The Negative Relationship between Size and the Probability of Weekly Attendance in Churches in the United States

Dados Bibliográficos

AUTOR(ES) David Eagle
AFILIAÇÃO(ÕES) Duke University Press
ANO 2016
TIPO Artigo
PERIÓDICO Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
ISSN 2378-0231
E-ISSN 2378-0231
EDITORA SAGE Publications Inc.
DOI 10.1177/2378023115617168
CITAÇÕES 1
ADICIONADO EM 2025-08-18
MD5 5659ea1e5b5a423876de2607e5ccc7ec

Resumo

Are people less likely to attend large churches? Using nationally representative data, I find a negative relationship between size and the probability of attendance for Conservative, Mainline, and black Protestants and for Catholics in parishes larger than 500 attenders. The addition of control variables does not change these patterns. These results support the theory that group cohesion lies at the heart of the size-participation relationship in churches. With the rapid growth of megachurches in the United States, a negative relationship between size and frequency of attendance could serve to accelerate aggregate declines in attendance. Methodologically, this article demonstrates how Bayesian hierarchical models can handle complex data structures and imputation procedures in a unified model.

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Ferramentas

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