Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

We categorized NSYR teen respondents into major religious types for analysis using a procedure very similar to the RELTRAD method.¹ We assigned respondents to religious categories based on information about teen and family religion obtained from a variety of religious attendance and identity variables in the teen and parent surveys. The key variable used was the religious tradition of the congregation the teen most attends, following the coding scheme specified below. Note that teens who say they are not religious may still be categorized into one of the religious categories if they attend religious services at a congregation with an identifiable religious tradition occasionally or more often with their parents; likewise, teens who say they never attend religious services still may be categorized into one of the religious categories if they say that they nevertheless identify with some religious tradition. In 2.2 percent of all teen cases, this religion information from all relevant survey variables was insufficient to make a conclusive categorization; these teens were categorized as indeterminate.

CONSERVATIVE PROTESTANT (CP): Adventist/Seventh Day Adventist; Assemblies of God (Assembly of God); Bible Church/Bible Believing; Charismatic; Christian and Missionary Alliance; Church of Christ (Churches of Christ); Church of the Nazarene; Calvary Chapel; Evangelical; Evangelical Covenant Church; Evangelical Free Church; Four Square; Fundamentalist; Independent; Mennonite; Missionary Church; Nazarene; Vineyard Fellowship; Wesleyan Church; Baptist Missionary Association; Charismatic Baptist; Conservative Baptist Association of America; Free Will Baptist; Fundamentalist Baptist; General Association of Regular Baptists; North American Baptist Conference; Free Methodist; Wesleyan

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