Processes of Disaffiliation: Religious Mobility Among Men and Women

An investigation of the processes of disaffiliation from voluntary associations is conducted, focusing on membership in religious denominations, using a panel study to trace different paths from a point of origin in high school denomination. A theory of religious affiliation based on family formation is used to construct two models, one for apostasy and one for switching. Within each model the effects of gender on processes of disaffiliation are examined. Changes in family status are found to affect apostasy but not switching, the latter being more influenced by denomination of origin. Men are most affected by family variables while women are most affected by religion variables. Religion variables are important discriminators in the case of switching, but have little impact on apostasy. The results underline the importance of taking family variables into account when studying disaffiliation and of treating apostasy and switching as qualitatively different variables.