Social Class and Church Participation

It is demonstrated that over-all associational participation influences the relationship between class and church activity to a significant degree, so much so that when this general factor is controlled the original correlation between these variables is appreciably weakened.

Abstract

Church activity, particularly church attendance, has been found by researchers to vary significantly with social class; individuals of the middle status levels tend to be more active in the church than those of lower status levels. Although several attempts have been made to test this essay demonstrate that over-all associational participation influences the relationship between class and church activity to a significant degree, so much so that when this general factor is controlled the original correlation between these variables is appreciably weakened. Several implications of this finding are discussed.