Uecker, J. E. and M. D. Regnerus, and M. Vaaler. Forthcoming. “Losing My Religion: The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood.” Social Forces.
In this article, the authors examine a number of factors presumed to lead to religious decline. Using nationally representative survey data, they test three factors in particular: college attendance, normative deviation, and changes in the life-course. Most surprisingly, they find that college attendance, far from reducing religiosity as is often assumed, appears to prevent young adults from “losing their religion.” Those who never attended college had the highest rates of disaffiliation, decreased service attendance, and decreased importance placed on religion. By contrast, those who had completed a bachelor’s degree had among the lowest rates on all three of those factors. “Simply put,” they write, “higher education is not the enemy of religiosity that so many have made it out to be.” Uecker and colleagues further find mixed evidence for the influence of normative deviation and demographic factors. They conclude by speculating about other factors that might contribute to religious decline: competing activities, inadequate childhood socialization into religion, and increased privatization of religious belief and practice.
