Losing religion at college? New study flips the common wisdom
Cathy Lynn Grossman ("The Washington Post," August 7, 2014)
You don’t need a doctoral degree to think higher education leads people
away from organized religion. That’s been common wisdom for decades.
Now, a sociologist’s new generational study upends that thinking.
Today, it’s the least-educated members of Generation X — people born
roughly between 1965 and 1980 — who are “most likely to leave religion,” said
Philip Schwadel, an associate professor of sociology at the University of
Nebraska_Lincoln.
Millennials — Americans roughly between the ages 18 and 30 — were not
included in the study because, Schwadel said, it’s too soon to tell if they
will settle on a religious identity.
Schwadel, whose study is published in the August edition of the journal
Social Forces, found a clear historical shift.
“Americans born in the late 1920s and ‘30s who graduated from college were
twice as likely to drop out of religion than people who didn’t graduate
from college,” he said. The postwar baby boomers proved to be “the last
holdout of the church dropouts.” For boomers, “a college degree was still
associated with a higher likelihood of leaving religion.”
However, for the generation born in the 1960s, there’s no difference
between those who did and those who did not go to college in their likelihood
of
religious affiliation. Now, for America’s middle-aged adults who were born
in the 1970s, “those without a college education are the most likely to
drop out.”
In other words, a college degree used to mean people were more likely to
lose religion. Now, some people are losing religion whether they went to
college or not but it’s especially true for those who didn’t go to college.
Although the study does not examine the reasons for this shift, Schwadel
observed:
* You can find God on the quad: Campus life has also changed and now offers
“a lot of room and opportunity for religious connection. The social
networks are wider,” he said.
* College is more widely accessible, no longer a bastion of the cultural
elite. What’s more, cultural trends that started with the elite — including
quitting organized religion — have become more widespread. “Secularization
has lost its elitism — moving across all social classes,” he said.
* Churches have changed, too. As more college-educated people affiliate
with churches, those without degrees can feel uncomfortable. “I know from my
other research that people want to go to church with people like themselves.
”
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