Religion, Faith and Spirituality

Overview
Fast Facts
Sources and Resources

What roles do faith and spirituality play in the lives of today's youth? Are young people increasingly gravitating toward organized religion or are they backing away from their parents' beliefs and values? And how do their feelings about faith and spirituality correspond with their overall happiness and their views on relationships, work and civic commitment?

Fast Facts

Among adolescents, religious involvement is patterned by gender and race, according to the National Study of Youth and Religion’s 2003 report, “Religion in the Lives of American Adolescents.” On average, girls are consistently “more religious” than boys. Blacks are more likely than whites to attend religious services regularly (40 percent vs. 29 percent) and vastly more likely to indicate that religion has high importance in their lives (55 percent vs. 24 percent).

Religious socialization is more likely to occur in families characterized by considerable warmth and closeness. Mothers are generally thought to be more influential than fathers in adolescent children's religious development.

Forty-four percent of those born between 1981 and 1988 identified themselves as Protestants, 25 percent are Roman Catholic, and less than 10 percent are affiliated with some other religion, according to "A Portrait of 'Generation Next',” a 2006 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and The Generation Next Initiative.

Among Americans ages 18-29, one in four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion, according to a 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Religion and spirituality are an integral part of happiness for most American young people, a 2007 study by MTV and The Associated Press found. Forty-four percent said religion and spirituality are either a very important or the single most important thing in their lives, with more than one in 10 reporting the latter.

Those for whom religion and spirituality play a bigger role in life tend to say they're happier. Eighty percent of those who say spirituality is the most important thing in life say they are happy with life in general, compared with 60 percent of those who say that spirituality is not an important part of life at all.

Students who plan to complete four years of college are more likely than others to attend religious services, according to Child Trends. For example, in 2004, 45 percent of eighth-graders who attended religious services at least weekly planned to complete four years of college, compared with 28 percent among those eighth-graders who did not have such plans. Teens who attend religious services are less likely to take risks or get in trouble with police. They are also more likely to volunteer in their communities and play sports.

Four in five U.S. college students are interested in spiritually, three in four say they’re “searching for meaning or purpose in life,” and more than three in four believe in God, survey analysts at UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute reported in spring 2007.

Most Americans (71 percent) idealize the notion of a traditional two-parent family, but divorce, cohabitation and nontraditional family situations are becoming more accepted across religious groups, according to a poll conducted for Religion & Ethics Newsweekly found.

Latinos are changing the composition of U.S. religious denominations. Latinos account for one-third of members in the Catholic Church – the nation’s largest religious institution; the share likely will grow because of demographic changes, a 2007 study indicates. Twenty percent of U.S. Latinos are Protestant and 8 percent are secular.

Sources and Resources

Government Sources

The 2007 Statistical Abstract; http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/population/

Tables 73 through 75 of the nation’s annual data book provide information on the adult population’s self-described religious identification, religious bodies, and Christian church adherents and the Jewish population. In 2001, just over three-fourths of the nation’s nearly 208,000 adults identified themselves as Christian.

White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives; www.fbci.gov

The office was created in 2001 to strengthen and expand the role of faith-based efforts in providing social services to the poor. At least 11 federal agencies – including the departments of education, justice, and health and human services – now have Centers for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. These efforts are aimed at helping FBCOs compete more effectively for funds.

Contact: Jake Yunker, associate director, 202.456.7608; jyunker@who.eop.gov

Other Sources

Association of Religion Data Archives; www.thearda.com

Since 1997, ARDA has worked to improve access to the best data on religion. Its Web site shows U.S. religious congregation and membership participation as a whole and by state and county, plus other countries’ religious profiles. It features maps and statistics on attitudes, beliefs and politics, religious behaviors and experiences. It also has an extensive list of recommended links for journalists. Housed at Pennsylvania State University, the archives are funded by the university, the Lilly Endowment and the John Templeton Foundation.

Contact: ARDA at 814.865.6258; arda@pop.psu.edu

Association of Theological Schools; www.ats.edu

ATS is a membership organization of more than 250 U.S. and Canadian graduate schools preparing students for ministry or for teaching and research in the theological disciplines. The Commission on Accrediting of ATS accredits the schools and approves their degree programs. The association is based in Pittsburgh.

Contact: Nancy Merrill, communications director, 412.788.6505, Ext. 234; merrill@ats.edu

Center for Media, Religion and Culture; http://www.colorado.edu/journalism/mcm/mrc/

Part of the University of Colorado's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Boulder center serves as a clearinghouse of information. Its interdisciplinary research team focuses on the intersection of religious and media-related practices in the everyday lives of contemporary adults and their families. Its Web site lists research, public conferences, fellowship opportunities and more.

Contact: Stewart M. Hoover, director, 303.492.5007; hoover@colorado.edu

Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood & Adolescence; www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org

A project of the Minneapolis-based Search Institute, it aims to become an international hub of theory, research and practice to advance the scientific study of spiritual development . The institute developed the framework of 40 Developmental Assets, which are positive experiences and personal qualities that young people need to grow up healthy and responsible. The Search Institute cites involvement in faith communities among 40 potential assets for healthy development. The institute has major support from the John Templeton Foundation of Philadelphia.

Contact: Gene Rohlkepartain, co-director, 612.692.5553; gener@search-institute.org

Council on American-Islamic Relations; www.cair.com

CAIR is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, with 32 chapters in 20 states and one in Canada. The nonprofit organization aims to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims and build coalitions promoting justice and mutual understanding.

Contact: Ibrahim Hooper, communications director, 202.488.8787 or

202.744.7726 (cell); ihooper@cair.com

Faith in Public Life; http://www.faithinpubliclife.org/

The nonprofit organization, founded by diverse religious leaders after the 2004 elections, promotes faith that public life will support social and economic justice. It provides critical organizing and communications resources to support advocacy on national, state and local levels. Its Web site has an interactive U.S. map identify faith groups and their contact information.

Contact: Katie Barge, communications director, 202.481.8147; press@faithinpubliclife.org

Hartford Institute for Religion Research; http://hirr.hartsem.edu/

Part of the Hartford (Conn.) Seminary, the institute has built an international reputation for supporting rigorous, policy-relevant research, anticipating emerging issues and disseminating knowledge. It describes faiths from Anglican to Southern Baptist. Its research encompasses faith communities, urban settings, multiracial congregations, immigrations and much more.

Contact: David Roozen, director, 860.509.9546; roozen@hartsem.edu

Knight Chair in Media and Religion; http://uscmediareligion.org/

Part of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, its Web site serves as a resource for journalists, including journalism educators and students seeking new models for covering politics, science, sex and gender. Its chair, Diane Winston, writes a blog.

Contact: 213.821.5388; dianewin@usc.edu

National Council of Churches; www.ncccusa.org

Since 1950, the New York-based council has been a leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. Its member faith groups – from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches – include 45 million people among more than 100,000 local congregations.

Contact: Daniel Webster, media relations director, 212.870.2252; dwebster@ncccusa.org

National Study of Youth and Religion; http://www.youthandreligion.org/

The study aims to enhance understanding of American youths’ religious lives from adolescence into young adulthood, through phone surveys and interviews. Based at the University of North Carolina, it began in 2001 with principal funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. and additional support from the John Templeton Foundation. Researchers – led by University of Notre Dame sociology professor Christian Smith and UNC assistant professor Lisa Pearce – began collecting and analyzing the third wave of data in 2007.

Contact: Patricia Snell at Notre Dame, psnell@nd.edu; youthandreligion@unc.edu

Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life; http://pewforum.org

A subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, the nonpartisan forum promotes deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs. It delivers timely, impartial information to national opinion leaders, including government officials and journalists. Its polling and analytical research focuses on religion and its intersection in four areas: politics, law, domestic policy and world affairs.

Contact: Robbie Mills, communications assistant, 202.419.4564; mills@pewforum.org

Polling Report Inc.; http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm

The for-profit corporation, launched in 1985 and based in Santa Barbara, Calif., lists findings from various polls including those on religion. For instance, a June 2007 CBS News poll found that 70 percent of respondents believed it was not appropriate for religious leaders to urge people to vote for or against a political candidate. The answers varied strongly by political affiliation, with that view held by 77 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of independents, compared with 58 percent of Republicans.

Contact: editor@pollingreport.com

Religion News Service; www.religionnews.com

The Washington, D.C.-based secular news and photo service is devoted to unbiased coverage of religion and ethics. Founded in 1934, it’s owned by Newhouse News Service, part of Advance Publishing. RNS material is distributed to U.S. daily and weekly newspapers. Its Web site maintains backgrounders on a handful of major religions and a calendar of religious events.

Contact: 202.463.8777; info@religionnews.com

Religion Newswriters Association; www.rna.org

The independent, nonpartisan organization founded in 1949 to advance the professional standards of religion reporting in the secular press. Its Religion Link Web site is a comprehensive resource to help journalists write informed stories about the ways religion affects public life. It offers source guides, backgrounders and links to Web resources. It includes a thorough tip sheet on covering religion. In summer 2008, RNA is scheduled to move to the University of Missouri School of Journalism, which also houses the Center on Religion and the Professions.

Contact: Debra Mason, executive director, 573.884.6295 or 573.882.2866; MasonDL@missouri.edu

ReligionSource; www.religionsource.org

Subtitled “The Journalist’s Shortcut to 5,000 Scholars,” the referral service has information on religion and politics, social issues, education, popular culture and ethics. It’s a service of the American Academy of Religion, which promotes academic study and has 10,000 members worldwide. AAR also has several contests to honor reporting on religion-related topics. The Atlanta-based service is supported by Lilly Endowment Inc. and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Contact: 404.727.4725; source@religionsource.org

Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy; http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org

Part of the State University of New York’s Rockefeller Institute of Government, the roundtable aims to increase awareness of critical issues related to faith-based social service programs. It supports in-depth analysis and discussion based on the best social service science, legal and policy research. The roundtable, based in Albany, launched in 2002 with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Contact: Claire Hughes, media correspondent, 518.l443.5744; hughesc@rockinst.org

Spirituality in Higher Education; http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/about/index.html

The survey, subtitled “A National Study of College Students’ Search for Meaning and Purpose,” is a project of the University of California-Los Angeles’ Higher Education Research Institute. Since 2003, the project has studied trends, patterns and principles of spirituality and religiousness among college students – and how the college experience influences spiritual development. It has polled at least 112,000 entering freshmen at 236 colleges and universities plus more than 65,000 faculty from 511 institutions nationwide. It’s funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Contact: Jennifer Lindholm, project director, 310.825.1925; jlindholm@college.ucla.edu

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