Intergenerational Transmission of Religious Conservatism
Open Access
- Author:
- Smith, Jesse
- Graduate Program:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- February 11, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Valarie Elizabeth King, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Roger Finke, Committee Member
Gary J Adler Jr., Committee Member
Eric P Baumer, Program Head/Chair - Keywords:
- Religion
Religious conservatism
Intergenerational transmission
Millennial
Cohort
Moral absolutism
Transcendent authority - Abstract:
- Substantial literature confirms a positive relationship between parents’ and children’s religiosity which extends into adulthood, indicating a process of religious transmission. This relationship is especially strong when parents belong to conservative religious denominations or hold more traditional beliefs. However, the millennial age cohort is both more ideologically liberal and less religious than previous generations. In part, these trends are related: millennials are more averse to religion because they associate it with ideological conservatism. This seems to suggest a paradox: studies of family transmission indicate that religiously conservative parents should see high rates of continuity between their own religious beliefs and practices and those of their millennial children, while studies of millennial cohort trends lead us to expect low continuity. In this study, using longitudinal data from the NSYR, I find evidence of high continuity. Specifically, there is a robust positive relationship between parental religious conservatism during adolescence and respondent religiosity, favorability toward religion, moral absolutism, and belief in transcendent authority in young adulthood. This suggests that for millennials, religiously conservative family background creates a buffer effect against larger cohort trends.