Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2004
Abstract
How are switching to more liberal religious preferences and apostasy affected by educational attainment? Previous research has focused on the relationship between religious adherence and college attendance. In this paper, I extend this work by looking at whether differences between parent and child educational attainment affect later religious devotion among respondents who at one time were Protestant. Using data from the 1998 General Social Survey, I test whether conservative religious commitment among college-educated children with less educated parents is different from commitment among the college-educated children of educated parents. Findings reveal that respondents who have earned an associate’s degree, but have less educated parents are not more likely than people with college-educated parents to switch from a conservative faith to a more liberal one. In addition, this research shows that differences between parental and child education are not significantly related to religious apostasy.
Comments
This is the author's accepted manuscript of a chapter originally published in Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, available at https://doi.org/10.1163/9789047406563_008