Changes in Religious Behaviors and Attitudes of College Students from 1973 to 1983

Abstract

THERE SEEMS TO BE little empirical research on religion and religious values among college students, particularly regarding race and sex differences. For example, even though religion has been found to be an important and unifying force among Blacks (White, 1984), there does not seem to be any research on religious change and practices among Black college students. In the literature on female college students and religion, one study on religious attitude change (McAllister, 1981) found womens' attitudes to be more positive and traditional in 1974 than in the early 1960s and 1970s. Additionally, in some studies the relationships have been examined between religious attitudes and beliefs and sexual attitudes and beliefs among female students (King, Abernathy, Robinson, & Balswick, 1976; Mahoney, 1980; Young, 1981). To better understand such trends and relationships, the changes in religion and related values at one university by race and sex were studied over a 10‐year period. A 29‐item questionnaire on religion and related values was administered to a representative sample of incoming freshmen at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1973 (N = 270: 41% men, 59% women; 70% White, 11% Black) and 1983 (N = 389: 55% men, 45% women; 77% White, 13% Black). Data were analyzed using chi‐ square and multivariate analysis of variance at the .05 level.

The return of the fifties: Trends in college students' values between 1952 and 1984

“…Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early 1980s, there was decreased support for legalizing marijuana use (Carter and Sedlacek, 1983;Hastings and Hoge, 1986) and decreased willingness to limit family size due to world overpopulation (Cook, West, and Hamner, 1982;Hastings and Hoge, 1986). The trends toward politically conservative attitudes and religious orthodoxy seemed to continue into the early 1980s (also see Levine, 1980;Martinez and Sedlacek, 1983;Manese and Sedlacek, 1983;Hildebrand and Abramowitz, 1984;Katchadourian and Boll, 1985).…”

Selfishness and consumer ethics: Does (non)religiosity matter?

“…However, there is no universally accepted definition of religion (Harris et al, 2018; Hood Jr et al, 2018). Emmons (1999, p. 92) argued that “there is no more difficult word to define than ‘religion’.” The literature, for instance, suggests that religion refers to a relationship with God (Brett & Jersild, 2003), “an institutionalized set of beliefs and practices regarding the spiritual realm” (Ver Beek, 2000, p. 31), and “a belief in God and can be either personally defined and experienced or may involve participation in designated rituals of specific religious groups” (Manese & Sedlacek, 1985, p. 76).…”