Does Religious Group Population Share Affect the Religiosity of the Next Generation?
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Published online on September 21, 2021
Abstract
["Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 60, Issue 3, Page 611-627, September 2021. ", "\nAbstract\nAre teens more religious when (consistent with “religious monopoly” arguments) they live in an area where many people share their parents’ religious identity? Or are teens more religious when (as religious economies models suggest) they live in areas where their parent's religious identity has a smaller population share (or “market share”)? We examine these questions using Wave 1 of the National Study of Youth and Religion combined with county‐level variables from the 2000 Religious Congregations and Membership Study and the 2000 U.S. Census. Parental religiosity has a huge effect on teen's religiosity, so much so that when parents are very religious, the religious context of the surrounding county does not matter. However, when parents are not very religious, results are consistent with the religious monopolies model but not the religious economies model. The percent of the county in the parents’ religious tradition tends to boost teen's religiosity.\n"]