Religion and youth educational aspirations: a multilevel approach

ABSTRACT

Previous research has demonstrated that individual religious beliefs and practices are associated with educational outcomes. However, less is known about the manner in which the overall religious cultural influence of a religion can affect an individual’s educational aspirations. Using multilevel analyses on two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) merged with county-level variables from the US Census, and the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS), the study shows that a county’s higher Jewish population share is associated with a higher level of educational aspirations for the youth, regardless of being Jewish or not. This Jewish contextual effect remains robust even after controlling a wide range of individual and county-level variables, such as individual academic achievement and religious identity. Consistent with the relevant theory and literature, the negative main effect of county-level conservative Protestant population share on educational aspirations is explained by county-level socioeconomic characteristics. The same mechanism is used in part to explain the initially positive relationship between Catholic population share and educational aspirations. Finally, the study highlights the importance of using a multilevel approach to examine and provide understanding of the relationship between religious influence and educational outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• religious context
• educational aspirations
• adolescent development

Disclosure statement

This research uses data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, a research project designed by Christian Smith, of the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, and generously funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. of Indianapolis, IN.

Notes

1. $IC{C}_1=\frac{{\tau }_{11}}{{\tau }_{11}+{\tau }_{22}+}$ Where ${\tau }_{11}$ means variances at level 2, ${\tau }_{22}$ means variances at level 3, and $ϵ$ means residuals.

2. PRE =$\frac{{\tau }_{11}^{\prime }-{\tau }_{11}}{\tau { }_{11}^{\prime }}$Where ${\tau }_{11}^{\prime }$ means the original individual-level variances in model 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fanhao Nie

Fanhao Nie is an assistant professor in sociology at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, USA. He received his PhD in sociology from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. His research focuses on how religion may influence emerging adults’ mental and physical health, educational outcomes, substance use behaviours, and family values. His articles have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, such as the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Review of Religious Research, and Tobacco Control. His teaching interest includes introductory sociology, social problems, social statistics, research methods, and the sociology of religion.