Holes in Sacred Umbrellas: Non-Religious Friendship Networks and Adopting an Atheistic Worldview

Katie E. Corcoran; Christopher P. Scheitle

doi:10.5334/snr.200

Figures & Tables

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics (N = 1,554), Weighted.

	PROPORTION OR MEAN	STD. DEV.	MIN	MAX
Outcome
Adopted Atheistic Worldview Between Wave 2 and 4	0.09		0	1
Focal Predictors (Plausibility Structures)
Non-religious friends percentage (Wave 2)	22.77	29.64	0	100
Non-religious friends majority (Wave 2)	0.16		0	1
Non-religious friends 100% (Wave 2)	0.06		0	1
Religious youth group friends percentage (Wave 2)	29.39	32.56	0	100
Religious youth group friends majority (Wave 2)	0.24		0	1
Religious youth group friends 100% (Wave 2)	0.08		0	1
Controls
Number of friends nominated (Wave 2)	4.93	0.39	1	5
Gender (Wave 2)
Male	0.45		0	1
Female	0.55		0	1
Age (Wave 2)	17.76	1.35	16	20
Household Income (Wave 4)	4.34	2.36	1	16
College attendance (Wave 2)	0.24		0	1
Race/ethnicity (Wave 1)
Non-Hispanic White	0.73		0	1
Non-Hispanic Black	0.12		0	1
Hispanic	0.09		0	1
Non-Hispanic Asian	0.01		0	1
Islander, Native American, and Other	0.03		0	1
Mixed	0.02		0	1
Region of Residence (Wave 2)
Northeast	0.17		0	1
Midwest	0.22		0	1
South	0.38		0	1
West	0.23		0	1
Religious Service Attend (Wave 2)	2.85	2.21	0	6
Religious Tradition (Wave 2)
Conservative Protestant	0.28		0	1
Mainline Protestant	0.09		0	1
Black Protestant	0.05		0	1
Catholic	0.22		0	1
Jewish	0.01		0	1
Mormon/LDS	0.04		0	1
No affiliation	0.13		0	1
Other Religion	0.02		0	1
Indeterminate	0.15		0	1

Table 2

Percentage of Respondents Adopting an Atheistic Worldview, Overall and by Select Variables.

Overall	9.00%
Focal Predictors
Majority of friends not religious	17.28%
100% of friends not religious	22.50%
Majority of friends relig youth group	5.23%
100% of friends relig youth group	2.19%
Religious Tradition
Conservative Protestant	4.41%
Mainline Protestant	16.32%
Black Protestant	4.10%
Catholic	6.82%
Jewish	19.67%
Mormon/LDS	5.36%
No affiliation	19.71%
Other religion	16.78%
Indeterminate	5.40%
Gender
Male	11.41%
Female	6.60%
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	10.61%
Non-Hispanic Black	1.11%
Hispanic	4.70%
Non-Hispanic Asian	12.54%
Islander, Native American, and Other	4.53%
Mixed	9.07%
Education
Less than some college education	7.91%
Some college education	11.37%
Region
Northeast	9.96%
Midwest	12.12%
South	5.63%
West	9.79%

Table 3

Logistic Regression Models Predicting Adopting an Atheistic Worldview.

PREDICTORS	OUTCOME: ADOPTED AN ATHEISTIC WORLDVIEW BETWEEN WAVE 2 AND WAVE 4
	MODEL 1		MODEL 2		MODEL 3
	ODDS RATIO	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL	ODDS RATIO	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL	ODDS RATIO	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL
Plausibility Structure
Non-religious friends percentage	1.01***	[1.01, 1.02]	–	–	1.01***	[1.01, 1.02]
Youth group friends percentage	1.0	[0.99, 1.00]	–	–	1.01	[1.00, 1.02]
Controls
Number of friends nominated			1.11	[0.67, 1.85]	1.22	[0.72, 2.05]
Gender
Male (referent)	–	–	–	–	–	–
Female	–	–	0.55**	[0.36, 0.84]	0.57**	[0.37, 0.86]
Age	–	–	0.97	[0.78, 1.2]	0.96	[0.77, 1.2]
Household Income	–	–	0.92	[0.81, 1.04]	0.91	[0.8, 1.05]
College Attendance	–	–	1.64	[0.85, 3.15]	1.91	[0.98, 3.72]
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White (referent)	–	–	–	–	–	–
Non-Hispanic Black	–	–	0.03*	[0, 0.79]	0.04*	[0, 0.82]
Hispanic	–	–	0.44	[0.2, 1.00]	0.49	[0.22, 1.08]
Non-Hispanic Asian	–	–	0.73	[0.14, 3.85]	0.9	[0.2, 4.04]
Islander, Native American and Other	–	–	0.33	[0.08, 1.40]	0.29	[0.06, 1.39]
Mixed	–	–	0.78	[0.14, 4.39]	0.84	[0.18, 3.87]
Region of Residence
South (referent)	–	–	–	–	–	–
Northeast	–	–	1.54	[0.79, 3.00]	1.34	[0.7, 2.61]
Midwest	–	–	1.78	[1.00, 3.17]	1.73	[0.97, 3.10]
West	–	–	1.69	[0.87, 3.29]	1.58	[0.81, 3.1]
Religious Service Attendance	–	–	0.75***	[0.64, 0.88]	0.74***	[0.63, 0.87]
Religious Tradition
Conservative Protestant (referent)	–	–	–	–	–	–
Mainline Protestant	–	–	3.24**	[1.45, 7.26]	3.9**	[1.72, 8.73]
Black Protestant	–	–	11.48	[0.59, 224.23]	10.59	[0.54, 207.32]
Catholic			0.98	[0.44, 2.20]	1.18	[0.52, 2.67]
Jewish			2.02	[0.52, 7.88]	1.83	[0.48, 6.97]
Mormon/LDS	–	–	1.00	[0.21, 4.74]	0.87	[0.21, 3.59]
No affiliation	–	–	1.60	[0.69, 3.7]	1.2	[0.5, 2.87]
Other religion	–	–	3.75*	[1.03, 13.67]	3.96*	[1.09, 14.35]
Indeterminate	–	–	0.69	[0.25, 1.91]	0.65	[0.23, 1.83]
N 1,554

Table 4

Logistic Regression Models Predicting Adopting an Atheistic Worldview.

PREDICTORS	OUTCOME: ADOPTED AN ATHEISTIC WORLDVIEWBETWEEN WAVE 2 AND WAVE 4
	MODEL 1		MODEL 2
	ODDS RATIO	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL	ODDS RATIO	95% CONFIDENCE INTERVAL
Plausibility Structure
Non-religious friends majority	2.07**	[1.25, 3.44]	–	–
Youth group friends majority	1.2	[0.63, 2.31]	–	–
Non-religious friends 100%	–	–	2.87**	[1.51, 5.42]
Youth group friends 100%	–	–	0.49	[0.08, 2.93]
Controls
Number of friends nominated	1.16	[0.70, 1.93]	1.23	[0.72, 2.10]
Gender
Male (referent)	–	–	–	–
Female	0.57**	[0.37, 0.86]	0.56**	[0.37, 0.85]
Age	0.96	[0.77, 1.19]	0.93	[0.75, 1.16]
Household Income	0.91	[0.80, 1.04]	0.92	[0.81, 1.04]
Grade completed	1.82	[0.94, 3.51]	1.81	[0.94, 3.48]
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White (referent)	–	–	–	–
Non-Hispanic Black	0.03*	[0, 0.91]	0.03*	[0, 0.69]
Hispanic	0.47	[0.21, 1.06]	0.45	[0.2, 1.02]
Non-Hispanic Asian	0.82	[0.17, 4.08]	0.72	[0.15, 3.58]
Islander, Native American and Other	0.31	[0.07, 1.47]	0.30	[0.07, 1.33]
Mixed	0.85	[0.16, 4.38]	0.80	[0.15, 4.20]
Region of Residence
South (referent)	–	–	–	–
Northeast	1.37	[0.70, 2.7]	1.44	[0.73, 2.83]
Midwest	1.72	[0.97, 3.05]	1.71	[0.94, 3.09]
West	1.58	[0.81, 3.08]	1.63	[0.82, 3.25]
Religious Service Attendance	0.75***	[0.64, 0.88]	0.77**	[0.66, 0.89]
Religious Tradition
Conservative Protestant (referent)	–	–	–	–
Mainline Protestant	3.46**	[1.54, 7.80]	3.33**	[1.49, 7.45]
Black Protestant	12.40	[0.50, 308.82]	10.36	[0.55, 195.65]
Catholic	1.07	[0.47, 2.43]	0.97	[0.44, 2.15]
Jewish	1.95	[0.51, 7.39]	1.55	[0.41, 5.82]
Mormon/LDS	0.97	[0.22, 4.24]	0.90	[0.21, 3.76]
No affiliation	1.35	[0.57, 3.21]	1.38	[0.59, 3.24]
Other religion	3.77*	[1.03, 13.72]	3.84*	[1.08, 13.68]
Indeterminate	0.67	[0.24, 1.88]	0.68	[0.24, 1.89]
N 1,554

Table 5

Predicted Probabilities for Adopting an Atheistic Worldview.

	TABLE 3, MODEL 3, NON-RELIGIOUS FRIENDS PERCENTAGE
	Predicted Probability	95% CI
0%	0.03	[0.02, 0.05]
20%	0.05	[0.03, 0.06]
40%	0.06	[0.04, 0.08]
60%	0.08	[0.05, 0.11]
80%	0.11	[0.06, 0.15]
100%	0.14	[0.07, 0.21]
	TABLE 4, MODEL 1, NON-RELIGIOUS FRIENDS MAJORITY
	Predicted Probability	95% CI
0	0.04	[0.03, 0.06]
1	0.09	[0.05, 0.13]
	TABLE 4, MODEL 2, NON-RELIGIOUS FRIENDS 100%
	Predicted Probability	95% CI
0	0.05	[0.03, 0.06]
1	0.12	[0.05, 0.19]