Michael R. Welch

Religion and Deviance among Adult Catholics: A Test of the "Moral Communities" Hypothesis

This study tested multi-level models that represented relationships among individual-level and community-level measures of religiosity and measures of deviant behavior that individuals reported they would be likely to commit. Data came from 2,667 adult Catholics surveyed as part of the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life. Results from multivariate analyses supported the argument that the level of religiosity within a given social context affects projected deviance, although there was no evidence of any substantial interaction between personaland communitylevel religiosity. Results also suggested that contextual effects are not necessarily consistent across all types of deviance.

The Radius of Trust: Religion, Social Embeddedness and Trust in Strangers

Data from the 2002 Religion and Public Activism Survey were used to examine relationships among measures of religious orientation, embeddedness in social networks and the level of trust individuals direct toward others. Results from ordered logistic regression analysis demonstrate that Catholics and members of other denominations show significantly less trust in strangers than mainline Protestants, while older persons and those who are more trusting of acquaintances show greater trust. Although measures of personal religiosity and activity within a congregation show no statistically significant relationship to trust once important controls are taken into account, measures of embeddedness within secular social networks do.

Hate crime reporting as a successful social movement outcome

Variation in compliance with public policies across local settings is examined through an analysis of the number of reported hate crime incidents in United States counties. Particular attention is given to the role that activist organizations play in promoting, or impeding, compliance with public policies. Each hate crime reported to the federal government is conceptualized as a successful outcome of social movement mobilization. Drawing upon political mediation theory and Fines model of discursive rivalry, the analysis shows how social movement resources, framing processes, political incentives, and features of local contexts combine to promote successful social movement outcomes. The presence of resourceful civil rights organizations in a county can lead to higher numbers of reported hate crimes, but the influence of civil rights organizations is contingent upon the political context and upon objective conditions that lend credibility to civil rights framing.

Christian Religiosity, Self-Control and Social Conformity

Survey data from a southwestern metropolitan area are used to analyze whether the ability of personal Christian religiosity to predict social conformity is spuriously due to self-control. Results indicate that both personal religiosity and self-control display statistically significant, independent negative net relationships with many forms of projected misbehavior. And interaction between self-control and religiosity in predicting deviance appears to be limited. Thus, self-control does not seem to account for the effects of religiosity, leaving the issue of how and why religiosity leads to conformity unresolved.

Familial and Religious Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Multi-Level Study of Students and School Communities

A multi-level Durkheimian theory of familial and religious influences on adolescent alcohol use is developed and tested with hierarchical linear modeling of data from Icelandic schools and students. On the individual level, traditional family structure, parental monitoring, parental support, religious participation, and perceptions of divine support and social constraint are associated with less adolescent alcohol use. Individual parents knowing other parents (intergenerational closure) is not associated with less alcohol use among their children, but all students drink less in schools where such intergenerational closure is high. The religiosity of individual parents is not significantly related to their childrens alcohol use, but female students drink significantly less in schools where religious parents are more prevalent. The results are generally consistent with the proposed theoretical model.

Dual Reference Groups and Political Orientations: An Examination of Evangelically Oriented Catholics

As interest in the cultural bases of American political behavior increases, scholars are paying closer attention to the measurement of religiosity and to the mechanisms by which religious values become politically relevant. This research, based on a parish-connected sample of 2,667 Roman Catholics, enjoins the measurement issue by developing a behavioral scale of evangelically oriented Catholicism and shows the distinctive political orientations of those who score high on it. A striking disjuncture between liberal and conservative positions on different sets of issues is discussed in terms of dual reference groups-Catholics and evangelicals-and the clarity of the message offered by Catholic religious leaders.

Geographic Mobility, Social Integration, and Church Attendance

Data from a comprehensive survey of the populations of three states were used to estimate a path model that examined the effects of geographic mobility and social integration on church attendance. Results of this analysis suggest geographic mobility inhibits attendance indirectly through disrupting an individuals network of social ties and bonds of community attachment. These results support the widely-accepted integration-disruption hypothesis. Mobility also exerts a modest direct effect on attendance. It is suggested that this relationship requires further examination.

Religious Predictors of Catholic Parishioners' Sociopolitical Attitudes: Devotional Style, Closeness to God, Imagery, and Agentic/Communal Religious Identity

Data on 2,667 registered Catholic parishioners surveyed in the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life were used to assess the ability of devotional style, religious imagery, closeness to God, and agentic/communal religious identity to predict the influence of religious values on specific lifestyle and public policy questions and political ideology. Multiple regression analyses suggest that measures of imagery and devotional style are especially important predictors of the sociopolitical positions held by Catholics. In particular, images depicting God as judge are discussed, along with devotional styles that involve patterns of evangelical-style devotion, meeting minimal religious obligations, and exposure to media ministry. Findings are also compared to results obtained from other studies that have used similar variables as predictors of sociopolitical attitudes.

Social network theory and predictors of religiosity for black and white catholics : Evidence of a black sacred cosmos?

Data drawn from a well-known survey of 2,667 registered U.S. Catholic parishioners (part of the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life) were used to examine the ways in which black Catholics differ from white Catholics in the patterns - and predictors - of religious devotionalism and spirituality. Black Catholics were found to display higher levels of the more private styles of religious devotion and report a greater frequency of spiritual experiences than white Catholics. Especially interesting are the high rates of participation by black Catholics in a variety of traditional, uniquely Catholic styles of devotion. Contrary to expectations, the correlates of religiosity for black and white Catholics tend to be similar. For both groups, social network variables are the strongest net predictors of every measure of religiosity.

Bringing Religious Motivation Back in: A Multivariate Analysis of Motivational Predictors of Student Religiosity

Data on 326 students from three universities were collected to investigate the general relationship between religious motivation and expressed religiosity. Seven measures of religious motivation identified by Gorlow and Schroeder (1968) were treated as the independent variables; results from a series of multiple regression analyses indicate, that as a set, the motivational variables are relatively powerful predictors of both religious attitudes and behaviors. With a variety of standard demographic variables controlled, two motivational variables in particular display consistently substantial net relationships with the measures of religiosity: god-seeking and social-service motive. Variations in the importance of the motivational variables are discussed and implications for church policy are noted.