Donald M. Crider

Church Attendance and Traditional Religious Beliefs in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Panel Study

Utilizing data from a sample of persons first surveyed in 1970 when they were high school students and restudied in 1981, this analysis found that, as adolescents, the subjects reported highly traditional religious beliefs and frequent church attendance. Although they saw themselves as attending worship services somewhat more frequently than their parents, youthful attendance and beliefs were significantly correlated with perceived parental attendance. Ten years later, the subjects church attendance had declined and earlier parental patterns had no direct effect on attendance or belief Frequency of spouses church attendance was importantly linked with the respondents own attendance and religious beliefs in young adulthood.

TRACKING RESPONDENTS IN LONGITUDINAL SURVEYS

Many of the problems social scientists are called upon to address require information best obtained through longitudinal research. Whether the emphasis of the investigation is practical or theoretical, applied or basic, data on the same people across time are important for understanding the causes or conditions out of which present situations arose and the effects of these situations on future events., However, a relatively small number of reported studies has utilized true time-series information. Instead, investigators usually infer the effects of changes over time from data which are not strictly longitudinal. Several methods are commonly used, including cross-sectional information, aggregate analysis of census cohorts, and respondent-recall data.2 Each of these methods is intrinsically weak. The first two do not follow the same people or else have no way of identifying individual sample members and their specific changes over time. The third, dependent on memory, may be inadvertently or deliberately selective. If these techniques are unsatisfactory, why are true longitudinal studies so rare? Among other reasons, maintaining contact with respondents over a period of years is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Moreover, almost nothing has been offered in the social science literature concerning the relative effectiveness of different techniques for retrieving respondents.3 The purpose of the study reported here was to assess empirically a variety of tracking procedures and to arrive

Rurality and well-being during the middle years of life

Popular stereotypes and theorizing by social scientists suggest that rural people are more satisfied with their communities and happier with their life situations than are their nonrural counterparts. This enhanced well-being is believed to result at least partly from the presence of kinship and friendship ties in the local community and the adherence to traditional religious beliefs. Data from a panel study of nearly 1200 middle aged persons from Pennsylvania surveyed in 1971 and 1984 provided indices of community satisfaction and happiness. When income was controlled, country residents expressed slightly higher levels of community satisfaction than did town or urban dwellers in both time periods. Happiness was not related to residence location. Income was a relatively more important predictor of community satisfaction and happiness among urban than among country residents, while number of friends was relatively more important for rural residents. Number of kin living nearby and adherence to traditional religious beliefs were not related to well-being regardless of residence location.

PENNSYLVANIANS VIEW ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: A TEN-YEAR PERSPECTIVE

Public opinion about the priority to be given to economic growth-promoting policies was assessed using data from statewide surveys of Pennsylvania residents conducted in 1980 and 1990. In both time periods, the majority of the respondents felt that economic development should be encouraged, but they were opposed to lowering pollution standards to attract business and industry. Older citizens, and those living in counties with high unemployment rates were the most likely to support economic growthpromoting activities. People apparently felt that economic growth and environmental protection are not incompatible.

Parent-Youth Disagreement as Perceived By Youth: A Longitudinal Study.

Both the popular and scholarly press have given consideration in recent years to the nature and degree of differences in attitudes and values between adolescents and their parents. Young people are frequently characterized as increasingly rebellious, casting off the ideas and values of the previous generation while subscribing to radical beliefs and practices alien to traditional pattern or their families’ norms. Whether this commonly accepted stereotype of rebellious youth accurately reflects the behavior and beliefs of adolescents in the real world is problematic. Scholars are not unanimous in their appraisal of the situation. Many social scientists support the accuracy of the stereotype and argue that there are profound and increasing differences between parents and their offspring (Richman, 1968; Angel, 1968; and Friedenberg, 1969). Other writers argue that the generation gap is an illusion and that the differences between age groupings within American society are greatly overplayed (Elkin and Westley, 1955; Bealer, Willits, Maida, 1965; Remmers and Radler, 1957). Rather than rebellion and rejection, acceptance and continuity in basic ideas and ideals are seen as the mode.