This paper explores the relationships between the sacred and the secular in the daily lives
of youth. While most literature on the topic has examined how religious beliefs affect secular
behavior, this paper posits that the opposite causality is the true causality, and that it is our
secular behavior that influences our religious beliefs. Data were taken from the first three waves
of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) and were analyzed in two ways. First,
secular variables that were present in Waves I and II were used in a change in change analysis
that allows for the establishing of causality, showing how secular behavior can drive down
religious behavior. Second, secular variables only present in Wave III were used in cross-sectional cross tabulations to prove relationships between secular behavior and religious behavior, but do not address issues of causality.
From the change in change models, it does seem that certain secular behaviors do drive
down measures of religiosity, which supports the thesis that secular behavior affects religiosity
rather than the other way around. The cross-sectional analysis also shows relationships between
high levels of secular behavior and low levels of religiosity. While this does not address
causality, it does help support the original hypothesis.
Limitations of this study include not being able to use change in change analysis for all of
the secular variables involved, as well as possible issues in translation due to the need to recode
variables between Waves I, II, and III because the question was posited to respondents in different ways.
This research supports the newer line of research questioning the relationship between secular behaviors and religiosity, and calls for more research examining this issue.
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