**5.1.1 Facts concerning one's religious belief**

Table 3-6 describes some of the facts concerning the association between one's highest degree and his religious practices.

Table 3 shows the relationship between a person's highest degree and how often he or she prays. From the table, we can see that for people with less than high school education, most of them pray once a day (31.2%); for people with high school and junior college education, the majority pray several times a day; for people with bachelor and graduate degrees, the majority of them pray once a day. The largest percentage of people who never pray comes out of graduate degree holders (21.2%). The Pearson Chi-Square is 35.128 and the significance lever is 0.019, this means that a person's highest degree is significantly associated with how often a person prays.

Religious Participation and Educational Attainment: An Empirical Investigation 329

people with junior college and graduate degrees. The biggest category for people to attend religious activities 2-3 times a month is people with less than high school degrees. The largest group of people who attend religious activities once a month and several times a year is the bachelor group. The biggest group of people who attend religious activities less than once a year is the group with high school education. In conclusion, the most of the people in the sample never attend any religious activities. There is no clear trend between the people's highest degree and their attending of religious activities. Actually, the largest group of people who are attending religious activities every week and once or twice a year is the graduate group. There are 2031 observations in this sample test. The Pearson Chi-Square is 63.96, and the significance level is 0.003,which means that people's highest degree

Protestant Catholic Jewish None

4 1.3%

7 0.7%

> 0 9%

14 3.8%

8 3.7%

Significance Level 0.000

34 11.3%

71 7.1%

11 7.6%

13 3.5%

150 7.4%

116 38.5%

300 30.1%

52 35.9%

118 31.6%

61 28.2%

Pearson Chi-Square 93.79

Table 5 describes the correlation between a person's highest degree and the religion in which he or she is raised. From the table, we can see that the majority of the people are raised as Protestant (around 50%), the second largest category is Catholic. As people receive higher degrees, the number of Catholics decreases. 9% of Jews are Junior College, which is the largest category among all the five categories. The largest category with no religious belief is people with less than high school degree. The number of total observations is 2033, the Pearson Chi-Square is 93.79, and the result is very significant which means that a person's highest degree is significantly related with the religion in

Table 6 asks the respondents whether religious experience changed his or her life or not. This table could also be considered as some facts about religion. 38.5% of people with less than high school degree said religious experience have changed their life while 61.5% of high school with less than high school degree answered no. The largest percentage of people who agree that religious experience has changed their life is Junior College; the largest percentage of people who said that religious experience has not changed their lives is the

Table 5. A Person's Highest Degree and the Religion in Which He or She is raised

are significantly associated with attending of religious activities.

130 43.2%

547 54.8%

75 51.7%

54.7%

50.9%

2033

Highest Degree

Less than High School

> High School

Junior College

Bachelor 204

Graduate 110

which he or she is raised.

people with less than high school degree.

Statistics Total Observations


Table 3. A Person's Highest Degree and How Often Does One Pray


Table 4. A Person's Highest Degree and How Often Does One Take Part in Religious Activities

Table 4 shows the association between a person's highest degrees and how often does he or she take part in religious activities. The majority of the people in all the degree categories never take part in religious activities. Only very few people in the sample attend religious activities several times a week or once a day. The largest category for people to attend religious activities several times a week or several times a week is people with junior college degrees. The biggest category for people to attend religious activities nearly every week is

Times a Week

> 32 10.6%

> 112 11.3%

> 19 13.2%

> 53 14.3%

> 240 11.9%

Once a Month

> 16 5.3%

> 56 5.6%

> 7 4.9%

> > 26 7%

15 6.9%

Table 4 shows the association between a person's highest degrees and how often does he or she take part in religious activities. The majority of the people in all the degree categories never take part in religious activities. Only very few people in the sample attend religious activities several times a week or once a day. The largest category for people to attend religious activities several times a week or several times a week is people with junior college degrees. The biggest category for people to attend religious activities nearly every week is

Table 4. A Person's Highest Degree and How Often Does One Take Part in Religious

Pearson Chi-Square 35.128

> 2-3 Times a Month

> > 25 8.3%

> > 59 5.9%

> > > 13 9%

27 7.3%

16 7.3%

Pearson Chi-Square 63.96

Once a Week

> 21 7%

> 59 6%

10 6.9%

21 5.7%

7 3.2%

> Nearly Every Week

> > 6 2%

19 1.9%

4 2.8%

> 15 4%

6 2.8% Less Than Once a Week

> 35 11.6%

> 113 11.4%

8 5.6%

42 11.4%

24 11.1%

Every Week

19 6.3%

62 6.2%

18 12.5%

22 5.9%

16 7.3% Never

32 10.6%

120 12.1%

10 6.9%

56 15.1%

46 21.2%

> Once a Day

> > 0 0%

1 0.1%

> 0 0%

2 0.5%

2 0.9%

Significance Level 0.019

> Several Times a Week

> > 0 0%

7 0.7%

4 2.8%

8 2.2%

2 0.9%

Significance Level 0.003

Once a Day Several

96 31.2%

286 28.9%

48 33.3%

101 27.3%

592 29.3%

> Several Times a Year

> > 31 10.3%

> > 106 10.6%

> > 20 13.9%

> > 54 14.5%

> > 27 12.4%

Highest Degree Several

High School 301

Junior College 49

Bachelor 97

Graduate 55

Never Less

148 49.2%

442 44.4%

50 34.7%

37.4%

39%

Less than High School

Highest Degree

Less than High School

> High School

Junior College

Activities

Bachelor 139

Graduate 85

Times a Day

> 85 28.2%

> 30.4%

34%

26.2%

25.3%

2023

Once or Twice a Year

> 29 9.6%

152 15.3%

21 14.6%

54 14.5%

36 16.5%

2031

Table 3. A Person's Highest Degree and How Often Does One Pray

Statistics Total Observations

Than Once a Year

> 27 9%

92 9.2%

7 4.9%

25 6.7%

> 13 6%

Statistics Total Observations

people with junior college and graduate degrees. The biggest category for people to attend religious activities 2-3 times a month is people with less than high school degrees. The largest group of people who attend religious activities once a month and several times a year is the bachelor group. The biggest group of people who attend religious activities less than once a year is the group with high school education. In conclusion, the most of the people in the sample never attend any religious activities. There is no clear trend between the people's highest degree and their attending of religious activities. Actually, the largest group of people who are attending religious activities every week and once or twice a year is the graduate group. There are 2031 observations in this sample test. The Pearson Chi-Square is 63.96, and the significance level is 0.003,which means that people's highest degree are significantly associated with attending of religious activities.


Table 5. A Person's Highest Degree and the Religion in Which He or She is raised

Table 5 describes the correlation between a person's highest degree and the religion in which he or she is raised. From the table, we can see that the majority of the people are raised as Protestant (around 50%), the second largest category is Catholic. As people receive higher degrees, the number of Catholics decreases. 9% of Jews are Junior College, which is the largest category among all the five categories. The largest category with no religious belief is people with less than high school degree. The number of total observations is 2033, the Pearson Chi-Square is 93.79, and the result is very significant which means that a person's highest degree is significantly related with the religion in which he or she is raised.

Table 6 asks the respondents whether religious experience changed his or her life or not. This table could also be considered as some facts about religion. 38.5% of people with less than high school degree said religious experience have changed their life while 61.5% of high school with less than high school degree answered no. The largest percentage of people who agree that religious experience has changed their life is Junior College; the largest percentage of people who said that religious experience has not changed their lives is the people with less than high school degree.

Religious Participation and Educational Attainment: An Empirical Investigation 331

ranges are from 49.8% for people with less than high school degree to 44.6% for people with graduate degree. The percentage of fundamentalist decreases a lot when people obtain higher degrees: from 30.4% for people with less than high school degree to 19.8% for people with graduate degree. On the contrary, the percentages of liberal increases greatly as people have higher degrees: from 19.8% for people with less than high school degree to 35.6% for people with graduate degree. The total number of observations is two thousand and six; the Person Chi-square is 53, while the P-value is 0.000, which means that the results are highly significant: there is significant difference between people's highest degree of education and whether they are fundamentalist, moderate, or liberal. From Table 7, we conclude that one's younger belief about religion affects his education level. In comparison with Table 7, the following Table 8 describes the relationship between the highest degrees one earned and

Fundamentalist Moderate Liberal

129 44%

380 39.7%

60 43.8%

143 41.1%

83 40.5%

Pearson Chi-Square 93.98

59 20.1%

285 29.8%

32 23.4%

151 43.4%

96 46.8%

Significance Level 0.000

how fundamentalist the person is currently.

High School 291

Junior College 45

Bachelor 54

Graduate 26

Statistics Total Observations:

they were young and also when they grow up.

105 35.8%

30.4%

32.8%

15.5%

12.7%

1939

Table 8. A Person's Highest Degree and How Fundamentalist Is the Person Currently

Table 8 shows the relationship between a person's highest academic degrees and how fundamentalist is the person currently. From this table, we found similar results as in Table 7: those who have a lower degree tend to be fundamentalist while those people who have a higher degree tend to be liberal. So Table 7 and Table 8 together prove that people who have lower degree is more likely to be fundamentalist when they were young and also when they grow up. On the other hand, people with higher degrees are more likely to be liberal when

Table 9 describes a person's highest degree and his or her religious preference. Two biggest religious categories are protestant and catholic. The results show that around 45%-50% of people in the sample are protestant, around 20%-30% of the people are Catholic, 1%-5% of the people in the sample are Jewish, and another 15%-25% of the people in the sample do not believe in anything. As people obtain higher academic degree, the number of protestant remains the same; as people obtain higher academic degree, the number of Catholic decreases. As for Jewish people, the percentage of graduate is highest. Also, as people achieve higher degrees, the percentage of non-believers also increases. There are 2031 observations, the Pearson Chi-Square is 63.96, and the results are statistically significant,

Person's Highest Degree

Less than High school

From the results, the people who said religious experience has changed their lives are "high school", "Junior College", and "Bachelor": the people in the middle categories, the people who agree that religious experience has not changed their lives are people with "less than high school" degree and people with "graduate" degree: people with the lowest and the highest degree.


Table 6. Whether Religious Experience Has Changed One's Life or Not
