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Christian Colleges and Universities as Moral Communities: The Effects of Institutional Characteristics on Student Religiosity

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Research suggests that some Christian colleges function as moral communities that can help sustain religious belief and practice (Hill in J Sci Study Relig 48:515–534, 2009). In this paper, we explore several mechanisms by which this phenomenon may occur. Using a survey of college students from 31 institutions belonging to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, we examine how institutional characteristics influence changes in religiosity throughout college, finding that religious homogeneity and the availability of spiritual mentors consistently have significant effects on changes in religious belief and practice. The results are discussed in light of the existing literature on religious homogeneity and pluralism, as well as their implications for administrators at Christian colleges and universities.

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Notes

  1. We use the categorization system of the Association of Religious Data Archives (ARDA). http://www.thearda.com/denoms/families/groups.asp.

  2. Separate analyses were also run to examine the effects of moral communities on increases in religiosity (compared to decreases and maintenance of religiosity), and these results are included in the "Appendix". Initially, the analysis used an ordinal outcome variable that measured decreases, remaining the same, and increases in religiosity, but SAS’s PROC GLIMMIX currently has no way to test the proportional odds assumption in multinomial logit (Wang et al. 2012), and SAS’s PROC LOGISTIC suggested that the proportional odds assumption was violated in many of the models, warranting separate analyses using binary outcomes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Family Studies, Union University, 1050 Union University Drive, Jackson, TN, 38305, USA

    Phil Davignon

  2. Department of Sociology, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97326, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Robert A. Thomson Jr.

Authors
  1. Phil Davignon
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  2. Robert A. Thomson Jr.
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Correspondence to Phil Davignon.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 10, 11, 12 and 13.

Table 10 Multi-level models predicting increase in church attendance
Full size table
Table 11 Multi-level models predicting increase in Bible reading
Full size table
Table 12 Multi-level models predicting increase in Bible study
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Table 13 Multi-level models predicting increase in prayer
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Davignon, P., Thomson, R.A. Christian Colleges and Universities as Moral Communities: The Effects of Institutional Characteristics on Student Religiosity. Rev Relig Res 57, 531–554 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-015-0214-5

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