Determinants of Disaffiliation: An International Study

Using a dataset of 15,000 subjects from 32 Western countries, the current study examines individuals who were raised in a certain religion and, at some stage of their lives, left it. Currently, they define their religious affiliation as ‘no religion’. A battery of explanatory variables (country-spec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Authors: Brañas-Garza, Pablo 1971- (Author) ; García-Muñoz, Teresa M. (Author) ; Neuman, Shoshana (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI [2013]
In: Religions
Further subjects:B Europe
B national aggregates
B Disaffiliation
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Description
Summary:Using a dataset of 15,000 subjects from 32 Western countries, the current study examines individuals who were raised in a certain religion and, at some stage of their lives, left it. Currently, they define their religious affiliation as ‘no religion’. A battery of explanatory variables (country-specific, personal attributes and marriage variables) was employed to test for determinants of this decision. It was found that the tendency of individuals to leave their religion—the most extreme symptom of secularization—is strongly correlated with their liberal beliefs and with parental and spousal religious characteristics. Moreover, country characteristics, as well as personal socio-demographic features seem to be much less relevant, except for the religious diversity of the country that has a positive effect on disaffiliation.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel4010166