wfn.org | [ENS] Episcopalian sociologist finds most teenagers are

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Daybook, from Episcopal News Service

March 17, 2005 - Thursday Thesis: Meeting People of Purpose

Episcopalian sociologist finds most teenagers are inarticulate about
their
faith

by Daphne Mack

[Episcopal News Service] Sociologist Christian Smith said that in
researching for his book "Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual
Lives
of American Teenagers," he was "surprised" at "how inarticulate most
teenagers were about their religious faith."

"They think of themselves as religious and go to church and many will
say
that their faith is important, but if you go beyond that and ask
anything
about what they believe, how it is important and what difference does it
make, the majority are just really helpless at articulating what they
believe or what difference it makes," he said.

Smith, a professor and associate chair of Sociology at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, received a $3.9 million grant from the
Lilly
Endowment to fund the National Study of Youth and Religion. For nine
months
in 2002-2003 a national telephone survey was conducted by Smith,
coauthor
Melinda Lundquist Denton and a team or researchers using a random digit
dial
methodology that produced a probability sample of all houses with
telephones
in the U.S.

He said the sample represented "different racial groups, different
religious
groups, not religious, etc." and by using this method a "nice cross
section
of all teenagers" was produced.

There is 'a hole'

Smith said the lack of data on teenagers and their religious experience
was
the catalyst for this study.

"I'm a sociologist of religion with an interest in studying American
religion in particular and it was clear to me that there had not been a
lot
of really good work done on the religious life of teenagers," he said.
"There was sort of a hole in what we knew and there had been a fair
amount
of focus on young adults and Baby Boomers as they age but not much on
adolescents."

He felt that looking at the whole American religious scene or even our
entire culture through the lens of teenagers would provide "a really
interesting angle on things."

'Personal dimension'

Smith, an Episcopalian, is a member of the Church of the Holy Family, in
Chapel Hill. He said being a father of three was the "personal
dimension" in
doing this research.  "I realized that they were going to be teenagers
soon
so why not do a research project that would allow me to do a lot of
reading
and thinking and preparing for this before it all hits," he said.

Smith explained that 3,370 teenagers, aged 13-17 years, participated in
the
30 minute telephone survey and their parents in a 52 minute portion.
Next,
267 of those teens were asked to be a part of a face-to-face in-depth
interview.

"We traveled to 45 states where we'd sit with them for two to two and a
half
hours in libraries and restaurants elaborating on our findings," he
said.

'Young people are not being educated that well in their faith'

They discovered similarities in terms of adult and teen females being
more
religious than their male counterparts and "that young people are not
being
educated that well in their faith."

"There's almost this sense by congregations and families that they'll
[teenagers] pick it up by osmosis, which to some degree they do but
there
are extreme limits to what osmosis can do," Smith said. "At some point
teens
need to be more directly instructed."

'Not be too directive'

Smith said the intention of the team was "to create a baseline of
knowledge
that we thought didn't exist already about young people today." As
sociologist "our hopes are that we can put this topic on the radar
screen,
provide people an informed set of findings that they can think about,
and
not be too directive about what people should do with it," he said

"I also believe that what we could learn from such a study could be
really
useful and helpful to lots of different communities, people and
institutions
that work with or have in their membership teenagers," Smith said. This
way
"it wouldn't just be an academically interesting thing on a shelf, but
that
it could be useful and practical in the real world."

Tracking for the future

Smith said sociologists are interested in understanding how social life
works and as sociologist of religion, how the religious dimension of
social
life works.

He said that revisiting these young people in their environment, with
their
families, at school, and in peer networks and congregations is a way to
obtain that information.

"We will be tracking these same teenagers this summer...re-surveying and
re-interviewing them again to see how they have changed over three
years,"
he said.

"With that said, I think that especially with Christian churches, given
the
goals they say they have for their youth that what our findings point to
is
they need to do a better job of paying attention to teens, engaging
them,
teaching them and not just expecting them to pick it up by osmosis and
hope
they come back to church one day after they have children of their own,"
Smith said.

-- Daphne Mack is staff writer for Episcopal News Service.

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