Mapping American Adolescent Subjective Religiosity and Attitudes of Alienation toward Religion: A Research Report

Abstract

Sociolo~sts know surprisingly little about the reli~~us attitudes and practices of adolescents in the Un/t.ed States. This article be~rts to redress that laek of knowledge by examining descriptive findings on adolescent religiosi~ and attitudes toward religion from two recent, reputable national surveys of American :youth. We present descriptive statistics on three fundamental aspects of subjective youth reli~osiO (importance of reli~on, frequency of pra~er, boro again status) and four measures of youth attitudes of alienation toward reli~ ( agreemem with ~rents, approval of churches, desired influence of churches, financial donations to churches ). We also examine the irrfluences of gender, race, age, and re~n on most of these reli~~us outcomes. This de.scriptive irutuiry should help to increase understanding of and to help lay down a baseline of essential descriptive information about American adolescent reli~osit'y. Further research is needed to investigate the social in… of different kinds of reli~osity on various outcomes in the lives of Arnerican youth.