Religious Involvement Among Youth: An ecological & Life-course Perspective Article by Valarie King, Glen H.Elder Jr. & Les B. Whitbeck

Introduction  In farming communities of American Midwest Local churches are powerful institutinal forces for young and old people. Farm families play a leading role (church establishment) Lutherans : villages Catholics : cities  The role of rural churches are: behavior control social capital and socialize children into a community of like-minded adults

Benson et al. 1989; Brownfield et al & Sutker 1982 Children who raised in religious communities; more successfull in avoiding problem behavior they are good on pro-social behavior lower risk of drug and acohol abuse lower risk of deviance Thus, religious involvement is positively related with; well-being longevity life satisfaction competence (Ellision & Sherkat, 1995) Introduction

A longutudinal Study on Religious Involvement King, Elder & Whitbeck (1997) Participants and Design 365 adolescents from North Iowa. 7 grades to 10. (4 waves) – Longitudinal Study Also their parents’ involvement  Region;  economically weak  lack of opportunity.  King et al. (1997) looked at, over time if farm youth will involve than adolescent in small towns and parent’s education make differences in these variation.

Relevant Studies Relevant studies on religious involvement in different areas (urban vs rural – young and adult) Religion is more central for rural life (Chalfant & Heller, 1991) top rate on level of church attendance Urban residents; (Fisher, 1982) Less likely to attend to church Less religious Or religious is not necessarily important  Findings  Religious and local churches play a greater role for small communities  Network based on church and church-based settings, it helps to keep alive traditional way of life.

Religious Development, Disaffection, and Commitment To understand the decline in religiosity, previous studies brought evidences based on cross-sectional studies but these studies were only age levels to infer developmental trajectories. But, as limitations of past studies, looking one or two age group to understand whether there is a change (involvement) over time might mask other individual variations. Two important influences of religious development A) Social identities and their context (gender, class, religion or farm based) B) Religious practice and parents’ belief

Social Identity and Context In four way, social identities and related context of adolescents influence religious development 1.Gender  Female adolescent have higher score on religious involvement based many factors. (upbringing style, socialization, psychological differences or difference in temperament, lack of status and less work opportunities.  Because of this void, religious associations fill it.

Social Identity and Context 2.Education and SES a.Adults with higher education are more involved in church activities and have higher rates of attendance. b.On the other hand, expression of religion’s importance decline by education. 3.The born-again concept. a)Religiousness is the experience of a conversion. b)Rates of involvement are high in born-again Christians (protestants)

Social Identity and Context 4.Farm Status a)Salamon (1992) describes farm families as an active people in church activities and involvements (churchgoers) b)Main roles of these families; establishment, maintenance of churches and care. c)The have distance to large urban population and rural residents because of their traditional and conservative beliefs Hypothesis : Farm adolescents will have stronger ties to religious institutions and will express more religiosity in beliefs and personal identities than nonfarm rural adolescents.

Parent – Child Relationship  Parents are the most important source of influence on adolescent religious behavior.  As a model for children, parent’s intensity of involvement and expression what they believe.  Factors such as identification of children with parents, closeness, parental warmth enhance adolescent’s religiosity.  If parents experience decline in involvement and religiousness, children will also experience same decline.

Results Four measures of religious involvement  Church attendance  Church activities  Religiosity  Value of being a religious person

Results As a social identity factor, gender was significantly different in females on involvement in church activities than males. Adolescent in farm families exhibit higher levels of attendance in both 7th and 10th grades Adolescent church attandance decline over time. There were significant difference in decline compare to farm status.

Results The pattern of religiosity showed that: Religiosity 41 % highly religious 12 & low Under 25 % either increase or decrease in religiosity Wanting to be a religious person 28 % high 20 % low 28 % experience an increase and 29 % showed decline Farm adolescents score only slightly higher on the religiosity Greater importance to value of being religious person were also higher for farm adolescents than non-farm youth

Results Correlates of Religios Change and Continuity Highly religious youth are more likely to be a members of a farm family, and identify themselves as born again christians and also their families are religious too. Youth who became more religious over time, the are more likely to live on a farm, parents (father) have high level of education and religious. Adolescent who experience decline in religiosity are more likely to live in a non-farm family and have less religious parents.

Results For church activities, gender is a strong factor on involvement  Female  Male In general, farm adolescents and boys who have religious parents are less likely to experience a decline in religious activities than others (non-farm adolescents and females)

Conlusion During the transition from childhood to adulthood, religios practice and belief’s of parents was important as an important component Parents and adolescents who are engaged in a religios community, they are less likely to exposed risky problems such as problem behavior, alcohol and drug abuse, in contrast, they are more likely to enhance their social and academic competence. Also, religios involvement is important in competence.

Farm youth stand out were on the strength of their ties to religious institutions and they express more religiosity and attachement to religious values than rural adolescents in non- farm communuties. Conlusion

Being «born again» is a powerful influence on religios continuity over time. Family SES in the form of parental education, it has a little significance for patterns of developmental change. Strong family ties and parental religious involvement go together in predicting the religious involvement of adolescents. Those who engage with other youth who also engaged in religious activities, they were more likely to fallow prosocial behavior such as respect for parents and a sense of responsibility.