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

Adolescent Religious Participation Research Published in JSSR

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The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, a top-ranked international journal in the field of sociology of religion, is published quarterly. Research co-authors are Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Robert Faris and Mark Regnerus. Smith is professor and associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Faris and Denton are Ph.D. graduate students in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Regnerus is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Data analyzed were from the Monitoring the Future survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health and the Survey of Adults and Youth, formerly known as the Survey of Parents and Youth. Monitoring the Future is a nationally representative survey of U.S. high school students administered to 12th graders since 1975, and to 8th and 10th graders beginning in 1991.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health is a nationally representative school-based study of adolescents focusing on the social context of healthy behavior. Eighty eligible high schools — both public and private — were drawn from a national sampling frame of high schools. The recruitment rate of the originally sampled high schools was over 70 percent. The Add Health survey was administered in school, from the fall of 1994 to the spring of 1995, to all students grades seven to 12 present on the survey date, and was completed by over 90,000 students.

The Survey of Adults and Youth — formerly known as the Survey of Parents and Youth — is a national telephone survey funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered every three years as part of the foundation's evaluation of the Urban Health Initiative, a major multi-city effort to improve the health and safety of children and youth in distressed urban areas. The survey was developed by a consortium of researchers at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service of New York University, the Office of Population Research of Princeton University and the Social Indicators Survey Center of Columbia University.

The National Study of Youth and Religion, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., is based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This four-year research project 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 U.S. 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 in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.

01-08-03

Sociologists with the National Study of Youth and Religion, based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, announce the publication of "Mapping American Adolescent Religious Participation," in the December 2024 issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. This research examines data from three national surveys of U.S. youth ages 13 through 18 and describes adolescent religious affiliation, religious service attendance and involvement in religious youth groups. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, a top-ranked international journal in the field of sociology of religion, is published quarterly. Research co-authors are Christian Smith, Melinda Lundquist Denton, Robert Faris and Mark Regnerus. Smith is professor and associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Faris and Denton are Ph.D. graduate students in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Regnerus is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Data analyzed were from the Monitoring the Future survey, the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health and the Survey of Adults and Youth, formerly known as the Survey of Parents and Youth. Monitoring the Future is a nationally representative survey of U.S. high school students administered to 12th graders since 1975, and to 8th and 10th graders beginning in 1991. The National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health is a nationally representative school-based study of adolescents focusing on the social context of healthy behavior. Eighty eligible high schools — both public and private — were drawn from a national sampling frame of high schools. The recruitment rate of the originally sampled high schools was over 70 percent. The Add Health survey was administered in school, from the fall of 1994 to the spring of 1995, to all students grades seven to 12 present on the survey date, and was completed by over 90,000 students. The Survey of Adults and Youth — formerly known as the Survey of Parents and Youth — is a national telephone survey funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered every three years as part of the foundation's evaluation of the Urban Health Initiative, a major multi-city effort to improve the health and safety of children and youth in distressed urban areas. The survey was developed by a consortium of researchers at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service of New York University, the Office of Population Research of Princeton University and the Social Indicators Survey Center of Columbia University. The National Study of Youth and Religion, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., is based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This four-year research project 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 U.S. 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 in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.