This paper examines intergenerational transmission of 'religious capital' from parents to their offspring within an economic framework. The analytical tool is a 'production function of religiosity' where parental religious inputs serve as factors of production. The database used is based on a large-scale survey that was conducted in 1998 in Spain. In addition to information on the religious affiliation of the respondent and his parents, it has detailed data on two dimensions of the individual's religious performance: church attendance and prayer. it also includes information on the mother's and father's church attendance when the respondent was a child, as well as the respondent's participation in mass services at the age of 12. socio-economic background data are also available. The core findings are: (i) parental religious inputs significantly affect individuals' religiosity; (ii) interestingly, the route of intergenerational transmission is from mother to daughter and from father to son; and (iii) current mass participation of respondents is more affected by parental-than by own childhood mass attendance.
KeywordsCatholic, Church Attendance, Intergenerational transmission, Prayer, Production.* During the time we were working on this paper we were unable to get the new dataset (ISSP-2008). We were aware of that the new wave was on the way but it was impossible to incorporate it on time. in fact the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) did not offered it until late 2010. We apologize for any inconvenience. As the Editor indicated is a basic and necessary empirical exercise to compare both waves (1998 y 2008) in order to improve our knowledge of this phenomena. Now, we have started to perform this analysis.
revisTa inTernacional de socioloGía (ris)
resuMenEn este estudio se examina la transmisión inter-generacional de capital religioso de padres a hijos, bajo un esquema de producción de 'religiosidad' donde los inputs parentales sirven como factores de producción. la base de datos utilizada está basada en una encuesta realizada en España en 1998. Se dispone de información sobre la afiliación religiosa del individuo y sus padres, la asistencia a misa y la oración del individuo (actualmente) y la asistencia a la iglesia de la madre y el padre y del propio individuo cuando este era niño (a los 12 años). Encontramos que los inputs religiosos parentales afectan de manera significativa a la religiosidad individual, pero la vía de transmisión inter-generacional es de madre a hija y de padre a hijo. Sorprendentemente, la participación actual en actividades religiosas está más afectada por las características religiosas parentales que por la propia actividad religiosa durante la infancia.
Palabras claveAsistencia a la Iglesia, Católico, Oración, Producción, Transmisión Intergeneracional.