3lo
220
.2 12% 16%13% 18% 14P'17
0.2
Never Rarely 1-2x/ Mo. Weekly None Up to 2 2 to 3 years 4 + years
years
Church Attendance Years Participating in Church Youth Group
are not involved in a religious youth group attendchurchweekly. Likewise, 81 percentof 12th
graderswho never attendchurchare also not involved in any youth group;and only 19 percent
of 12th graderswho attendchurchweekly are not involved in a religious youth group.Whatdoes
not appearto be happeningamong Americanyouth, then, is a diversificationand specialization
process in which some youth participatereligiously in churchservices while othersare involved
only in youth groups;rather,Americanyouth tend to do eitherboth or neither.
GENDER DIFFERENCES
It is well knownthatadultAmericanwomen(andthose frommanyothercultures)consistently

score higheron most measuresof religiosity than adultmen. This differenceholds for American
adolescentgirls comparedto boys. Add Healthdata,for example,show that45 percentof all youth
reportingno religion are girls, while 55 percentare boys. Figure9 (left side) uses Monitoringthe
Futuredatato show genderdifferencesin religious service attendancefor our surveyed8th, 10th,
and 12th graderscombined.Six percentmore Americanadolescentgirls thanboys attendchurch
services weekly; on the otherhand,5 percentmore boys thangirls never attendchurch.
Figure 9 (right side) also reveals a genderdifferencein adolescentparticipationin religious
youth groups. Fully 14 percent more 12th grade boys than girls have never participatedin a
religious youth group. By contrast,28 percentof 12th grade girls, comparedto only 22 percent
of 12th grade boys, have been involved in a religious youth group for the full four years of high
school. Clearly, using these measures of religious participation,American adolescent girls are
more involved in religious activitiesthan are boys.
AGE DWFERENCES
Each additionalyear lived throughadolescence in Americanculturebrings with it signifi-

cant physical, psychological, and social changes that we might expect to influence the religious
participationof youth. Our data bears this out, showing steady decline in religious participation
with age. Using Surveyof Adolescent Healthdata,for example, we find thatonly 9.9 percentof
13 year olds reporthaving no religion, a figurethatincreasessteadily with every year of age to a
high of 14.8 percentamong 18 year olds.
Alternatively,Figure 10 uses Monitoringthe Futuredata to split out adolescent religious
service attendanceby gradein school, comparing8th, 10th,and 12th graders,using school class
as a proxy for age. Here we see thatreligious service attendancedeclines as youth move through
school (grow older). Weekly attendance,for instance, drops 10 percent over the four years of
high school. The percentageof youth who attendonce or twice a month and who never attend

FIGURE 10
CHURCH ATTENDANCE AMONG ADOLESCENTS, 1996
800o l/ ! *8th Graders

0 10th Graders
60%/4 43% 012th Graders
33 201: 31L/od36
40?%
/
~~~~~~~~17?
1
200/_:!F
| 16% 16% -140; 15?% 15?
Weekly 1-2/Mo. Rarely Never
remainsconstant(about 16 and 15 percent,respectively).The frequencycategorythatdoes gain

significantly(9 percent)between the 8th and 12th gradeof high school is "rarely."
Finally, when it comes to youth group involvement,analysis of the Survey of Parentsand
Youthdatashow thatfully 50 percentof 13 yearolds reportparticipatingin a religiousyouthgroup
in the previous seven days, a figurethatsteadily declines with each year to a low of 28.6 percent
for 18 year olds-a loss of 21.4 percentagepoints, constitutinga 42.8 percent decline overall,
over these five teenage years.
RACE DIFFERENCES
The race of Americanadolescentsinfluencestheir religious location and levels of religious

participation.The various religious traditionsand denominationsin the United States are com-
prised of differentracial mixes, as we see in Figure 11 (based on Add Healthdata).The African
Methodist,Holiness, Jehovah'sWitness,Baptist,andMuslimcommunitieshave relativelyhigher
concentrationsof African-Americanyouth. The Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, and Adventist
FIGURE 11
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION BY RACE, ADOLESCENTS, 1995
*0o White HOclBlack 00 Hispanic 000 Asian
100001 1 i1
80.'O
60a
400.
20%"
U
._ Cl
c
c >
N ote: fo 5 tU w Cr La
< C
Muslim0 S
C~~~~~~~C)
a0 o- Cr0
0
H cm f
C.) >
?6
ci~~~~~~~, u
Source:NationalLongitudinalSurvey of Adolescent Health, 1995.

FIGURE 12
CHURCH ATTENDANCE AND YOUTH GROUP PARTICIPATIONBY RACE, 1996
1 . . . . . . . :^
O
tb
... ~
.-<.t
~.<~
b.U~
^.^.^.^
^.^.
^.^
.^. ^.^
A .^
0^
.... * White
^.^.^.^.~^.~
0.8- Ia Black
ElOther
0.6-43% 52% 41%
41
29/34/ %
0.4- 41? 19% 29% 31% 32%
0.2 14p 16% 716 % 27I[ 16% 15% 26% 111 f
14 13/o16/%l7
None Up to 2 2 to 3 4+ Never Rarely 1-2x Weekly

years years years Mo.
Youth Group Participation Church Attendance
traditionshave relatively higher concentrationsof Hispanic youth. The Hindu, Buddhist, and
Islamic faiths in the United States compriserelativelymore Asian youth. As a numericalmajor-
ity, white adolescentsdominatemost denominationsandtraditions,except the Islamic,Adventist,
Jehovah'sWitness, Holiness, Buddhist,Hindu,and AfricanMethodistcommunities.
Measuredalternativelyas thepercentof racialgroupsin differentreligioustraditions,47.7 per-
cent of African-Americanyouth are Baptist, 55.7 percent of Hispanic youth are Catholic, 35.5
percent of Asian youth are Catholic, while another 11 percentare Buddhist.White adolescents
are 22.7 percentCatholic,20.3 percentBaptist,8.6 percentChurchof Christ/Disciplesof Christ,
7.1 percent Methodist, with the remainderdistributedamong many different traditions,each
claiming less than 5 percentof the total.
We also observe racialdifferencesin religious service attendanceamong Americanyouth in
the 8th, 10th, and 12thgrades(combined).Figure 12 (rightside) uses Monitoringthe Futuredata
to show thatAfrican-Americanadolescentshave the highest ratesof churchattendance,followed
by whites. Youthof otherracial and ethnic backgroundsin the United States attendchurchwith
comparativelylower frequencies.This race effect is evident across all categoriesof frequencyof
attendance,from never to weekly.
This race effect is also consistent with findings on participationin religious youth groups.
Figure 12 (left side) shows that young AfricanAmericansare slightly more likely thanwhites to
be involved in a religious youth group for all of their four years of high school, which is nearly
twice the rate for youth from "other"racial and ethnic groups. Americanyouth who are neither
white norAfricanAmericanarealso the most likely to haveneverparticipatedin a religiousyouth
groupduringtheirhigh school years.
REGIONALDIFFERENCES
Researchon Americanadultshas shown regionaleffects on religiosity (Smith, Sikkink,and

Bailey 1998). We find similareffects on the religiousparticipationof Americanyouth.Using Add
Healthdata,for example,we findthatonly 8.4 percentof southernyouthreporthavingno religion,
while 12.1 percentof northeasternyouth, 15.2 percentof midwesternyouth, and 17 percentof
youthliving in westernstatesreporthavingno religion.Figure 13, basedon Monitoringthe Future
data, shows that youth living in the south are the most likely to attendreligious services weekly
and least likely to never attend.Youthin the northcentraland westernstates follow the south in
church attendance.Americanadolescents who reside in the northeastare consistently the least
likely to attend church weekly and the most likely to never attendchurch.Even so, we should

FIGURE 13
CHURCH ATTENDANCE BY REGION, 1996
1OO%o Norheast E NorthCentral

0 South OWest
80%40_
60 4 43 s
: X ~~~~~33?J
320//62g 31%
?.33z
117%8 15%0i 7% 18%
16% 18_ t; 16?%o
40!
20% :/i
5
0% ------3% 6- 3
Never Rarely 1-2x / Mo- Weekly
Source: Monitoring the Future, 1996.
FIGURE 14
PARTICIPATIONIN CHURCH YOUTH GROUPS BY REGION, 12TH GRADERS, 1996
.. .......^
.^.................
. . .. ........... ..............:..... .. . . .. ...A
...................
........ ... . . . . .. ...........A.
.....:...:'...
. ... . . .. . ..
...''
100? .
E Northeast 1 North Central!
80%- O South O West
56%/
60%- 46%
400/o
40%^/t_
~ ~ 8%40
-
21? K
/ T ~~~~~~15%
17% 14? :7 %4/16% 16% 17% 1 5% F 5
20%-
0%-___L_t
None Up to 2 years 2 to 3 years 4 + years
Source: Monitoring the Future, 1996.
keep in mind that more than one-thirdof youth are attendingchurchweekly, no matterwhat the
region.
A similarpatternholds true for 12th graders'participationin religious youth groups, as we
see in Figure 14. These Monitoringthe Futuredata show that those living in the south are most
likely to be involved in a youth group, and to be involved for more years. Next most likely are
youth living in westernstates,followed by youth in northcentralstates.Again, adolescentsliving
in the northeastare the least likely to ever have been involvedin a youthgroupduringhigh school
years, and least likely to have been involved for many years.
DIscUSSION
Thereare many importantthings thatwe can learnaboutthe religious affiliationsand partic-

ipationof Americanyouth from existing descriptivesurveydata.It is always importantto bearin
mind, however,some limitationsbuilt into much extantdata, which should qualify our interpre-
tation of the findings. The Survey of Parentsand Youthcontains no significantproblemsin this
regard.However,Monitoringthe Futuredataonly representAmerican8th, 10th,and 12thgraders,
and so are not technically nationallyrepresentativeof all adolescents;nevertheless,we believe
they providea close approximation.Moreover,Add Healthrespondentswho answered"notreli-
gious" on the religious affiliationquestion were unfortunatelyskippedout of remainingreligion
questions,and so not given the chanceto answereitherthe attendanceor the youthgroupquestion.
We know from otherstudies (andfrom Figure6 above) thatsome "nonreligious"youthdo attend
church and youth group meetings. This means that Add Health data clearly underestimatethe

proportionof Americanyouth attendingchurchand participatingin youth groups.Furthermore,

both the Add Health and Monitoringthe Futuredata are school based, and so exclude school
drop-outsand home schoolers.7Nevertheless,these are the best dataavailableat the moment,so
we must make our best use of them.
What, in review, have we found about Americanadolescentreligion, particularlyreligious
participation?We believe the following eight summaryobservationsare most important.
1. Themajorityof Americanyouthare religiousinsofaras they affiliatewith some religiousgroup

or tradition.Only about 13 percentin 1995 say they have no religion. Nearly one-quarterof
Americanyouth are Catholic and Baptist each; the remaininghalf are spreadthinly across a
variety of differenttraditionsand denominations(or are not religious). We would expect the
religious affiliationsof youth to fairly closely track that of their parents.On the other hand,
older adolescents sometimes explore religious congregations,denominations,and traditions
otherthanthose in which they were raised.And the majorityof church-attendingyouth claim
thatthey go to religious services not only because theirfamilies make them, but because they
themselves want to (Gallup 1999:11).
2. Thenumberof Americanadolescentswithinthe Christiantraditionhas been graduallydeclin-
ing overthe last two andone-halfdecades.The numberof youthin the "otherreligion"category
has grownbetween 1976 and 1996 by 5 percent,which may be due in partto immigrationfrom
othercountries.8The numberof youthreporting"none"for religionhas increasedby 5 percent.
By contrast,the percentof Americanyouth affiliatingwith a Protestanttraditiondeclined by
10 percent, and with the Catholic traditionby 1 percent.This growing pluralismmay help
accountfor an apparentincreasein religious toleranceand relativismamong Americanyouth
(Rabey 2001). In any case, it is clear thatAmericanadolescentsare graduallybecoming more
religiously pluralistic.
3. Abouthalf of Americanadolescentsregularlyparticipatein religiousorganizationsin the form
of religious service attendanceandparticipationin religiousyouthgroups.Furthermore,youth
who participatein one tend to be the same youth who participatein the other,meaning that
religiousinvolvementstendto clusteramongyouth-those youthwho arereligiously involved
tend to be so throughmultipleforms of religious participation.
4. On the other hand, about half of Americanyouth are not religiouslyactive. About half attend
church services only rarelyor never, and about half are not and have not been involved in a
religious youthgroupduringtheirhigh school years.These halves tend to be the same people,
meaningthat religious nonparticipationappearsto cluster among the same youth. Moreover,
churchattendancetrendsamongAmericanhigh school seniorsreveala slight, gradualdecline
in regularattendancebetweenthe mid-1970s andthe mid-1990s, suggestingthatthe proportion
of Americanyouth who are not religiously active may be growingover time.
5. The religiousparticipationof Americanadolescents declines with age. For probablya variety
of reasons,the older Americanyouth grow,the less likely they are to reporthaving a religious
affiliation,attendingchurchservices regularly,and being involvedin a religious youth group.
This decline with age may reflectincreasedautonomyfrom the authorityof religious parents;
increasedparticipationin paid jobs that may compete with religious activities for time; an
expansionof availablealternativesocial andrecreationalactivitiesthroughincreasedabilityto
drive and access to friends who drive;and perhapsother factors. Whateverthe reason, older
youth are less religiously active thanyounger.
6. Adolescent girls tend to be somewhatmore religiouslyactive than boys. Girls are more likely
than boys to reporta religious affiliation,to attendchurchregularly,and to be involved in a
religious youth group. This difference mirrorsa similarpatternof religious variationamong
adultmen and women in the United States and numerousothercountries
7. Thereligiousparticipationof Amenicanadolescents is somewhatdiffcerentiated by race. While
youth of all races can be found in almost every religious group, certain religious traditions

comprisemuchhigherproportionsof African-American,Hispanic,andAsian youth,who tend

to cluster in specific religious groups. Race also somewhatinfluenceschurchattendanceand
youth groupinvolvement,with African-Americanyouthbeing the most involved,followed by
white youth, and youth of "otherrace"exhibitingrelativelythe least religious participation.
These differencesare not easily explainedby socioeconomic differences,but probablyderive
in large measurefrom culturalexpectationsof religious participationwithin racialand ethnic
communitiesand the religious traditionsin which they tend to participate.
8. The religiousparticipationof Americanadolescents varies somewhatby region of residence.
Southernyouth are the most religiously involved,followed by youth in the midwest and west.
Adolescents residing in the northeastparticipatein religion the least (althoughthey are not
the least likely to reporthaving no religion). As with the gender differences, this regional
effect largely trackswhat we know about regional religious effects among adult Americans.
Southerncultureis generallymuchmorefriendlyto religionthanothernonsouthernculturesin
the UnitedStates.Moreover,the southis dominateddenominationallyby Baptists,whose youth
are among those with the highest levels of churchattendanceand youth groupparticipation.
By contrast,not only does northeastculturetend to be relativelymore secularthanmanyother
regions of the country,but the dominantreligion of the northeastis Catholicism, which is
associatedamong its youth with lower levels of churchattendanceand religious youth group
involvement.Futuremultivariateanalysesbeyondthe scope of this articlewill help to sort out
the relative importanceof alternativefactors in predictingvariancein religious participation
among Americanyouth.
CONCLUSION
Currentsocial scientific knowledge about the religious lives of American adolescents is

inadequate.Given the increasinginterestin many sectors of society in the religious and spiritual
lives of Americanyouth, and an apparentlygrowing interestin "spirituality"among American
youththemselves,sociologistsof religionneedto investmoreresourcesintoresearchon adolescent
religion and its social effects. This article is a modest step in that direction.We have employed
existing data from three high-qualitynationalsurveys of Americanyouth, however wanting on
some points they may be. We have focused our analysis on adolescents' religious affiliations,
service attendance,and youth group participation,and have examined gender, race, age, and
regional effects. We hope that our findings help to raise broaderawarenessabout the religious
lives of American youth, and perhapshelp establish some core body of available knowledge
aboutthe extentof adolescentreligious participationin the United States.Futuresurveyresearch
of American youth needs to develop much better and more extensive measures of adolescent
religious practices,experiences, beliefs, and interests;to combine quantitativesurvey methods
with qualitativeinterviewsand ethnographies;to use multivariateanalysis to identify the most
importantvariablespredictingreligiousparticipation;and,ideally,to conducta longitudinaldesign
that will trackthe same respondentsover time in orderto strengthenour ability to assess causal
religious influences.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanksto Lilly EndowmentInc. for funding for this research.For more information,see www.youthandreligion.
org.
NOTES
1. To be sure, thereexist vast literaturesthataddressreligion in the lives of Americanyouth. However,such literatureis

riddledwith seriousproblems.First,muchof the existingliteratureon Americanyouthandreligionis not systematically

empirical,but consists largely of theoreticalworks on moralformationand faith development,proposalsfor ministry

models, unsystematiccase studies,etc. Second, most existing empiricalresearchon youth is out of date. While some
subjects of study change relatively slowly, Americanyouth pass throughtime in culturallyshaped generationsthat
change significantlyfrom decade to decade. We do know from the literaturea fair amountabout baby boomers in
their youth, but this is a generationnow passing throughmiddle age and towardretirement,with teenage and adult
childrenof theirown. Furthermore,membersof the muchdiscussed"GenerationX" aretypicallydefinedas those born
between the years 1965 and 1980, a generationthat has passed into adulthood;GenXers are now about 22-37 years
old, many with children of their own. We cannot claim to understandyouth today by referencingexisting research
conducted on GenX teens (the age-medianof whom were getting their driverlicenses before the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989) or older. Third,many works in the literatureinvolve analyses that do contain a religion variable,but
do not make religion a focus of analysis or explanation.Many studies exist that control for religion by adding a
religion variablein an analyticalmodel, but are not particularlyconcernedto understandthat religious effect; they
are interestedinsteadin some other independentvariableand use religion only as a nonexplicatedcontrolvariableto
bolster the main argument.Fourth,the vast majorityof publishedempiricalstudies on Americanyouth and religion
employ samples of subjectsand respondentsthatare methodologicallyproblematic.While some studies are based on
strongresearchdesigns, many rely on samples that are quite small, are not randomlyselected, and/orthatrepresenta
very narrowsegment of a population.As a result, it is difficultto assess about whom findings can be generalizedas
representing;and it is difficult to piece togetherthe findings collectively into a coherentpictureof Americanyouth.
For example, our review of empirical studies publishedin 1999 and 2000 relatedto religious beliefs, practices,and
commitmentare based on the following samples: participantsin a Protestantyouth conference; 300 Iowa children;
threeMuslim teenagers;1,500 teenagersfrom Seventh-DayAdventistchurches;86 youth attendingalternativemusic
concerts; 276 high school parochialschool juniors; 125 11th gradersfrom West Virginia;77 college students;273
Jewish teenagersfrom the Philadelphiaarea;an unspecifiednumberof participantsin Buddhistand Catholicretreats;
and 2,358 African-Americanyouth from povertyareasof threecities; only two otherof the studies duringthese years
were based on large, nationallyrepresentativesamples of youth.
2. For instance, one important,older synthesis of the literatureis Hyde's (1990) 529-page Religion in Childhoodand
Adolescence, which digested roughly 1,760 pieces of literature.But only 16 of the 119 referencesin its chapteron
"Religion and Moralityin Adolescence,"for example, were published after 1985-meaning almost everythingthat
we know from Hyde about adolescent religion and morality (when accountingfor the data-publicationlag time) is
based on studiesof people who were teenagersbeforeRonaldReaganhadbecome Presidentin 1980. See also Bensen,
Donahue,and Erickson(1989).
3. See http://www.youthandreligion.org/surveydata/index.htm.
4. Note that the 9 percent of ChristianChurch/Disciplesof Christ respondentsmay include youth who mistook that
categoryto mean "simply Christian,"thus overestimatingadherentsto this denomination;if so, it is impossible now
to separatethem out.
5. As a comparison,a 1992 surveyof Americanteens conductedby the GallupInternationalInstitutefoundthat69 percent
of youth consideredthemselves "a religious person,"while 31 percentdid not. In a separatesurvey of 500 teenagers,
Gallup found that43 percentof teens aged 13-17 think "havinga deep religious faith"is very importantto them, 33
percentsomewhatimportant,and 23 percentnot important(Gallup 1999:41, 42).
6. The GallupInternationalInstitutereportsthat49 percentof Americanteenagersattendreligious services weekly. In a
separate 1996 Gallup survey of Americanyouth, 68 percentof teens said that they attendreligious services because
they decided themselves thatthey wantedto go; 28 percentsaid they attendonly or mostly because theirparentswant
them to attend(Gallup 1999:8, 11).
7. According to U.S. Departmentof Educationdata, approximately1.7 percent of high-school aged youth are home
schooled; and approximately6 percentof high-school aged youth drop out of school by the 12thgrade.
8. We shouldrecall, however,thatmany "OtherReligion"respondentsin surveysof Americanadultsprove,upon closer
inspection, actuallyto be Christians(Sherkat1999). The eight countriesand regions sending the most immigrantsto
the United States between 1981 and 1998 are, in order:Mexico (3,582,900 immigrants),the Caribbean(1,728,900),
the Philippines (927,400), CentralAmerica (880,900), China (685,500), the former Soviet Union (503,200), Korea
(481,400), and India (363,000) (Statistical Abstract 2000:10). The vast majority of those immigrantshave come
from predominantlyRomanCatholiccountries,but a substantialminorityof them have come from atheist,Buddhist,
Orthodox,and Hindunations, which could accountfor some of the relativegrowthin otherreligions.
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Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

We know relativelylittle aboutthe religiouslives of Americanadolescents.The vast majority

for the ScientificStudyof Religion 41:4 (2002) 597-612

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

Gaining a solid understandingof the religion of Americanadolescentscan also enable so-

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

Ourfindingsare based on analyses of the following data sets.

Monitoring the Future, 1996

The Monitoringthe Future(MTF) survey is a nationallyrepresentativesurvey of American

Survey of Adolescent Health, 1995

The NationalLongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health(Add Health)is a nationallyrepre-

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

respondentmay very well attenda religiousyouthgroup,but was nonethelesscoded in these data

The Survey of Parents and Youth, 1998

The Survey of Parentsand Youth(SPY) was designed by PrincetonUniversity'sCenterfor

Forpurposesof this study,we have focused on Americanyouthin the standardteenageyears,

Perhapsthe most basic task in mappingthe religious landscapeof Americanadolescents'

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

U) ;- _ , - _ -X) '? ? t? V6) W

NoteTh olwn (-)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~U

Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, 1995.

Americanadolescentsexhibit a greatdeal of variancein theirfrequencyof religious service

Source: Monitoringthe Future, 1976-1996.

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*Weekly *1-2 x Mo. 0< lx Mo. 0 Never

Source: National LongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health, 1995.

ChristianScience, and "other"religions-appear to attendthe least. These findings are clearly

Abouthalfof Americanadolescentsparticipateinreligiousyouthgroups.Among 12thgraders

CO N CD C 0 C'J C') t *n CC s CC: 0) 0 CV 0 LO CCX

Source: Monitoringthe Future,1976-1996.

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

0%- ........ .. . .. . .. . .....

None Up to 2 years 2 to 3 years 4 + years

Source: Surveyof Parentsand Youth, 1998.

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

Source: National LongitudinalSurveyof Adolescent Health, 1995.

It is worthnoting thatchurchattendanceandyouth groupparticipationarehighly correlated.

Source: Surveyof Parentsand Youth, 1998.

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

It is well knownthatadultAmericanwomen(andthose frommanyothercultures)consistently

Each additionalyear lived throughadolescence in Americanculturebrings with it signifi-

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800o l/ ! *8th Graders

Weekly 1-2/Mo. Rarely Never

remainsconstant(about 16 and 15 percent,respectively).The frequencycategorythatdoes gain

The race of Americanadolescentsinfluencestheir religious location and levels of religious

Source:NationalLongitudinalSurvey of Adolescent Health, 1995.

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

None Up to 2 2 to 3 4+ Never Rarely 1-2x Weekly

Youth Group Participation Church Attendance

Researchon Americanadultshas shown regionaleffects on religiosity (Smith, Sikkink,and

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

1OO%o Norheast E NorthCentral

Source: Monitoring the Future, 1996.

Source: Monitoring the Future, 1996.

Thereare many importantthings thatwe can learnaboutthe religious affiliationsand partic-

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

proportionof Americanyouth attendingchurchand participatingin youth groups.Furthermore,

1. Themajorityof Americanyouthare religiousinsofaras they affiliatewith some religiousgroup

This content downloaded from 200.126.12.210 on Wed, 21 Jan 2015 16:28:15 PM

comprisemuchhigherproportionsof African-American,Hispanic,andAsian youth,who tend

Weekly 1-2 x Mo. 0< lx Mo. 0 Never