Mapping

America
Marriage, Religion, and the Common Good – Number 37
™

Intergenerational Links to Viewing X-Rated Movies:

Religious Attendance
Percent Who Have Seen an X-Rated Movie in the Last Year by
Frequency of Their Religious Attendance during Adolescence
This chart is taken from a
study conducted by Visiting
X-Rated Movie in the Last Year

30% Fellow Althea Nagai, Ph.D.

Percent Who Have Seen an

for Family Research Council.

25% 26.6% Adults who frequently

attended religious services
as adolescents are less likely
20% 21.9% to have viewed an X-rated
movie in the last year.

According to the General

0
15%
Social Survey (GSS),
>WEEKLY/MONTHLY < MONTHLY/NEVER
21.9 percent of adults
Frequency of Religious Attendance during Adolescence who attended religious
services at least monthly
Source: General Social Survey (GSS)
as adolescents had viewed
an X-rated movie in the
last year, compared to 26.6 percent of adults who attended worship less than monthly as
adolescents.1

Other Studies

Several other studies corroborate the direction of these findings. Stephen Tibbetts and
Michael Blankenship of East Tennessee State University found that those with no religious
affiliation were more tolerant of X-rated video stores, even more so when these stores were
present in their own neighborhood.2

In an examination of Australian adolescents, Joan Abbott-Chapman and Carey Denholm of

www.mappingamericaproject.org
MA09A02
 the University of Tasmania also reported a correlation between high levels of religiosity and
avoidance of X-rated films. They found that religious beliefs, in and of themselves, are only
weakly associated with avoiding X-rated films. “The positive, normative reinforcement of
belonging to a church, school and/or community group of shared values is also needed.” 3

Frequent religious attendance during adolescence, and the reinforcement of strong

positive moral values that comes with it, decreases the likelihood of X-rated movie viewing
in adulthood.

Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D. & Althea Nagai, Ph.D.

Dr. Fagan is senior fellow and director of the Center for
Family and Religion at Family Research Council. Dr. Nagai is
a visiting fellow at Family Research Council.

1 This chart draws on data collected by the General Social Survey, 1972-2006. From 1972 to 1993, the sample
size averaged 1,500 each year. No GSS was conducted in 1979, 1981, or 1992. Since 1994, the GSS has been
conducted only in even-numbered years and uses two samples per GSS that total approximately 3,000. In 2006, a
third sample was added for a total sample size of 4,510.
2 Stephen G. Tibbetts and Michael B. Blankenship, “Explaining Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Pornography: Differential
Effects of Predictors Across Levels of Geographic Proximity to Other Sources,” Justice Quarterly, vol. 16 (1999): 735-
763.
3 Joan Abbott-Chapman and Carey Denholm, “Adolescents’ Risk Activities, Risk Hierarchies and the Influence of
Religiosity,” Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 4 (2001): 279-297.

Mapping America
Editor: Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D.
Managing Editor: Michael Leaser

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