Religious Attendance in Cross‐National Perspective: A Multilevel Analysis of 60 Countries

Abstract

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.Why are some nations more religious than others? This article proposes a multilevel framework in which country differences in religious attendance are explained by contextual, individual, and crosslevel interaction effects. Hypotheses from different theories are simultaneously tested with data from 60 nations obtained from the European/World Values Surveys. Multilevel logistic regression analyses show that religious regulation in a country diminishes religious attendance and that there are only small negative effects of people's own education and average educational level of the country. Religious attendance is strongly affected by personal and societal insecurities and by parental and national religious socialization and level of urbanization. These theories explain 75% of the crossnational variation in religious attendance.

Religious Change among Cohorts in Eastern Europe: A Longitudinal Analysis of Religious Practice and Belief in Formerly Communist Countries

“…The method for measuring religious practice is almost standardised and essentially refers to church attendance (Ruiter and van Tubergen 2009;Norris and Inglehart 2004;Voas and Doebler 2011;Biolcati-Rinaldi and Vezzoni 2013;van Ingen and Moor 2015;te Grotenhuis et al 2015). We decided to measure religious practice as the average probability of attending church weekly.…”

The Transformation of a Categorical Variable into a Continuous Variable: The Example of Church Attendance

“…Čtenář se setkává s četnostmi návštěv bohoslužeb redukovanými do dichotomických proměnných například alespoň jednou týdně a méně [Polack 2008;Ruiter, van Tubergen 2009], více než jednou měsíčně a méně [Need, Evans 2001], alespoň jednou měsíčně a méně [Lambert 2004]. Také s redukcí do tří či čtyř kategorií, alespoň jednou měsíčně, méně a nikdy [Hamplová, Řeháková 2009], 2krát měsíčně a častěji, několikrát ročně, nanejvýš 1krát ročně a nikdy [Nešpor 2010: 62].…”

De invloed van inkomensongelijkheid en rationalisering op kerkverlating in Nederland tussen 1975 en 1995

“…De sociale relaties in kleine gemeenten zijn in het algemeen sterk, zodat de sociale controle op het naleven van religieuze normen daar groter zal zijn dan in grote gemeenten (Ruiter & Van Tubergen, 2009 Deze hypothese biedt mogelijk ook een verklaring voor de longitudinale ontwikkeling van kerkverlating: als mensen uit sterk urbane gemeenten inderdaad een grotere kans hebben om de kerk te verlaten, dan zal door toegenomen urbanisering het percentage kerkverlaters zijn gestegen.…”

“…A test for the Netherlands in 1975-1995In a recent study, using data from 60 nations, Ruiter and Van Tubergen (2009) …”