Religious Socialization and Non-Religious Volunteering: A Dutch Panel Study

• Published in: Voluntas (Manchester, England) England), 2012-12, Vol.23 (4), p.940-958
• Main Authors: Vermeer, Paul, Scheepers, Peer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Child development; Church Membership; Family; Hypotheses; Individual Collective Relationship; International; Longitudinal studies; Netherlands; Networks; Original Paper; Panel data; Political Science; Psychological aspects; Religion; Religious beliefs; Religious Cultural Groups; Religious studies; Secularization; Social capital; Social participation; Social Policy; Social Sciences; Socialization; Spillovers; Studies; Voluntary work; Volunteers
• ISSN: 0957-8765; 1573-7888
• DOI: 10.1007/s11266-011-9244-y

Despite the fact that churches are still important sources of social capital in the Netherlands, the ongoing secularization of Dutch society has as yet not resulted in a drop of non-religious volunteering. In order to account for this apparent paradox, panel data are used to test the hypothesis that non-religious volunteering is in part an aftereffect of the religious socialization today’s volunteers enjoyed as youths. The following research question is addressed: To what extent does a religious socialization in Christian families during adolescence, independent of individual and collective religious characteristics, determine non - religious volunteering later in life? Results show that collective religious characteristics, i.e. being active in a religious community and religious affiliation, are the most important determinants in this respect. However, next to the effects of these collective aspects, also an independent effect of a religious socialization on non-religious volunteering is found. Especially a religious socialization which is not too strict was found to be influential on adult non-religious volunteering.