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Factors in Childhood Experience Associated with Adult Church Attendance Practices

出版	Oregon State University, 1968
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=5-U8OAAACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋The purpose of this study was to investigate some of the factors from childhood experience which might contribute to the kind of church attendance practices which individuals adopt as adults. The factors chosen for investigation were enforced church attendance in childhood, parental church attendance practices, the kind of discipline employed in the parental home, and the theological position of the church attended in childhood. The five specific hypotheses which were tested were: 1. There is no relationship between parentally enforced church attendance of young children and the church attendance practices which these individuals have as adults. 2. There is no relationship between parental church attendance patterns and the church attendance patterns of their offspring as adults. 3. There is no relationship between parental discipline and adoption of the parents' church attendance habits by the offspring as adults. 4. There is no relationship between the theological position of the church individuals attended as children and the degree of participation in church as adults. 5. There is no significant association among enforced church attendance, parental church attendance, parental discipline, theological position of childhood church, and present adult church attendance practices in the population sampled. Data were obtained through the use of a questionnaire devised by the investigator expressly for this study. The sample consisted of 221 Protestant church members from six churches representing a range of theological positions located in the area in and around Huntington, Long Island, New York. Churches used for this purpose were a Unitarian Fellowship, Episcopalian, two Presbyterian churches, a Missouri Synod Lutheran and an Assembly of God (Pentecostal) church. Subjects were contacted by mail and responded to the questionnaires anonymously. Responses were categorized on a three -by -five table according to the respondents' present church attendance practices (no relationship to a church, casual relationship to a church, active relationship to a liberal, moderate or conservative church) in relation to having been forced or not forced to attend church as children, parental church attendance practices (active, casual, no relationship), type of discipline used in the parental home (strict, moderate, permissive), and theological position of church attended as children (liberal, moderate, conservative, none) . Chi - square tests of independence were performed on the data on each of the past experience variables in relation to present church attendance practices. Contingency coefficients were then computed for each of the past experience variables in relation to each other and in relation to the present church attendance variable. On the basis of these coefficients, degree of association among the variables could be determined. No relationship was found between parentally enforced church attendance and the church attendance practices of individuals as adults. However, a relationship was found to exist between parental church attendance and adult church attendance, and when parentally enforced church attendance was considered together with parental church attendance practices it was found that combined they have a relationship to adult church attendance which is highly significant. A relationship was found to exist between parental discipline and adult church attendance practices which i s most apparent along the dimension of strict parental discipline in that individuals reared in strict homes tend to adopt church attendance practices different from those of their parents. On the basis of the contingency coefficients computed, no direct relationship was found to exist between the theological position of the church attended in childhood and present church attendance practices. However, a very high relationship was found to exist between this factor and parental church attendance, which in turn is related to adult church attendance practices. Present church attendance practices were found to have a relatively low relationship with parental discipline, which in turn has a higher relationship to enforced church attendance in childhood. Enforced church attendance was found to be related in turn to theological position of the church attended in childhood. The only factors which were not directly related to adult church attendance practices were enforced church attendance in childhood and theological position of childhood church. The main value to be derived from this exploratory study lies in its generation of hypotheses for further study, in part due to the fact that the sample is not representative of a well- defined population.