Comparing the RELTRAD and Born-Again/Evangelical Self-Identification Approaches to Measuring American Protestantism
The question of how Protestantism (including evangelicalism) is measured in social science research is of keen importance to those seeking to understand religion in American life. In this article, we compare and contrast two of the leading techniques for classifying Protestants. One of these approac...
| Published in: | Journal for the scientific study of religion |
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| Authors: | ; ; ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
[2018]
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| In: |
Journal for the scientific study of religion
Year: 2018, Volume: 57, Issue: 4, Pages: 830-847 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Protestantism
/ Evangelical movement
/ Identification
/ Measurability
|
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy KBQ North America KDD Protestant Church KDG Free church |
| Further subjects: | B
Measurement
B RELTRAD B Evangelical B Protestantism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The question of how Protestantism (including evangelicalism) is measured in social science research is of keen importance to those seeking to understand religion in American life. In this article, we compare and contrast two of the leading techniques for classifying Protestants. One of these approaches (the RELTRAD approach) categorizes respondents as evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, or black Protestants mainly on the basis of their denominational affiliation. By contrast, the self-identification method utilizes information about a respondent's race and a yes/no question that asks respondents directly whether they consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians to create similar categories. We show that there is considerable overlap, though not perfect correlation, between the two approaches. Both methods produce similar estimates of the size of Protestant subgroups, and they paint similar religious and demographic portraits of the evangelical, mainline, and black Protestant communities. As a result, we argue that the self-identification method can be an effective proxy for RELTRAD when RELTRAD is unavailable as a measurement option. |
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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.12550 |