Individual religious involvements in America across time

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to characterize those who take part in three different type religious activities (prayers, monetary donations and worship attendances) in the USA using 1972-2010 General Social Survey pooled data.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors have identified factors that affect each activity using Tobit analysis.

Findings

There are only three common factors (marriage, race and parental background) that influence all of these three activities and the directions of impacts are not the same. Black churchgoers are more engaging in all of these three activities, the same is true for those whose parents attend church regularly. However, marriage has positive impacts on both worship attendances and monetary donations, but has negative impacts on prayers.

Originality/value

This paper contributes by breaking down giving into three categories and using 38 years of pooled data in the US General Social Survey.

Citation

Chan, A. and Lee, S.-K. (2014), "Individual religious involvements in America across time", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 109-122. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-11-2012-0213