Social Affiliation from Religious Disaffiliation: Evidence of Selective Mixing Among Youth with No Religious Preference During the Transition to College
The number of individuals claiming a nonreligious identity in the United States is on the rise, with one-fourth of the overall U.S. public failing to identify with any of the major religious traditions. In this article, we examine whether religious disaffiliation structures social network formation...
Authors: | ; ; ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2015]
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In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
Year: 2015, Volume: 54, Issue: 4, Pages: 833-841 |
Further subjects: | B
Social Networks
B religious nones B homophily |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | The number of individuals claiming a nonreligious identity in the United States is on the rise, with one-fourth of the overall U.S. public failing to identify with any of the major religious traditions. In this article, we examine whether religious disaffiliation structures social network formation in a social context in which religious identification (and religiosity) is a salient cultural marker. We take advantage of unique data on the personal networks of youth transitioning into a college where religion is a culturally salient facet of everyday life. We hypothesize that, if there is nonreligious homophily, it may result from an attraction of the disaffiliated to each other or from a repulsion away from the religiously affiliated. Results of exponential random graph models suggest that both mechanisms may be at play. We find that religious Nones and affiliated non-Catholics are disproportionately more likely to form and maintain relationships with one another and are relatively less likely to form and maintain relationships with members of their respective religious out-groups. We close by outlining the implications of our findings and delineating promising avenues for future research. |
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ISSN: | 1468-5906 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the scientific study of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1111/jssr.12227 |