Religion and Civic Engagement Among America's Youth

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2008

Department

Political Science, International Development, and International Affairs

School

Social Science and Global Studies

Abstract

Scholars of civic engagement are noticing the consequences of religiosity. Scholars have seen the influence of religiosity on political and charitable behavior among adults. But does this pattern hold for adolescents? In this study, I use a new survey of American teenagers, the National Study of Youth and Religion, to assess the impact of intense religiosity on adolescent volunteerism and political activities. Evidence from multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that intense religiosity, measured in terms of behavior (frequent church attendance) and beliefs (theological conservatism) significantly increase the likelihood that teens will volunteer. However, adolescent political involvement is not related to religiosity. © 2008 Western Social Science Association.

Publication Title

Social Science Journal

Volume

45

Issue

3

First Page

504

Last Page

514

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