Does Higher Educational Attainment Lead to Recued Religious Participation?
With the increasing challenges on the global job market, the desire for greater educational attainment consistently rises. Students seek higher levels of education to fit into the industrial requirements of the professional personnel. However, with the increasing attention diversion to the education sector, students have little time to spend on their religious affiliations. Several studies conducted have revealed that the students of this century tend to identify themselves with nationality over religious affiliation: an individual would prefer identifying himself with his nationality such as American, Asian, or African American to religious affiliation such as Christian, Mormon or Muslim.
In the recent studies, researchers have greatly inclined to measure religiosity in terms of the frequency of attending religious services and worship places as compared to affiliation as was used in the past. Therefore, since students spend much time in schools, they have little time to attend worship places, or participate in religious services. This leads to reduced religiosity. This research study investigates the effects of increased educational attainment on the religiosity of American students.
Dependent Variables
The main dependent variables in this experimental research study are the religious practices, beliefs and attitudes. Among these religious factors include attendance of worship places of various religious groups, the importance of religion to these religious affiliations, the literary and other interpretation on the Holy Books such as the Bible, Quran, and the Book of Mormon as well as participation in daily prayers affiliated to different religious groups. The other independent variables include dogmatism related to American religious groups, core beliefs, and identity as Native American or immigrant as well as religious devotion among this population. In addition to these, mortality, health, and doctrines constitute other dependent variables.
Independent Variables
The key independent variable in this experimental research study is education
Controls
The controls in this research study will include gender, age, race or ethnicity, marital status as well as household composition, and societal associations among the members of different religious groups in America. Other controls also include how the American religious groups joined religious sects, either as converts or from ancestral religious affiliation, financial strain, as well as the nationality compositions of different religious groups.
Hypotheses
- Education among the American religious groups reduces religiosity (attendance of worship places such as temples, mosques, and churches, and participation in religious services).
- Educated American youths prefer national over religious identity while less educated members of the society prefer religiosity to nationalism.
- There is increasing association among the American religious groups with increasing educational attainments
Theory
In this research study, I will use the Functionalism perspective on education. According to functionalists’ perspective, education is viewed as one of the important social institutions in the society. These theorists further believe that education leads to two kinds of functions: latent (secondary) functions and manifest (primary) functions. Manifest functions include socialization as the major function that education produces. According to Emile Durkheim, education (schools) is a socialization agency, which teaches children how to get along with others and prepare them for adult economic roles” (1898). Socialization in the face of education ensures that learners grasp the norms and rules of the society as an inclusive unit. The other manifest functions of education include social control, cultural transmission, cultural innovation and upward social mobility, or social placement. The latent (secondary) functions of education include creation of generation gap, social networking, and political and social integration among many others. While the conflict theory views education to produce social inequalities based on class race, gender and religion, this theory views the positive and beneficial side of education.
Participants
In this research study, the participants will include college students from different American higher learning institutions. This research study will interview at least 200 students of balanced gender distributions. The women interviewed in this research study will be more than the men will since several researches have revealed that college enrolments for the girls are higher than that of the American boys. The mean age of the respondents will be 24 years old.
Methods and procedure
This research study will majorly used interview to collect primary data. The interview of the participants will take approximately six weeks because the students will be allowed to fill the questionnaires at their pace and convenience. The sample size will be larger than the abovementioned figure, but will be reduced to fit to the requirements of the research in order to ensure that the research produces the best results. Secondary data will be collected from previously established researches, library sources, and reliable internet sources that discuss the topic of this research. Other data would also be retrieved from research centers such as the Pew research center. While reviewing literature of these previously established researches, this research study will derive conclusion aimed at approving or disapproving the hypotheses. The librarian will help in sampling books and literature related to the topic of study within the decade.
