Fortified, Not Secularized: Longitudinal Influence of Higher Education on Religious Beliefs and Behaviors

• In Event: 72.040 - Education and Religious Identities

Abstract

It has long been assumed that higher levels of education would lead to more liberal beliefs and an overall decline in religiosity for young adults, yet these predictions have largely gone unfulfilled. Using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the effect of higher levels of education on specific religious attitudes during the critical transitions of early adulthood. Results indicate that education reduces concrete and exclusivist religious beliefs, does not influence prayer, and increases broad spiritual beliefs. More importantly, results of proportional hazard models demonstrate that education significantly fortifies extant religious beliefs, be they of liberal or fundamental. In sum, educational institutions may tend to be more liberal, but they are not necessarily secularizing.

Authors

• Andrew Pendola, Auburn University

• David P. Baker, The Pennsylvania State University