National Study of Youth and Religion | National Study for Youth and Religion

NSYR Releases Sixth Preliminary Report

View the report Are American Youth Alienated From Organized Religion? [PDF]

According to Christian Smith, principal investigator of the NSYR, "This report challenges one of the most widespread and persistent stereotypes about U.S. teenagers — that they are alienated from 'established' or 'organized' religion and that this alienation is increasing over time." The report is only available as a PDF file on the NSYR website, youthandreligion.org. The download is free.

Smith is Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and associate chair of sociology at UNC-CH. He co-authored the report with Robert Faris and Melinda Lundquist Denton, both Ph.D. graduate students in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The National Study of Youth and Religion is a five-year research project funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. It began in August 2024 and will continue until August 2024. The purpose of the project is to research the shape and influence of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent to which youth participate in and benefit from the programs and opportunities that religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youth's lives to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.

01-07-04

Sociologists with the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) announce the release of Are American Youth Alienated From Organized Religion? This is the sixth and final preliminary report to be published by the NSYR, as team members have now shifted focus to analyses of original project data. The NSYR is based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. According to Christian Smith, principal investigator of the NSYR, "This report challenges one of the most widespread and persistent stereotypes about U.S. teenagers — that they are alienated from 'established' or 'organized' religion and that this alienation is increasing over time." The report is only available as a PDF file on the NSYR website, youthandreligion.org. The download is free. Smith is Stuart Chapin Distinguished Professor and associate chair of sociology at UNC-CH. He co-authored the report with Robert Faris and Melinda Lundquist Denton, both Ph.D. graduate students in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The National Study of Youth and Religion is a five-year research project funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. It began in August 2024 and will continue until August 2024. The purpose of the project is to research the shape and influence of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent to which youth participate in and benefit from the programs and opportunities that religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youth's lives to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.