Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2012
Summary:
Religious change is often described with aggregate figures on affiliation, practice and belief.
Such studies tell us that secularisation happens because each cohort is less religious than the one
before, and that socialisation in childhood and habits formed in young adulthood are overwhelmingly
responsible for religious decline. In this article we use data from the International
Social Survey Programme to consider the extent and magnitude of religious decline at the level
of families, whether parental influence is greater in more religious countries, and which individual
variables influence the intergenerational transmission of religious practice and whether these
vary between different countries.We find that secularisation happens largely because many people
are a little less religious than their parents, and relatively few are more religious. We also
find that the patterns of transmission are remarkably stable: parents are no more influential in
religious countries than in nonreligious countries, and there is no indication that they have lost
influence over time.
Published in
Nordic Journal of Religion and Society
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 25 , p.131 -150
ISSN
8097291
Subjects
Link
http://tapir.pdc.no/pdf/NJRS/2012/2012-02-2.pdf
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