THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOCIAL-CLASS AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY AMONG 14 AND 15-YEAR-OLD ADOLESCENTS

The relationship between social class and attitude towards Christianity is explored among 2717 14- and 15-yr-olds, alongside personal and parental church attendance. Although parents and adolescents from higher social class backgrounds attend church more frequently and church attendance is associated with positive attitudes towards Christianity, after controlling for differences in parental church attendance adolescents from lower social class backgrounds record a more positive attitude towards Christianity. These results are discussed against the background of Eysenck's two-dimensional model of social attitudes, according to which religion occupies the tenderminded conservative quadrant and tenderminded social attitudes tend to be associated with the higher social class groups while conservative social attitudes tend to be associated with the lower social class groups. © 1990.