William J. Jensen and Dr. Ray M. Merrill, Health Sciences
Background
In recent decades, a common view arose that increased educational attainment led to less religious commitment and in views counter to spiritual growth but that encouraged scientific and intellectual accomplishments. 1234 Turning away from spiritual to secular explanations of life has received considerable attention (Stark 1998).
Albrecht and Heaton (1984) showed that education and expressions of religiosity were inversely related to 15 of 16 select measures of religiosity (prayer, daily Bible reading, high spiritual commitment, etc).5 Because of relatively high levels of education and church attendance among Mormons, Albrecht and Heaton (1984) considered this population separately. To address the question whether higher levels of church attendance among more educated Mormons was due to social factors, they conducted a survey among 7,446 Mormons in the United States and Canada. This survey collected information on financial contributions to the church, personal prayer, time spent in religious study, and importance of religious beliefs. Their results indicated that educational attainment was positively associated with these religious factors and a good indicator of religiosity among Mormons. However, this study did not adjust for factors such as age, income, and marital status.
The purpose of our research was to reassess the relationship between church attendance and education among Mormons. In addition, because Mormons tend to have relatively large families, the relationship between education and parity were examined and considered. Potential influences of age, annual household income, marital status, and gender on these relationships were explored.
Methods
Analysis was based on results from two cross-sectional random surveys: The 1996 Utah Health Status Survey and the 2000 Utah Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System5. The interview process for the former survey covered from June 1 to August 31, 1996. In the latter survey we contracted with the Utah Department of Health to add two questions to their ongoing BRFSS from February 1 through April 30, 2000. These additional questions covered religious preference and church attendance. Response rates were 66% for the 1996 Utah Health Status Survey and 68% for the 2000 Utah BRFSS.
Results
We concluded that educational attainment is higher in Utah than in the rest of the United States. The relatively high levels of education in this state are attributed to a high proportion of Mormons likely to have some college experience. Other categories of religious preference and church activity in Utah display levels of education similar to those on the national level.
Consistent with this observation is the Mormons’ doctrinal emphasis on the importance of obtaining education. Another explanation presented by Albrecht and Heaton (1984) involves the fact that the Mormon Church does not have a paid ministry. Thus, as the members of the church are asked to serve in different capacities (e.g., conducting meetings, presenting gospel messages, teaching Sunday school, etc.), certain educational competencies are implicit. The percentage of Mormons who attend church weekly significantly increased with level of education.
We also found evidence of an inverse relationship between educational attainment and parity was shown for women other than Mormons who attend church weekly. This is consistent with results from other studies.67 However, after adjusting for age, Mormons who attend church weekly tended to have lower parity if they had at least a college education, except in the age group 18-29. Mean parity for women ages 18-29 that are not Mormons who attend church weekly was 0.3. In contrast, Mormons who attend church weekly in this age group had a significantly higher mean parity value of 0.9. This latter result is not consistent with another study that showed that women with at least a four-year college degree were twice as likely to be childless at age 30.8 Finally, although parity drops among those with a college education for both groups, Mormons who attend church weekly have significantly higher parity within each age category. Again, these results were likely due to doctrine in the Mormon Church that places importance on raising children. As mentioned earlier, Albrecht and Heaton (1984) showed that church attendance is a good indicator of religiosity among Mormons. Religiously active members will be taught that they have an inherent responsibility to obtain an education, marry, and raise a family. Hence, for Mormons who attend church weekly we might expect higher levels of education and parity. However, the fact that parity falls for Mormons who attend church weekly that have at least a college education, albeit less so than other groups in Utah, may be the result of practical constraints; that is, women with a college education are more likely to have a career which introduces competing demands on parity.
The first and biggest frustration that I encountered was that we could not acquire the data sets necessary to carry out my initial proposed research topic. This meant we had to start from square one with a new topic and research plan. While this was disappointing, the new topic we came up with turned out to be just as rewarding and informative. Many of my tasks included in this research project initially involved literature reviews and brainstorming to come up with a research question. As we got further along I assisted a little in the statistical analysis and putting together of charts and figures. This was very challenging to me having only a few courses in statistics and epidemiology under my belt and required lots of instruction. I was also impressed in the amount of revisions we did of the initial research paper we wrote. I have written dozens and dozens of research paper during my undergraduate career, but nothing approached this in terms of technicality and depth. This to me was not only challenging but served as a frustration as new things seemed to persistently come out that we could improve. I graduated in April and left to attend graduate school in Missouri, so unfortunately, I did not get to participate in the final few revisions. We researched several periodicals we would like to have our paper published in. This was the first time that I actively involved myself in trying to get a paper published. I was amazed at what went into this. Overall, this served as one of the greatest learning experiences at BYU of what really goes into a professional research type paper.
References
- Funk, R.B. and F.K. Willits. 1987. “College Attendance and Attitude Change: A Panel Study.” Sociology of Education 60:224-231.
- Madsen, G.E., and G.M. Vernon. 1983. “Maintaining the Faith During College: A Study of Campus Religious Group Participation.” Review of Religious Research 25:127-141.
- Caplovitz, D. and F. Sherrow. 1977. The Religious Drop Outs: Apostasy Among College Graduates. Beverly Hills, Ca.: Sage Publications.
- Argyle, M. and B. Beit-Hallahmi. 1975. The Social Psychology of Religion. London; Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- Albrecht, S.L and T.B. Heaton. 1984. “Secularization, Higher Education, and Religiosity.” Review of Religious Research 26:43-58.
- About the BRFSS. Behavioral risk factor surveillance system, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site. Accessed April 12, 2001. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/brfss/about.htm
- Pol, L.G. “Childlessness: A panel study of expressed intention and reported fertility.” Social Biology 30(Fall):318- 27.
- Yamaguchi, K. and L.R. Ferguson. 1995. “The Stopping and Spacing of Childbirths and their Birth-History Predictors: Rational-Choice Theory and Event-History Analysis.” American Sociological Review 60:272-298.
- Martin, Steven P. 2000. “Diverging fertility among U.S. women who delay childbearing past age 30.” Demography 37:523-33.