Review of Religious Research

, Volume 53, Issue 1, pp 85–103 | Cite as

Parental Divorce and Adult Religiosity: Evidence from the General Social Survey

Original Paper
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Abstract

This study explores the relationship between parental divorce and religiosity, including religious affiliation change and church attendance. Data from the 1991, 1998, and 2008 waves of the General Social Survey provide information both on current religiosity and religiosity in respondents’ families of origin. The results suggest that living with a single divorced parent—but not a remarried or widowed parent—increases church attendance and the odds of a change in religious affiliation. Catholics and Protestants from divorced families are disproportionately likely to become apostates as adults, while people growing up in unaffiliated divorced families more often become affiliated as adults. However, parental divorce has fewer effects on the likelihood of moving from one denomination to another.

Keywords

Parental divorce Religiosity Religious switching General Social Survey Quantitative 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We thank David Lapp and W. Bradford Wilcox for bibliographic information, Alta Williams for research assistance, and Matthew McKeever for helpful suggestions on a previous draft.

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Copyright information

© Religious Research Association, Inc. 2011

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Human Development and Family StudiesNational Taiwan Normal UniversityTaipeiTaiwan
  2. 2.Department of Family and Consumer StudiesUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUSA

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