Religion and Family in Middletown, USA

Abstract

Among the classic community studies is Robert and Helen Lynd's description of the midwestern city, in the mid-1920s. A replication and extension of their work in Middletown, conducted in 1976-1978, generated data that made it possible to highlight changes in the community over the 50-year period. Overall, the results suggest that the family ties of Middletown people in the late 1970s were at least as strong as they had been in the 1920s. Similarly, citizens of contemporary Middletown seem to be at least as religious-as measured on a variety of indicators-as were the Middletowners of their grandparents' generation. Preliminary analysis of the relationship between religiosity and familism suggests that the two trends are related, but it is not clear whether the direct relationship stems from the familistic being more apt to be religious or from those high in religiosity having stronger family bonds, or a combination of the two.