RELIGIOUS PARTICIPATION IN EARLY ADULTHOOD - AGE AND FAMILY-LIFE CYCLE EFFECTS ON CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

We attempt to integrate, elaborate, and test competing theories of why religious participation increases with age during young adulthood. We reconceptualize age and family formation as interacting causes of rel igious participation rather than competing explanations of it. We expa nd the concept of family formation to include divorce, cohabitation, a nd dissolution of cohabitational relationships. We distinguish attitud es toward the family from family formation behavior We analyze data fr om the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, w hich traces church membership to age 32. Our results show that the eff ect of children on church membership varies with the combination of th e children's and parent's ages. We find separate effects of family for mation behavior and attitudes toward the family. Cohabitation, divorce , and dissolution of cohabitational unions all affect membership proba bility, but these effects vary with age and are often different for me n and women.