Losing My Religion: The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood

Many Americans exhibit declining religiosity during early adulthood. There is no consensus about why this occurs, though longstanding assumptions suggest the secularizing effects of higher education, normative deviance and life course factors. We evaluate these effects on decreasingfrequency of religious practice, diminished importance of religion and disaffiliation from religion altogether. Results from analyses of theAdd Health study indicate that only religieus participation suffers substantial declines in young adulthood. Contrary to expectations, emerging adults that avoid college exhibit the most extensive patterns of religious decline, undermining conventional wisdom about the secularizing effect of higher education. Marriage curbs religious decline, while cohabitation, nonmarital sex, drugs and alcohol use each accelerate diminished religiosity — especially religious participation — during early adulthood. The young adult years of many Americans are marked by a clear decline in outward religious expression, which is popularly thought to hit bottom during — and perhaps because of — the college experience. This is not new news. In the early 1980s, nearly 60 percent of young adults reported attending church less frequently than they did during adolescence (Willits and Crider 1989). Dropping out of organized religion altogether is also evident. Estimates of religious disaffiliation in emerging adulthood typically fall between 30 and 40 percent