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Civic Lessons That Last? Religiosity and Volunteering on the Way to Adulthood

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  • Chaeyoon Lim
  • Dingeman Wiertz

Abstract

Recent religious declines in the United States are for a large part driven by the growing number of Americans who were raised religiously but left religion in the transition to adulthood. Nonetheless, their views and behaviors may still be influenced by their religious upbringing. We explore such legacy effects by examining how changing religiosity during the transition to adulthood influences volunteering among young adults. Analyzing panel data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, we estimate two types of effects: effects of cumulative religious trajectories in youth, and effects of religiosity in youth that are not mediated by religiosity in adulthood. We find that histories of religious involvement shape volunteering in adulthood, but the precise nature of such effects varies across dimensions of religiosity and types of volunteering. Religious service attendance in youth promotes volunteering in adulthood mostly indirectly, through influencing religiosity in adulthood, and exclusively for activities organized by religious groups. By contrast, religious identification in youth promotes volunteering in adulthood also through other channels, and its effects on secular volunteering may persist even when people are not religious in adulthood. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of ongoing declines in religiosity in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Chaeyoon Lim & Dingeman Wiertz, 2024. "Civic Lessons That Last? Religiosity and Volunteering on the Way to Adulthood," American Sociological Review, , vol. 89(4), pages 684-707, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:89:y:2024:i:4:p:684-707
    DOI: 10.1177/00031224241258791
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Putnam, Robert David & Lim, Chaeyoon & MacGregor, Carol Ann, 2010. "Secular and Liminal: Discovering Heterogeneity among Religious Nones," Scholarly Articles 5341589, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Ilana M. Horwitz & Kaylee T. Matheny & Krystal Laryea & Landon Schnabel, 2022. "From Bat Mitzvah to the Bar: Religious Habitus, Self-Concept, and Women’s Educational Outcomes," American Sociological Review, , vol. 87(2), pages 336-372, April.
    3. Zhou, Xiang & Wodtke, Geoffrey T., 2020. "Residual Balancing: A Method of Constructing Weights for Marginal Structural Models," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(4), pages 487-506, October.
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