Determinants of Disaffiliation: An International Study

Religions

Pablo Bra༚s-Garza²  Teresa Garc໚-Muñoz¹ 

[1] Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa, Universidad de Granada, Campus de la Cartuja s/n, 18011 Granada, Spain;Business School, Middlesex University London, Hendon Campus, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BT, UK; E-Mail:

关键词: national aggregates;    disaffiliation;    Europe;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rel4010166

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Using a dataset of 15,000 subjects from 32 Western countries, the current study examines individuals who were raised in a certain religion and, at some stage of their lives, left it. Currently, they define their religious affiliation as ‘no religion’. A battery of explanatory variables (country-specific, personal attributes and marriage variables) was employed to test for determinants of this decision. It was found that the tendency of individuals to leave their religion—the most extreme symptom of secularization—is strongly correlated with their liberal beliefs and with parental and spousal religious characteristics. Moreover, country characteristics, as well as personal socio-demographic features seem to be much less relevant, except for the religious diversity of the country that has a positive effect on disaffiliation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.