Dean R. Hoge

The Dynamics of Self-Esteem and Delinquency.

Sociologists have posited a relationship between self-esteem and delinquent behavior, though there is some disagreement about its direction and form. This review of recent panel analyses assessing the various theoretical viewpoints shows consistent support for only one of the posited relationships-that delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquent activity reduces subsequent self-esteem-and the support is rather weak. The paper evaluates the dynamics of the self-esteem-delinquency relationship, employing a three-wave panel study of adolescents which contains multiple measures of self-esteem and substantively interpretable subscales of self-reported delinquent behavior. The results show that the effect of self-esteem on subsequent self-esteem. These findings are robust across various subgroups of age, gender, family type, race, and mothers education. They are also consistent across the various measures of self-esteem and delinquent behavior. The weakness of the results suggests that researchers look elsewhere than self-esteem for a fuller understanding of delinquency.

Determinants of Church Involvement of Young Adults Who Grew up in Presbyterian Churches

An interview study of 500 young adults from 33 to 42 years old who grew up in Presbyterian churches provided data for testing the importance of specific determinants of church involvement. We posited a general theory of plausibility structures. We found influence of early religious socialization to be weak. The influence of cultural broadening during the college-age years was also weak, except that it liberalized beliefs. The strongest determinant of church involvement today was religious beliefs: Persons with conservative beliefs are more committed. Second strongest was recent adult experiences, especially regarding family. We propose here a two-step model, with belief formation most important and recent family experiences second most important

The Relative Influence of Youth and Adult Experiences on Personal Spirituality and Church Involvement

We surveyed 206 young adults who had grown up in middle-class churches in three denominations-Baptist, Catholic, and Methodist-who were first studied at age 16 in 1976. The goal was to assess the relative strength of youth and adult influences on their personal religious and institutional church involvement at age 38. The deteriminants of these two outcomes at 38 varied widely. For personal spirituality such as private prayet; attending Bible classes, and r-eading r eligious mater-ial, we found strong youth and adult determinants such as the denomination of ones youth, church youth group participation, having an experience since high school that changed their feelings about the church, and attending church with ones spouse. For church involvement, however; all but one of the determinants occurred after age 16, mainly the experiences of being inactive in chur-ch after high school, switching denominations, having children, and going to chur-ch with ones spouse. Social learning theory was the best theory for explaining these findings. Church leaders of all Christian denominations want to know what factors produce Christian adults who have an active spirituality and are engaged in their churches. How important are childhood experiences for determining adult church involvement and personal religiosity? What kind of adult experiences have the most long-lasting spiritual effect? What causes some young adults to remain involved in church and others to depart? Do adult experiences supersede or build on youthful influences in determining adult spirituality and church behavior? Do structural influences such as denomination or gender interact with individual factors to produce greater or lesser involvement in religious practice? Questions such as these have stimulated much research, including the present article. We report results of a longitudinal study of youth in Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic denominations who were studied at age 16 and 22 years later at age 38. To explain the importance of our study and situate it theoretically we need to review prevailing ideas of religious change and commitment during youth and early adulthood. These are basically nascent theories based on past findings about the importance of different influences on adult religious practice, especially church involvement. They can be categorized into three types: family life cycle theory, social learning theory, and cultural broadening theory. Family life cycle theory states that the needs and tasks an individual must address during different parts of the family life cycle determine his or her church involvement. Research has found that church disaffiliation occurs most often in the teenage years and the early 20s, with less disengagement after the early 20s and often a reentry into church life later when the young adult is building a family (Roozen 1980). Adult church involvement is stronger for married persons than single persons and stronger for persons with children than for those without (Mueller and Cooper

CHURCH INVOLVEMENT IN AMERICA: SOCIAL FACTORS AFFECTING MEMBERSHIP AND PARTICIPATION'

Some elements of the social learning theory were supported, especially the importance of gender and region. Two newer theories, the localism and value structure theories, were both supported. Persons with local orientations and traditional values in the areas of sex and family, drug use, and civil liberties are more involved in church life. In our models of social determinants of church life, we found that age and value orientations are very important, indicating that value cleavages between older traditionalists and younger modernists explain much about patterns of church membership and activity. Two subcultures have been diverging in America since the middle 1960s which produce a new pattern of churched or unchurched people.

Reciprocal effects of self-concept and academic achievement in sixth and seventh grade

We aimed to (a) assess causal influences of three levels of self-concept on each other, (b) examine the relationship between each level of self-concept and academic achievement, and (c) compare the effect of self-concept on achievement with the effect of achievement on self-concept. In a two-year longitudinal study of 322 sixth and seventh grade students, influences over time between three levels of self-concept were weak. Zero-order correlations between self-concept and grades were positive and substantial, as in past studies. When using structural equation models, we found much weaker paths between self-concept and grades. Influences from self-concept to grades were very weak, but grades had a modest influence on subsequent discipline-specific self-concept. We conclude that past correlational studies have overstated the influence of self-concept on grades and of grades on self-concept.

Sources of stress experienced by catholic priests

Using a nationwide sample of 515 diocesan priests we assessed their level of stress and 28 organizational and personal factors affecting stress. The priests scored slightly lower in stress than the average of other occupational groups. Younger priests and priests serving as assistant pastors reported the most; pastors reported the least. Organizational problems within the diocese were stressors only for non-pastors. Priests reported more stress if diocesan communications were not open and if the Ordinary was perceived as not taking an interest in them

The return of the fifties: Trends in college students' values between 1952 and 1984

Five identical surveys were carried out in 1952, 1968–1969, 1974, 1979, and 1984 among undergraduate men at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan to measure value trends. In most value domains the trends are U-shaped, showing that the trends from the fifties to the sixties and seventies have reversed, and attitudes in 1984 were either similar to the fifties or moving in that direction. The domains include traditional religion, career choice, faith in government and the military, advocacy of social constraints on deviant social groups, attitudes about free enterprise, government and economics, sexual morality, marijuana use, and personal moral obligations. Two attitude areas do not show a return of the fifties: (1) other-direction was high in 1952, then dropped to the sixties and did not rise; (2) the level of politicization rose greatly from 1952 to the sixties, then dropped again only slightly.

INTERPRETING CHANGE IN AMERICAN CATHOLICISM : THE RIVER AND THE FLOODGATE

The changes in American Catholicism since the Second Vatican Council are best understood by using the model of a river blocked by a dam. When the floodgates are opened, the water rushes out with great energy. Vatican II was an opening of the flood-gates to change, and the stored-up pressure was the result of decades of assimilation of Catholics into American society. Assimilation is continuing, producing more and more convergence between Catholics and Protestants. Today Pope John Paul II is suspicious of trends in the Catholic Churches in modern western democracies, and he has re-closed the flood-gates. Pressures are building up again.

Denominational Identity From Age Sixteen to Age Thirty-Eight

A sample of suburban Baptist, Catholic, and Methodist youth first studied in 1975 at an average age of 16 were re-interviewed when they were 38 years old. At age 38 the persons raised Catholic were significantly stronger in denominational loyalty than the others, and fewer of the original Catholic sample had formally switched to another denomination. In regression analysis the only significant predictors of denominational loyalty at age 38 were variables collected at age 16 - denomination of childhood, family culture, and participation in church youth programs they liked; later experiences had little effect. Denominational loyalty, which formed early in life, was not predictive of ones rate of church attendance at age 38.

Changing Age Distribution and Theological Attitudes of Catholic Priests, 1970–1985

A 1985 survey of American Catholic priests replicated a 1970 survey and permitted tests of earlier projections made by Schoenherr and Sorensen regarding the fiuture of the Catholic priesthood. We found that the age distribution shifted toward older ages, as projected, but not quite as drastically as expected. Contrary to the projection, theological attitudes did not shift in the conservative direction; they became more modern, especially regarding faith and authority. The erroneous assumption in the Schoenherr-Sorensen projection was apparently that priests would turn conservative as they got older; this has not happened to any important degree. Also the youngest priests in 1985 were more conservative than their age-counterparts in 1970, and the overall level of morale rose from 1970 to 1985.