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The Reasons of the Increasing Religious Unaffiliation: Comparison Between Western
Europe and United States
Evelina Kobzar
University of Washington
Sociology---Honors Senior Seminar 495
Professor Kiser
June 13, 2013

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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the question of the increased religious unaffiliation, and its causes of
people deciding to disaffiliate from the religious institutions. It also looks at the high
rates in the Western Europe and how the United States is catching up to Europe with it s
high rates of unaffiliation. The literature provides the reasons of increased religious
unaffiliation in the Western Europe and looks at the religious changes that the United
States underwent in the past decades and reasons the religious unaffiliation increased in
two decades. I interviewed 7 students on the University of Washington campus and I
provided them with a questionnaire, which they send to me through email. I hypothesized
that young adults who move out of their parent’s household, have more religious or non-
religious friends either stay in one’s religion or unaffiliated. I also hypothesized that
one’s involved in their religious institution will decide that they are staying that religion.
The findings show that when young adults move out of their parents’ household stop
regularly attending the religious institutions, the persons’ involvement in the institution
does not determine their stay inside the church because they disaffiliate and lastly,
friendship ties of those who are religious and non-religious conclude that either way the
person will disaffiliate.

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INTRODUCTION
Since the 1960s, the decline in religious affiliation in Western Europe has been
increasing and remaining stable for many years. Europe has experienced many changes in
ideas and a higher rate of acceptance in atheism and agnosticism, as well as in religious
unaffiliation. Many countries in the Western Europe have experienced the decline of
religious affiliation, including Britain, Ireland, France and other countries.
The British people who claim to have no religious affiliation are 25 percent taken
by the 2011 Census (Crabtree, 2012). In the last 10 years, the public claiming to have no
religion increased from 15.5 percent in 2001 to 25 percent in 2011 (Crabtree, 2012).
Also, 50.7 percent of the British public says they are not religious and 66 percent have no
connection with any religion or church (Crabtree, 2012).
In France, the religious attendance decline to 38 percent in 1961, and today it is
down to 7 percent (Statistics round up: Religion in decline around Europe and USA,
2012). The overall number of Catholics who never go to the Mass has more than doubled
from 26 percent to 58 percent (Statistics round up: Religion in decline around Europe and
USA, 2012). Also, the number of those who said they had not or would have children
baptized jumped from 4 percent in 1961 to 25 percent (Statistics round up: Religion in
decline around Europe and USA, 2012).
Even though in Ireland, church attendance remains one of the highest in the
Western Europe, but it has fallen from 85 percent to 60 percent from 1975 to 2004
(Noelle-Knox, 2005). Also, a poll has been collected based on interviews with more than
50,000 people selected from 57 countries and were asked if they considered themselves
religious, not religious or atheist (Mosbergen, 2012). This poll was also collected in

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Ireland and the results showed that 47 percent of those polled considered themselves
religious, which is a 22-point drop from 69 percent recorded in a similar poll conducted
in 2005 (Mosbergen, 2012).
On the other hand, in the last 22 years, the decline in religious affiliation in the
United States has increased dramatically. Even though the term “none”1 has existed since
1960s with a small percent of people claiming to be religiously unaffiliated, the sharp
increase in decline of religious affiliation occurred in 1990s. In their book American
Grace, Robert Putnam and David Campbell (2010) state the statistics of the decline in
religious affiliation by year:
It began to rise from five to seven percent during the pre-boomer generation
when they reached adulthood. In the boomer generation, the percentage of
unaffiliated doubled to about 10 to 15 percent of those coming to age in the
1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Furthermore, after 2000s, the post-boomers or millennial
generation, doubled again from 20 to 30 percent of unaffiliated when the cohorts
came of age in 1990s and 2000s, (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:122-123).
In the article, The Nones on the Rise One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation,
the statistics shows that one-in-five or 18 percent say they are spiritual, but not religious
(Pew Research Center, 2012). What are the main causal factors for the decline in
religious affiliation for this phenomenon? Atheism in the United States has a low
percentage. A survey shows that United States consists of twelve percent of atheists2.
1 Putnam and Campbell define it as a category of people who report no religious affiliation when asked to
identify with a religion. They indicate they are “nothing in particular”
2 Survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press published an article “Nones on
the Rise” in 2012.

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Atheism has a negative connotation among the public and people do not wish to have
associations with it (Pew Research Center, 2012).
In the thesis, I would like to answer a question, why did religious unaffiliation
increased in the last 22 years? What is the main cause of the disconnection in religious
organization? And finally, why are American trends shows the increased rates of
religious unaffiliation are getting closer to the religious disaffiliation in the Western
Europe?
These questions hold great importance to religion because this dramatic increase
only happened recently, in the span of 22 years. Religious unaffiliation in the United
States is as high as in the Western Europe. The high rates of religious unaffiliation in the
Western Europe have been increasing substantially since 1960s. However, in the recent
decades, the religious unaffiliation in the United States increased dramatically, and its
increased rates caught up to the high rates of religious unaffiliation in the Western
Europe. Many of the sociologists of religion have been exploring this question for past
years. They have proposed and researched many variables trying to find a relationship in
explaining the increased religious unaffiliation, but have not found direct answers to
these questions.
The purpose of this paper will be to see if there is a relationship between religious
human capital and social network affiliation to see if there are reasons that youth is
disaffiliating from religious organizations. I want to explore the areas of individuals from
religious backgrounds that have either more religious or non-religious friends. I also want
to see, people, who are involved in religious organizations, disaffiliate from the religious
organizations. I want to see if people involved are more or less likely to disaffiliate from

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their religious organization. I will also be looking at young adults who move out from
their parents’ household and is there any change in the religious attendance of those
adults. Do they continue to attend regularly or does religious attendance drop and they
discontinue their regular attendance? I will be looking at the potential causes of religious
unaffiliation that results in the religious human capital and social network affiliation to
see if this leads to the decline in church attendance and complete unaffiliation with the
religious organization.
The new contribution of this paper will be to look into the religious and non-
religious friendship ties, how the young adults are involved, and the young adults are
moving out of their parents’ household and see how this affect the decline of religious
affiliation. I found that research has been done separately by looking into the social ties
and social support in the religious institutions, but I have not found research literature
seeing the relationship between the aspects of having more religious or non-religious
friendships, involving in the religious institutions and moving out of their parents’
household and the decline of religious affiliation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The explanations for the decline in religious attendance, rise of “none” and rise of
atheism show a discrepancy between Europe and the United States. Crockett & Voas
(2006) state that churchgoing in Britain has been declining for at least the last four
decades (Crockett & Voas, 2006:567). In the mid-19th century more than half the adult
population of England and Wales attended Sunday services, but by the 20th century the
fraction attending in a week was less than one-twelfth (Crockett & Voas, 2006:567). In
the past two centuries, the evidence points to an erosion in religious belief in the past

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several decades (Crockett & Voas, 2006:567). The level of affiliation and regular
attendance falls for each successive generation, and comparative decline accelerated in
early cohorts, which stabilized in more recent ones (Crockett & Voas, 2006: 570). The
trends show the patterns for attendance and affiliation, and with each successive
generation are less religious than previous generation (Crockett & Voas, 2006: 572).
There is a decline in different levels of affiliation, attendance and belief, which could
explain the findings, as other than the pattern of generational decline (Crockett & Voas,
2006: 573; 576). Therefore, the religious decline in 20th century Britain was generational
in nature: decade-by-decade, year-by-year, and each birth cohort was less religious than
the one before (Crockett & Voas, 2006: 581). Also, there is among the young decline will
continue well into the 21st century, as the older generation, which are more religious
cohorts, are replaced by younger, which are less religious ones (Crockett & Voas, 2006:
581).
The reason Europe underwent dramatic changes in religious decline is due to
secularization. Jose Casanova (2007) states, “drastic decline in church attendance across
Europe constitutes the strongest evidence for the defenders of the traditional theory of
secularization (Casanova, 2007:210). Secularization theory is the idea that religion will
become less powerful as a social institution with the progress of “modernity” (Berger,
1967:107).3 It has an effect on the decline of significance of religion with organization;
yet, at individual level, it is the reduction in level of practice, belief or affiliation (Berger,
1967:107). We can see this change in Christian European secularization, which was a
slow, accumulative and progressive process of decline that accompanies general
3 Peter Berger defines “modernity” as the process by which sector of society and culture are removed
from the denomination of religious institutions and symbols (Berger, 1967:107)

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explanation for the drastic secularization of Western European societies since 1960s
(Casanova, 2007: 211). Jose Casanova (2007) states:
The evidence for Britain’s sudden decline of church attendance and church
affiliation happened within one generation. This phenomena occurs when the
second generation is unaffiliated, which adds to the large numbers of the
unaffiliated in the previous generation who were brought up with no affiliation.
Some examples of countries that went through this change are East Germany with
48 percent of religious unaffiliation and 33 percent in Czech Republic (Casanova,
2007:211).
It is characterized that contemporary European patterns of relatively high levels of
individual religious belief in combination with relatively low levels of church attendance
(Casanova, 2007: 214). There is evidence that Scandinavian countries have lowest levels
of church attendance in Europe of where 2 percent of Danes, 5 percent Norwegians and 6
percent of Swedes attend church with some regularity (Casanova, 2007: 214). Also, the
statistics shows that 10 percent of Norwegians, 12 percent of Danes declare no religious
affiliation and the number of professed atheists Denmark is 17 percent (Casanova, 2007:
214). The progressive religious decline became part of the European definition of the
modern situation and real consequences for church religiosity and most dramatic cases of
decline, namely Britain and the Netherlands (Casanova, 2007: 219-220). By the end of
the century, the increasing number of Americans, which is roughly 20 percent, will also
reject organized ‘religion,’ but not by converting to secularity as in Europe (Casanova,
2007: 221). Therefore, the every Western European country agrees that religion is

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‘intolerant,’ except Norway and Sweden shares the view that ‘religion creates conflicts’
(Casanova, 2007:223-224).
Another side of secularization and decline in church attendance is that many
people from religious groups drop out voluntarily and become apostates4 (Brinkerhoff &
Mackie, 1993). The apostates discontinue their participation from the church due to their
doubts and the loss of beliefs in the teaching of the church. Mark Chaves (1994) argues
that secularization is best understood not as the decline of religion, but as the declining
scope of religious authority (Chaves, 1994: 750). It also refers to the declining influence
of social structures. Secularization at the societal level may be understood as the
declining capacity of religious elites to exercise authority over institutional spheres;
moreover, at the organizational level, it refers to religious authority’s declining control
over the organizational resources within the religious sphere (Chaves, 1994:752). It
results from social and political conflicts between social actors who would enhance or
maintain religion’s social significance and those who would reduce it (Chaves, 1994:
752). Thus, secularization leads to decline in power of these religious authority
structures, which represents secularization as a truly sociological phenomenon (Chaves,
1994:770).
Generational Change
The religious changes of religious unaffiliation in the United States have few
explanations in the generational change, decline in church attendance and politics. The
4 Brinkerhoff and Mackie define apostasy as multidimensional process of disengagement from two major
elements of religion, which are religiosity, which is the embracement of a set of beliefs, and communality,
which is a feeling of belonging or growing around theological doctrine linked to denominational
organization; therefore, apostasy is the loss of religious belief and rejection of ascriptive community for
self-identification (Brinkerhoff & Mackie, 1993).

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authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell (2010) write in their chapter on Religiosity
in America: The Historical Backdrop that most people’s religious views and habits are
formed early in life. Both the generational and life cycle patterns involve change, but in a
pure form varying in different patterns of change, which is slow and gradual (Putnam &
Campbell, 2010: 72). Generational change is much slower than other forms of social
change. When the youngest cohorts in society change, it persists in that new direction
throughout their own life cycle (Putnam & Campbell, 2010: 72-73). If the differences
between one generation and the next are small, then, generational social change will be
real, but very slow (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:73). As the younger generation moves
away substantially from its predecessors, then the social change may be quicker (Putnam
& Campbell, 2010:73). The Figure 4.2 shows the decline in adolescent religious
observances from 1966-2008.
Figure 4.2

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Decline in Religious Attendance
The next phase of the generational change in American religious life over the last
few decades is the decline in religious attendance. The most important instance of slow
generational change involves religious observance, which are measured by attendance at
religious services (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:74). Moreover, Putman and Campbell
(2010) provide a diagram, which shows the successive line reflecting generational
differences where each cohort shows its gradual generational decline in religious
observance. For instance, people entering adulthood in the 1970s, with roughly 25
percent of them attended church weekly. When their own children came of age in the
2000s, roughly 20 percent of them attended church (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:75). Slow

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generational changes accumulates the changes in church attendance, which would take a
century of this change to lower average American church attendance from 30 times a year
to 20 times a year (Putnam & Campbell, 2010: 75-76). Therefore, this process in America
will bring church attendance to the current levels of Western Europe, and at this rate, it
will take a couple of centuries to reduce American religious observance to the current
European levels (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:76). The Figure 3.3 shows the decline in
adolescent religious observances from 1968-2009.
Figure 3.3

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In the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, the relatively less observant baby boomers
swarmed into adulthood into massive numbers, as their more observant grandparents
departed (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:77). The statistics shows that about 25 of the
arriving boomers were regular churchgoers, whereas 45 percent of those departing were
observant (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:77). However, adolescent attendance at religious
services seems to have become steadily less common over this period. In 1968, barely
eight percent had attended no religious services, but by 2009, the entire unobservant
fraction of young people had more than tripled to 25 percent (Putnam & Campbell,
2010:77). The graph is Figure 3.1 shows this illustration.

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Figure 3.1
Finally, the Faith Matters survey in 2006 states that 46 percent say they attend
church less often than their family did when they were growing up, 34 percent say the
same, and 20 percent say they attend more frequently now than their family did (Putnam
& Campbell, 2010:78). The twentieth century reported lower church attendance than their
families when they were growing up confirming the conclusion that generational
replacement is producing a slow, but a steady decline in religious observance (Putnam &
Campbell, 2010: 78-79).
The relationship I see between the decline in religious attendance and increase in
religious unaffiliation is that large amount of people leave religious organizations, but

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their beliefs in God, prayer and other dogmas do not change. In others words, many
people leave religion and lower their attendance rates, but their beliefs stay the same. It
seems that many congregations dislike what is going on inside the religious systems, and
decide to leave the religious institution. This is what constitutes the description of a
person who is religiously unaffiliated. I think it is a question of what is going on inside
the religious systems in the church. If it is not so, then, what is it?
The relationship I see between decline in religious affiliation and atheism is that
it is a total disagreement with the religious doctrine. This group of people disagrees with
doctrines, rituals and their sacred teaching or books. For these people, their beliefs
change completely and decide to have no affiliation with religion. And furthermore, their
religious attendance drops, as well. Therefore, I pose a question, why do these people
being in religion while growing up decide to have no affiliation with religion?
Religion and Politics5
American politics play an essential role in religion. Many highly religious people
are associated with the Republican Party while the Democrats are associated to those who
are least religious. The gap in political differences between people varies in the levels of
religiosity (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:369). The Figure 11.2 shows the correlation
between religious attendance and the Republican Party identification.
5 I looked at the Bibliography of Putnam and Campbell to see which articles the authors cite, and I
found a few that would add them later on next quarter besides having Putnam.

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Figure 11.2

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The relationship between the frequency with which someone attends religious services
and party identification explains the connection between them (Putnam & Campbell,
2010:373). Americans see Republicans see religion as friendly to religion while
Democrats are perceived to be unfriendly to religion (Putnam & Campbell, 2010: 400-
401).
However, the times are changing in the political atmosphere. Since the 1990s,
many Americans were increasingly unhappy about the growing public presence of
conservative Christians (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:120). Increasing numbers of
Americans of all ages began to express deep concern that religious leaders should not try
to influence either people’s votes or government decisions (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:
121). The Gallup Polls showed a nationwide growth in the view that organized religion
should have less influence from 22 percent in 2001 thirty-four percent in 2008 (Putnam &
Campbell, 2010:121). Youth is increasingly becoming more liberal. Robert Putnam and
David Campbell (2010) stated that since 1970 nearly half of all Americans reported that
they were more liberal than their parents (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:93). Young
Americans came to view religion, according to one survey, as judgmental, homophobic,
hypocritical and too political (Putnam & Campbell, 2010:121).
THEORY
From the literature review, what I have provided are the reasons of the decline in
religious attendance in both the Western Europe and the United States. We have seen that
the main reason for the increase in religious unaffiliation in the Western Europe is
secularization. Secularization has affected the reduction in level of practice, belief or
affiliation. It also resulted in the lower attendance rates to religious organizations.

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However, in the United States, the issues of the decline in religious attendance and
increase of the unaffiliated brings out two different theories: the religious capital that the
people have with them, which is the investment the individual makes to their religious
faith. Another theory is the social network affiliation, which is that friends and
acquaintances have influence on each other, and it effects the person’s decision they
make about religion.
Religious Capital
Laurence Iannaccone (1990) sees religious practice as a productive process
(Iannaccone, 1990:299). It emerges from the human capital6 that affects the family’s
capacity to “produce religious satisfaction (Iannaccone, 1990:299). Religious production
is measured through the time spent attending and traveling to and from church services,
devotional time spent praying, meditating, reading scriptures and the time and effort it
requires for religious charity or the conduct, which is motivated by religious concerns
(Iannaccone, 1990:299). Furthermore, Iannaccone states that the household production
approach reminds us that church members rely on skills that bring out the experience in
one’s religious, which is includes the religious knowledge, familiarity with church ritual
and doctrine, and friendships with fellow worshipers, which Iannaccone called the
religious human capital and produce and appreciate religious commodities (Iannaccone,
1990:299). The quality of the fellowship experienced in the congregation depends
strongly on what is invested in these relationships, which becomes a source of religious
satisfaction and motive for continued participation (Iannaccone, 1990:299). Also, the
religious capital is an important product of religious activity, and one cannot appreciate
6 Iannaccone defines human capital as the human skill and physical capital to accumulate valued
commodities through the process of investment (Iannaccone, 1990:298).

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religious services, if one is not familiar with the doctrines, rituals and traditions
(Iannaccone, 1990:299). The religious capital is the consequence of most religious
activity, which is the familiarity with a religion’s doctrine, rituals, traditions and
members (Iannaccone, 1990:299). However, the members enhance the satisfaction one
receives from participation in that religion, which increases the likelihood of one’s
religious participation (Iannaccone, 1990:299). Thus, religious participation is the single
most important means of one’s stock of religious human capital (Iannaccone, 1990:299).
Also, Ellison and George (1994) stated that the dimensions of religious
involvement enhance subjective states of well-being (Ellison & George, 1994:46). Other
researchers have emphasized that participation in religious communities foster positive
health behaviors (Ellison & George, 1994:46). There are other mechanisms reflect the
distinctive quantity and quality of social resources, which are the social ties and social
support (Ellison & George, 1994:47). The participants in religious communities may
enjoy larger, denser and more satisfying social network and greater ace to social support
than their unchurched counterparts (Ellison & George, 1994:47).
Furthermore, religious training is received directly from parents and from the
religious institutions they support (Iannaccone, 1990:300). The children’s human capital
is built up in the context that is determined and favored by their parents (Iannaccone,
1990:300). For as the children mature and decide for themselves which beliefs they will
accept and which church they will attend, they naturally gravitate to those of their parents
(Iannaccone, 1990:300). The empirical evidence shows that this theory is valid and the
predictions have been confirmed by Kluegel’s 1980 analysis, which showed that there is

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a strong tendency to maintain their background affiliations across all denominations
(Iannaccone, 1990:300).
Network Affiliation
Ellison and George (1994) write about network ties and how these ties provide
social support. There is research literature indicated that friendships develop most readily
between persons who share values, interests and activities (Ellison & George, 1994:47).
They also state that religious services and related activities offer regular opportunities for
social contact between persons with common beliefs and frequently common social and
political values (Ellison & George, 1994:47). Religious institutions offer fertile ground
for the initiation of friendships and are able to cultivate in other social contexts (Ellison
& George, 1994:47).
Furthermore, church participation may help individuals enlarge and extend their
networks in other ways and the church contacts allow individuals to become integrated
into wider social networks beyond congregation (Ellison & George, 1994:47). The
church involvement may increase the quantity of social ties, contacts and support
available to the religious congregants and quality of interpersonal relationships (Ellison
& George, 1994:48). This support is a beneficial virtue that provides the recipients with
empathy and caring are rhetoric and rationale of religious congregations, which is the
basis of interpersonal support (Ellison & George, 1994:48). This collective participation
in religious rituals build interpersonal trust and feelings of mutuality and enhance the
perceptions of the quality of social relationships, which are more likely to develop
intimacy and affective closeness (Ellison & George, 1994:50).
HYPOTHESES

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After presenting my theories about the religious human capital and social network
affiliation, I impose four hypotheses that define reasons that religious unaffiliation has
increased in the United States. The first hypothesis that I impose is that young adults who
move out of their parent’s house to attend school are more likely to stop regularly
attending religious organizations and disaffiliate from the church. In this hypothesis, I am
trying explain that when young adults move out of their parents’ household, the parent’s
control is lightened and minimal, which gives them more independence and control over
their lives. When they face possibilities of seeing contradictions in religious organization
that makes them question their parents’ faith, as a result, they stop regularly attending
church.
The second hypothesis that I make is when individuals have more religious
friends, they are more likely to stay in church, and not disaffiliate. In this hypothesis, I
am trying to explain that people who have more religious friends have built a social
support group among themselves. This social support group helps each other in trials,
tough times and they decide to meet on a regular basis to strengthen their group. Prayer
can be established as a strengthening mechanism where they will share their needs and
pray for one another. As a result, I believe that when the person has this group of friends
or social support that cares for them, they will be less likely to leave and disaffiliate from
church.
The third hypothesis that I predict is that the more non-religious friends the
individuals have, they will be more influenced by them in becoming unaffiliated. After
the young adults feel the minimal control from their parents, their perspectives will
change and allow themselves the freedom of doing what is pleasing to them. These young

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adults will be more open to befriend other adults who are not religious and do activities
with them. Increasing the time spent with their non-religious friends, these adults from
religious households, will want to spent more time with them and stop regularly attending
church. As a result, the non-religious friends will be very influential on those adults, and
those who grew up in religious households will stop attending church and disaffiliate
from the church.
The fourth and last hypothesis that I make is that the more involved the individual
becomes at a religious organization the less likely they will depart or stop attending the
religious organization. In this hypothesis, I am trying to impose that when the individual
is highly involved in the religious organization, he or she have made friends, and enjoy
doing activities inside or outside the church. It is also a form of support group, where
they can share what is happening in their lives, both positive and negative experiences. It
becomes a social network. Thus, having this group for support and spiritual bonding, they
will be less likely to want to live it because they do not want to lose the support. For if
they do, they lose many benefits from the network. So, because they enjoy what they are
doing and the social network, in which they are surrounded by, will bring out the desire
to stay in the group and not lose its support.
DATA AND METHODS
For my project, I will get the data get the data by collecting the interviews from
students on the University of Washington campus. I would like to do a snowball sample
of 10 interviews. The interviews will include both atheists and unaffiliated groups to see
the distinction between atheism and religious unaffiliated of understanding why
unaffiliation increased and atheism remaining low percentage. The purpose of these

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interviews is to find out the interviewee’s past religious background, their current
religious standing and the reasons why they decided to change their religious status to
“no religious claim” or “atheist”. Also, I would like to see, if there is a time constrains for
being part of civic associations and church attendance. For example, will I be able to see
that there is a limited amount of what each person can do? Do they prefer to attend civic
associations, entertainment and other activities more and attend church less?
The age group that I will collect in the interview is 18-30 years old. I want to do
structured interview by asking open-minded questions. With each interviewee, I would
like to ask them about their religious background. For example, I want to find out what
denomination did his or her family belonged to, how often they attended churches
services. I want to ask them about their current religious standing. Moreover, I want to
find out the reasons why did he or she decide to disaffiliate from their family’s religion.
In other words, I want to find out what happened in their life that caused them to
disaffiliate from the organized church and family’s religion. I want to ask about their
friends, and whether he or she had more associations with religious or irreligious friends
and the strength of their friendship. I want to ask about satisfaction with their present
decision. For example, I want to know if they are happy with the decision, if they
experience any guilt in regards to their decision and perhaps, they have other feelings
regarding their present decision. Finally, I want to ask them how they presently view
religion. Asking this question I am hoping will show future trends in whether religious
unaffiliation will continue to increase, stabilize or decline.
RESULTS

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The results from the interviews shows that five out of seven people interviewed
saying that religion played a big role in their family when they were growing up. In this
group of five people, one reported to have a medium-high role of the religion in
Katherine’s family. Out of the seven people interviewed, two students, Tina and Jesse,
did not report the role of religion in their families and their information is not applicable.
See Figure 1.
The table shows that five of the families had family devotions and prayer. Katie
reported that her family did not partake in any family devotion or prayer, and Katherine
reported that her family only said grace without family devotions. In the interview, Craig
told me that he grew up with prayers being uttered before meals, car trips and they prayed
together as a family regularly with devotional time before school or in the evening after
dinner (Email interview with Craig). Nelly reported that her family prayed together as a
family before bedtime and before every meal (Email interview with Nelly). In the email
interview provided, I asked about their family devotions and she responded that her
family prayed before dinner. Tina responded to this question reporting that her mother
had her say grace together and they said prayers in the morning, if they were driving
together (Email interview with Tina). Edward reported that her family prayed before
every meal (Face-to-face interview with Edward). See Figure 1.
Looking at the table, everyone reported going to church on a regular basis.7 Craig
responded that his family attended meetings at someone’s house that were held every
Sunday and Wednesday evenings (Email interview with Craig). Jesse responded that her
family attended church every Sunday (Email interview with Jesse). Tina responded that
7 Katie, Katherine and Nelly responded to this question with a “yes”.

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her family responded that her family attended church about twice a month (Email
interview with Tina). Edward reported that his family went to a Catholic church every
Sunday (Face-to-face interview with Edward). See Figure 1.
Everyone was also involved in Bible studies, youth groups and other activities.
Craig responded that he was involved in youth functions every week, attend weekend
events, camps, conferences and other retreats, which took four to five hours a week
(Email interview with Craig). Nelly responded to this question by writing that she was an
active leader in her youth group and participated in Bible studies while she was in high
school and college, which took eight to ten hours a week (Email interview with Nelly).
Jesse responded that she was involved in youth groups every Thursday for about two
hours and Bible studies (Email interview with Jesse). Tina said she was involved in her
family’s friend’s youth group, which she devoted two to three hours a month (Email
interview with Tina). Katie was involved in youth groups and Bible studies while she was
in middle school and high school, as well as the first year of college devoting two to three
hours a week (Email interview with Katie). Katherine responded that she went to the
nondenominational evangelical youth group in junior high, went to a Catholic school
which included prayers before classes, Mass and Adoration every month. She devoted six
hours a week (Email interview with Katherine). Edward reported that he was involved as
an alter boy while attending the Catholic school, and he was superficial involved with
one of his friends in one of the youth groups from a different denomination on weekends.
It was an additional hour a week (Face-to-face interview with Edward). See Figure 1.

26. 26
When I asked them, if they were confirmed8. Craig answered that he was baptized
around 12 years old (Email interview with Craig). Katie responded that confirmed or
baptized around 13 years old (Email interview with Katie). Then, they were asked to rate
their parents’ piety. Craig wrote that his parents never shown doubt or unbelief, so he
rated them as being absolutely committed believers. Nelly rated her parents as being
pretty involved when she was younger, and it was evident that religion played a big part
in their lives (Email interview with Nelly). Jesse rated her parents as seeking God’s
approval in making every decision (Email interview with Jesse). Tina reported that her
mother was really religious, but her father was not really religion. Katie rated her parents
as being laid back and accepting, not judgmental or pious (Email interview with Katie).
Katherine reported that her parents’ piety is pretty high because they do more than what
is just required (e.g. attending Masses more than they have to, saying Rosaries and
devotionals). They also contribute lots of money to church and school (Email interview
with Katherine). Edward rated his parents as his mother being passionate and liberal, but
his father being an atheist. See Figure 1.
From the table, five out of the seven students said that they moved out of their
parent’s household and stopped attending regularly attending church. When asked about
the life change events, Craig said that when he attended the university, he moved out of
the house and now has a career teaching Philosophy at a college (Email interview with
Craig). Jesse answered this question that she also moved out of the house to attend
school, and she became open to new perspectives (Email interview with Jesse). Katie
responded to this question that her faith was strong even though she has inconsistencies
8 Nelly, Jesse,Tina and Katherine responded to this question as “yes”.

27. 27
in religion. When she moved to Seattle, she stopped regularly attending church, and her
interest waned after taking a philosophy course, which ruined her believe in God (Email
interview with Katie). Katherine responded that since she was 18, she moved to college
and religion played a small role. Even though she went to a Catholic university, she never
attended the Mass (Email interview with Katherine). Edward moved to University of
Washington and wanted his own independence without being controlled in attending the
mass. He realized in 4th grade that the reason he was a Catholic was because he was born
into a Catholic family who believed in it and taught him its doctrines. After realizing this,
Catholicism played a small role even though he attended the Mass with his mother
against his will, but wanted to disaffiliate from the church (Email interview with
Edward). See Figure 1.
After each student sent their responses, I looked it over their stories and saw that
each one of them had a different one. Nelly and Jesse came to the conclusion that
Christians is judgmental. Nelly’s decision resulted in not being allowed to listen to
secular music, dating a non-Christian, going to school dances, and she felt guilty. She felt
judgment from peers and youth leaders, and being aware of social justice, sex, unions,
and abortion. As a result, she started to hate Christians and the rules Christians have for
everything (Email interview with Nelly). Jesse’s decision to stop affiliating with the
church or religion was because of community mentality of separating themselves from
the world. Because of seeing the extreme example of Christian community from friends
and family, she became tired of their judgmental behavior toward others (Email interview
with Jesse). See Figure 1.

28. 28
Other reasons for disaffiliating are questioning religion, intellectual doubt, and
others. Craig said it resulted in several stages from being a fundamentalist to studying
religion, philosophy and Bible academically to eliminating several beliefs or changing
them to fit his education. Then, around end of college and end of graduate school, it
consisted of a lot doubt and inconsistent beliefs about religion becoming a skeptic and
heavily criticizing religion to becoming an atheist (Email interview with Craig). Tina
responded that she started questioning religion in late middle and high schools, and
meeting many non-religious people, which made her less afraid to question her mother’s
beliefs (Email interview with her Tina). Katie decided to stop being affiliated due to
having questions about inconsistencies in religion in her first year of college, so when she
moved to Seattle, she stopped regularly attending church and her interest and belief
waned and was ruined after taking a philosophy course (Email interview with Katie).
Edward moved to University of Washington at the age of 18, and he felt independence
from his parent’s control, so he caught off all religious involvement (Face-to-face
interview with Edward). See Figure 1.
Everyone in the interview made new friends, except Jesse, who provided no
information. Jesse, Nelly and Tina said that they had more religious friends than non-
religious friends. The one student, Katie said she had more non-religious friends.
Katherine and Craig said they had a mix of religious and non-religious. Katherine said
she had more religious friends in college, but her friends in high school across the board
were not religious (Email interview with Katherine). Craig answered this question in
writing that before 21 years old, he had more religious friends, but presently, he has more
non-religious friends than religious (Email interview with Craig). Edward said that he is

29. 29
unsure, if he has more religious or non-religious friends because of diversity he is in,
regarding sorority clubs and other groups, but does have a mix between religious and
non-religious friends (Email interview with Edward). See Figure 1.
The table also showed that everyone made a decision to disaffiliate in their 20s,
from early twenties to late twenties. In my interview sample, only four people indicated
their denomination – two Protestants and two Catholics. Craig said he was Pentecostal
and Nelly said she was Southern Baptist. Katherine and Edward are both Catholic.
Katherine, Jesse, and Edward were interested in exploring Eastern religions. Nelly, Tina,
Katie and Katherine said that they disliked or avoided conversations about religion. Craig
said he does not mind and Jesse said she enjoys talking about religion.
Figure 1
Role of
Religion
Attend
Church
Family
Devotions/prayer
Involved in
groups/hours
Rate
parents
piety
Confirmed Life after 18
Craig Big role Yes Yes Yes/4-5
hours
Committed
Believers
Yes Go into
ministry/Pastor
Nelly Big role Yes Yes Yes/ 8-10
hours
Pretty
involved in
church
Yes Thought
religion was
judgmental
Jesse N/A Yes Yes Yes/2 hours Pretty
pious
Yes Took relg
classes
Tina N/A Yes Yes Yes/2-3 hour Mother is;
father not
Yes
Katie Big role Yes No Yes/2-3
hours
Laid back Yes Stopped
regularly
attending
church
Katherine Medium
to high
role
Yes Said grace Yes/ 6 hours Pretty high Confirmed Played small
role
Edward Big role Yes Yes Yes/ 1
additional
hour
Mother –
passionate,
but liberal;
father -
atheist
Yes Independence

30. 30
New Friends More religious
friends/
nonreligious
Life
change
events
Stopped
affiliated
View on
religion/
conversations
Craig Yes Before 21, religious,
now non-religious
Attended
university
Moved
out,
career
Intellectual
doubt;
personal
experience
Atheist,
doesn’t mind;
refrains for
the better
Nelly Yes, lots of
new friends
More religious than
non religious
N/A ALL
Christians
judgmental
Avoid it
Jesse N/A More religious Moving
out
Judgmental
behavior
Enjoy it
Tina Yes More religious N/A Questioning
religion
Avoid it
Katie Yes More non-religious Moving
out
In college Avoid
it/dislike
Katherine Yes Mix of religious/
nonreligious
Moved
out
N/A Dislike unless
comfortable
Edward Yes Unsure Moved
out to UW
4th grade in
a mass
Don’t mind
conversation
Age Sex Denomination Parents occupation
Craig 28 Male Pentecostal His job- college professor; parents lift-manufacturing company,
Office assistant at elementary school.
Nelly 24 Female Southern
Baptist
Retired graphic artist; retired program director for Head Start
Jesse 25 Female N/A Mother – ticket agent in Delta; father- welds for military
Tina 21 Female/
Agnostic
N/A Both Engineers
Katie 20 Female/
Agnostic
N/A Wildlife biologist; English language aid at
Elementary school.
Katherine 26 Female Catholic Both doctors
Edward 22 Male Catholic Father – radiologist; mother - housewife
DISCUSSION

31. 31
From the results stated above, I found several findings and three of my hypotheses
were proven wrong and one was correct. My first hypothesis was that when student move
out from their parent’s house, they have a more likelihood of disaffiliating from religion.
In my results, I found that this hypothesis is correct because the data supported it. The
results showed that students, in the data collection, who moved out to attend college or
university proved to lose interest in religion and stopped regularly attending church. They
completely disaffiliate completely from the church and become unaffiliated.
My second hypothesis was that when students have more religious friends, there is
a less likelihood that they will disaffiliate from the church or religion. The hypothesis I
imposed does not find support from my data. My results show me otherwise. Having more
religious friends does not mean that the young people, in this case, students will be staying
in the religious organization. It is on the contrary, it shows that students, who attend church
are likely to stop regular attendance. The data showed that three students from my sample
still unaffiliated even though they had more religious friends than non-religious.
My third hypothesis is that students who have more non-religious friends, they are
more likely to be influenced to unaffiliated from religion or church. The hypothesis has
proven to be wrong, as well. It does not matter, if the young adults have more religious
friends or more non-religious friends, the result is the same. Both groups will have the same
result. Both of them will disaffiliate from the religious organization. It shows that these
students may be more open to new perspectives, but it does not determine that they will
disaffiliate. I think this because it has to do with the perspective and experience in religion
of the person. For example, in one of my interviews, the respondent said they view religion
(Christianity) as judgmental. The reason I believe they will disaffiliate is rooted in their

32. 32
experience in the sphere of religion, not necessary to do with having non-religious friends.
It may play a small role in opening the individuals’ perspective, but I think that their
experience plays a more significant role.
My fourth hypothesis is that young people, students, who are more involved in
Bible studies, youth groups and other activities are less likely to unaffiliated from a
religious organization. This hypothesis is also not correct. Being involved in the religious
organization did not prove people are more likely to stay in religion. Based on my results,
it did not determine how many hours the person was involved in the organization, whether
two to three hours or eight to ten hours. The ending result was that both of them
disaffiliating from the religious organization, one who participated for two hours and the
other who devoted eight hours for Bible studies, youth groups and other activities. The
increased levels of involvement just tells me that those individuals has stronger faith and
devoted more time to be involved in Bible studies, youth groups or other activities. But,
this does not mean that they will stay in the religious organization. They still disaffiliate
from the church no matter how involved the individuals were.
Moving out of one’s parent’s house is not the only reason why individuals
disaffiliate. They stop attending regularly to church because they find contradictions in the
workings of the church or its doctrine. People may get discouraged when they see their
leaders act in the improper way. Others have questions about the inconsistencies of doctrine
and faith or they experience intellectual doubt, like Craig in my sample. Another group
may disagree with doctrine and hold beliefs in sex, abortion and other contradictory issues,
so they leave the churches, not to go through the roller coaster of guilt and shame and
feeling bad about oneself.

33. 33
One may assume that, if the parents have high levels of piety, the children should
stay in religion. The results in my data show no support for this assumption or notion.
Parents’ piety does not influence their children’s decision of staying or leaving their
church. For example, my data shows that parents can have high levels of piety, be very
involved in church, yet their children still go on the path of disaffiliating from religious
organization. Also, the key point in this section is, if one parent is religious and another
one is not or both parents are laid back and accepting, it still shows that their adult children
will disaffiliate. The adult children still make their decision on disaffiliating regardless of
their parent’s piety. The data shows no difference between levels of parent’s piety and their
children’s decision to unaffiliate.
In the data, it shows the findings about female response rate, denomination,
stratification and atheism and agnosticism. I also found that females are more likely to
respond to my questionnaire than males. I talked to both young men and women and found
low response rate for men compared to women. Two people in my data stated that they
were part of the Protestant group (i.e. Pentecostal and Southern Baptists) and two said they
were Catholic. Because there is an even number of respondents and equal amount, it is hard
to make a valid implication in which group has more religious unaffiliation, the Catholics
or Protestants. My data of the four respondents shows that it is equal, which state that both
groups are more likely to disaffiliate. I also noticed that parent’s occupation and status does
not determine that the person will stay in church. For example, both social classes are
equally likely to disaffiliate from religious organization. The doctor is just as likely to have
adult children disaffiliating as the parent whose mom working as a ticket agent or a director
for Head Start.

34. 34
LIMITATIONS
Many limitations in my research showed to be that I had a low response rate of
interviewees. Taking to a group of 6 or seven at a single time only provided a one or two
response rate or 14 or 16 percent. I also found inconsistencies with gender in terms of
males and females. In my paper, I found two males and five females, but it is not
balanced, which would permit me to make implications that males are just as likely to
unaffiliated as females. But, since I found only two males and five females, I cannot
make this implication. Furthermore, my data sample was very small, and I could not do a
snowball sample because I emailed the person the questionnaire, and they did not want to
go through the trouble of asking their friends to answer the questionnaire. I found one
person who was able to ask her friends to give me information of their experience.
During the recorded interview, I asked Edward to ask his friends, if they could share their
experience with me. But, because he has a mix of non-religious or religious friends, he
could not remember who are the ones disaffiliated and still affiliated.
Due to the low response rate, I only found seven students on University of
Washington campus to interview, and I was supposed to collect ten students for my
sample. Both the collection of seven or ten interviewees would not be reliable or
statistically significant to make an implication of the results I found in the data. This
small sample cannot make an inference of the total population to make it applicable or be
able to replicate it and requires a much larger sample.
For me to collect the data, I emailed a prepared questionnaire to those students I
came up to and they send back the questionnaire to me with their answers. One limitation
of this way of collecting data is that I did not have an opportunity to ask additional
questions or meet up with the individual in person face-to face and record the interview.

35. 35
Many of the students were very busy with studying for midterms, homework, tough
schedule and other reasons, which prevented me from setting a meeting and recording the
interview. With only one exception, I was able to record Edward’s interview where we
met at University of Washington Suzzallo Library, in one of the study rooms. Lastly,
another implication was that when the interviewees answered my questions, not everyone
gave me detailed reports of their experiences. Some of them just answered with few
sentences while other gave me detailed analysis. Also, I received emails from my
interviewees, who did not answer some of my question, gave me little information to
analyze their story and to see what reasons they took the path to disaffiliate from religion.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, I wanted to find out the reasons religious affiliation declined, and
how are the United States is reaching the higher levels, similar to the Western Europe. I
provided literature on the decline of religious attendance in the Western Europe and the
reason was secularization. I also looked into the religious changes that the United States
underwent from the 1960s. And suddenly, in 22 years, the decline of religious attendance
increased in great numbers. The theories I looked into were religious human capital and
social network affiliation.
I wanted to look at young adults moving out of their parent’s house, involvement
in their religious organization and their social network with religious and non-religious
friends to see if I can answer my question of the increased religious unaffiliation. I found
that when young adults move out of their parents’ household and have minimal control.
As a result, their regular attendance declines and overtime, they completely stop
attending the church. I also found no difference in having more friendships with religious

36. 36
or non-religious friends because they still disaffiliate. We cannot say that friendships
influence a role in the person’s choice of deciding to disaffiliate from the religious
organization. I found that young adults decide this because they want to have
independence for self-determination, not depend on parents approval or beliefs, freedom
that the religious organization prohibits, which may result in them thinking that the
“church” is judgmental. Other reasons should also be taken into account. These reasons
include questioning parents’ beliefs, seeing contradictions within the religious
organization, dogmas, rituals and doctrine.
Future research should look into the current religious systems, especially in the
Conservatism. Many of these interviews said that they questioned their beliefs before
moving out and seen contradictions. Some thought Christianity is judgmental. Thus, did
those people have negative experience with the church and members consistently judging
one another? Is there hypocrisy emerging the congregations that many people do not see
Christianity with authenticity, and people saying one thing and behaving in another way?
A comparative research to be conducted about religious systems in the 1960s or 1950s to
see, if their were less hypocrisy in the past, and more people accept that notion that
attending church and doing things outside the church is acceptance. It would show us, if
this notion existed in the past or was it acceptable or not. I wonder if there are answers
lying in this area of research because as Thomas Fuller said, “He does not believe who
does not live according to his belief” (“Quotations about Hypocrisy”, 2013).

37. 37
References
Albrecht, Stan L., Heaton, Tim, B. 1984. “Secularization, Higher Education and
Religiosity.” Review of Religious Research. 26(1): 43-58.
Berger, Peter L. 1967. The Sacred Canopy. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
Brinkerhoff, Merlin B., Mackie, Marlene M. 1993. “Casting off the Bonds of
Organized Religion: A Religious—Careers Approach to the Study of Apostasy.”Review
of Religious Research. 34(3): 235-258.
Casanova, Jose. 2007. “The Religious Situation in Europe.”
Chaves, Mark. 1994. “Secularization as Declining Religious Authority.” Social
Forces. 72(3): 749-774.
Crockett, Alasdair, Voas, David. 2006. “Generations of Decline: Religious
Change in 20th Century Britain.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 45( 4): 567-
584.
Crabtree, Vexen. 2012. “Religion in the United Kingdom.” Retrieved March 5,
2013 (http://www.vexen.co.uk/UK/religion.html).
Ellison, Christopher G., George, Linda K. 1994. “Religious Involvement, Social
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Hirschle, Jochen. 2009. “Ireland’s Economic Miracle and its Religious Decline: A
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Between Submission and Freedom.” Retrieved March 5, 2013

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(http://www.hds.harvard.edu/news-events/harvard-divinity-bulletin/articles/spiritual-but-
not-religious).
Iannaccone, Laurence R. 1990. “Religious Practice: A Human Capital
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39. 39
Appendix –Questionnaire
1. Tell me what role did religion play in your household while you were growing up.
2A. Did you attend church?
2B. Did you pray as a family or had some kind of family devotions?
2C. Were you personally involved in youth groups, Bible studies or other involvements
in the church? If you were involved, how many hours?
2D. How would you rate your parents piety (e.g quality of being religious/reverent)/or
how religious do you see them?
2E. Were you confirmed? (e.g baptized)?
3. Tell me about your life since the age of 18 and how the role of religion played in it?
3A. Did you make new friends?
3B. Did you have more religious friends or more non-religious friends?
3C. Life change events (moving out of the house to attend university, work, getting
married).
4. When did you stop considering yourself affiliated with religion and why?
5. Going forward, are there any spiritual or/and religious ideas that you are still interested
in?
5A.What are your views on religion today? Are you open minded about it or you
avoid/dislike religious conversations?
6. What is your age, sex, denomination, and parents' occupation (If you choose to answer
it)?