Monday, February 13, 2006
New MRC resources on teens and religion
Ed Seely, director of the Ministry Resource Center, a CICW ministry partner, comments on two significant additions to the MRC. Also see this 7-point overview of the MRC.
The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) is the largest and most detailed survey of teenagers and religion ever undertaken. This project surveyed 3,290 teenagers and their parents, 1,988 of whom are Protestant.
The first of the two books to come from this survey is Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). Smith is Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and Associate Chair of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and principal investigator of the NSYR.
The other book is Portraits of Protestant Teens in Major U.S. Denominations, by Phil Schwadel and Christian Smith (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2005), the purpose of which is to follow up on Soul Searching in order to help church leaders and religion scholars and observers more accurately and completely understand the NSYR data. “The NSYR provides a baseline, descriptive map of the religious character of adolescents in the United States.” (Portraits, p. 12)
Major findings of the NSYR pertaining to youth and worship include these results:
1. Slightly less than half, 45%, of Protestant teens report attending church at least once a week and 41% of all teens do so (Portraits, p. 15); 19% more report attending one to three times per month (Soul Searching [SS], p. 37). However, teen attendance in conservative churches is significant higher, e.g., 66% of Assemblies of God, 53% of Southern Baptist, and 59% of the Presbyterian Church (USA). (Portraits, p. 15)
2. “U.S. teens as a whole report that they would like to attend religious services even more than they currently do…these findings provide no evidence supporting the belief that significant numbers of teens would like to stop attending religious service and are only doing otherwise because their parents are forcing them to attend.” Part of the reason some don’t attend more than they do is due to “uncooperative parents and transportation problems preventing them from attending religious services more often than they did.” (Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton [SS], p. 38)
3. Usually and unsurprisingly, parents significantly influence their teens choices. “U.S. teens lean strongly toward similarity with their parents in religious belief.” [SS, p. 35] “There appears to be…relatively little switching of teens away from their parents’ religion into other religious traditions.” (SS, p. 36) “If given the choice 87% of attending Protestant teens say they would choose to attend the same church.” (Portraits, p. 10.)
4. “In the absence of parental encouragement by example to attend religious services, religious congregations that offer teenagers organized youth groups—particularly those with full-time, paid, adult youth group leaders—seem to make a significant difference in attracting teens to attend congregational religious services. Well-developed, congregational-based youth groups with established youth leaders likely provide teens who lack active parental support appealing doorways into and relational ties encouraging greater religious participation in the life of religious congregations.” (SS, p. 117)
5. Another finding contrary to a popular opinion common in the literature is that U.S. teens are not very diverse religiously. “Harvard’s Diana Eck asserts that the United States is the most religiously diverse nation in the world…That simply is not true. The vast majority of U.S. teens (like adults) are Christian or not religious. The so-called new immigrant religions are tiny fractions of adolescent religion…The country has indeed seen a great deal of immigration in recent decades, but many of those immigrants came to the United States as Christians…seeking refuge from anti-Christian persecution in their home countries. In addition, some immigrant youth become Christians in the process of assimilating to U.S. culture.” (SS, p. 32)
6. Also contrary to common thought, U.S. teens are not eclectic. The NYSR found that “relatively few U.S. teens (2.8 percent) affiliate with more than one religion. Numerous scholarly and journalistic voices have recently called attention to an alleged rise in an eclectic, mix-and-match approach to religion among youth. We do not find evidence for this in our data. Nearly all U.S. teens affiliate with one religion or no religion.” (SS, p. 32) Only 1.4 % consider themselves atheist. (SS, p. 86)
7. “Seventy-nine percent of Protestant teens who report attending religious services more than a few times a year (not counting weddings, baptisms, funerals and youth group meetings) say their churches usually feel warm and welcoming for them.” (Portraits, p. 41) “About two-thirds (65%) of Protestant teens who attend church more than a few times a year say that church usually makes them think about important things.” (Portraits, p. 43)
8. “Twelve percent of teens who attend church services more than a few times a year say that church is usually boring…[T]eens whose parents are affiliated with conservative Protestant denominations are somewhat less likely than teens whose parents are affiliated with mainline and black Protestant denominations to report that church is usually boring…At the high end among the specific denominations, 24 percent of United Methodist teens say that church is usually boring. At the low end, only 5 percent of Disciples of Christ teens report that their churches are usually boring.” (Portraits, p. 42)
9. “Sixty-two percent of Protestant teens say they had an experience of spiritual worship that was very moving and powerful, leaving over one-third who have not had a powerful worship experience. In general, conservative teens are more likely than both mainline and black Protestant teens to report having an experience of spiritual worship that was very moving and powerful, though not every denomination follows this pattern. Assemblies of God teenagers are more likely than most teens to report having had a powerful worship experience [76%], while Disciples of Christ teens are less likely than most other Protestant teens to say they had an experience of spiritual worship that was very moving and powerful [33%]. Presbyterian Church (USA) [70%] and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America [79%] teens, however, resemble conservative teens by being more likely than most other teens to report having a powerful worship experience. Church attendance increases the likelihood of reporting experiences of spiritual worship, again for the mainline teens more than the other Protestant teens. For instance, while only 55 percent of United Methodist teens say they had an experience of spiritual worship that was very moving and powerful, 74 percent of the regularly attending United Methodist teens say they had a powerful worship experience.” (Portraits, p. 35)
10. “About seven in 10 Protestant teens report that they have made a personal commitment to live their lives for God, while only 27 percent of the unaffiliated teens report having made such a commitment. There are large denominational differences in reporting a personal commitment to live life for God, with conservative Protestant teens being more likely than black Protestant and especially more likely than mainline Protestant teens to make a commitment to live life for God. For instance, 88 percent of Assemblies of God teens and 80 percent of Southern Baptist teens say they made a commitment to live their lives for God, while only 32 percent of Episcopalian teens say the same. Church attendance increases the likelihood of committing to live life for God, again, especially for mainline Protestants. Among mainline Protestant teens as a whole, 50 percent report making a commitment to live their lives for God, and 70 percent of the regular church attendees say they committed to live their lives for God.” (Portraits, p. 30)
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