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Abstract
Religion and fertility are closely linked yet scholars dispute how religion influences fertility in the United States. Some scholars suggest differences in fertility rates between major religions have disappeared. Women who actively participate in congregations have high fertility but there is no consensus about the causal mechanisms involved. A study of the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) argues that the compositional characteristics of women in congregations explain their fertility advantage.
This study challenges previous findings while answering two questions. Do religious fertility differentials persist and vary by region? Could congregational participation have a causal influence on fertility attitudes and outcomes?
I use many data sets to answer these questions, including the 2001 Congregational Life Survey (CLS). The CLS provides information on the congregational participation and children ever born to over 18,000 women age 35 to 49, who were surveyed in over 400 congregations. Using this and other large data sets, I show substantial fertility differences remain between religious traditions and their constituent denominations. Fertility patterns vary by region but, contrary to previous studies, I do not find evidence that regional differences are the result of variation in the minority group status of religious groups.
I find congregational participation predicts high fertility, independent of compositional characteristics, except in the year 2002. The anomalous 2002 pattern, observed in the NSFG and the General Social Survey, may be the result of a post-September 11 period effect, which temporarily changed the composition of Americans in congregations.
Selection processes attract adults inclined to have children towards congregations and they may lead adults disinclined to have children to leave congregations. I argue that congregation-centered processes encourage and sustain high fertility ideals and parity levels. Low parity women who attend congregations have high parity ideals. Congregational group participation and dense congregational friendship networks are more influential predictors of congregant fertility than Biblical literalism, worship frequency, or prayer frequency. I argue that these congregational social networks function as reference groups, which encourage childbearing.
