Religion among Teens: A Data-Driven Learning Guide

Goal & Concept

Goal

The goal of this exercise is to examine the relationship between demographic and socio-cultural factors and religiosity among American high school students. Crosstabulations, comparison of means, and graphs will be used.

Concept

Religiosity is the term used to refer to the importance of religion in a person's life. It includes religious identity, behavior, attitudes, perceptions, and practices.

Research has shown that religiosity has a positive influence on adolescents' lives and is associated with healthier diets, exercise, sleep habits, and self-esteem, as well as lower rates of alcohol and drug use, early sexual behavior, delinquency, depression, and suicide.

Less is known about how religiosity develops in children and adolescents however, though research suggests that socio-cultural factors such as racial identity, gender, parental marital situation and geographical location of residence influence the extent of teenagers' religiosity, as do parents' attendance of religious services, parents' level of education, household income, and parental presence in the household.

Examples of possible research questions about adolescent religiosity :

• What are the mechanisms by which religious beliefs develop during childhood and how are they related to teenagers' behaviors and attitudes?

• How are family structure, gender, race, and ethnicity related to adolescents' religiosity?

• How does the contextual environment (family, peers, school, and community) influence religious beliefs and behaviors in youth and through these religious beliefs and behaviors influence health risk behaviors in youth?

• How do parents' religious beliefs and practices relate to their parenting styles?

• How are religious beliefs transmitted across generations?

• Does exposure to multiple religions affect an individual's sense of religiosity?

• How are youths' perceptions of religion's proscriptions related to their health risk behaviors?

Goal & Concept - Dataset - Application - Interpretation & Summary - Bibliography