Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion Parental Divorce and the “Switching ” of Religious Identity

This article examines the impact of parental divorce on the likelihood that an individual has changed his or her religious identity. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, we use a theoretical framework of family structure and community ties to test the hypothesis that religious mobility is more likely among children of divorce compared to those from intact families. Distinguishing between parental divorce in childhood and parental divorce in adulthood allows us to assess the impact of parental divorce on religious socialization. For individuals raised as either moderate Protestant, conservative Protestant or Catholic, parental divorce increases the likelihood of both switching to another religion and apostasy. The impact of divorce is particularly strong for Catholics and conservative Protestants, who are, in general, less likely to be religiously mobile. These findings add religious disaffiliation to the set of likely sequelae of parental divorce. In addition, the results of this study highlight the need to consider the relationship between family structure and religious processes in a community context. The impact of parental divorce on the subsequent religious behavior of their children is unclear, despite well-established connections between divorce and religion (Chan and Heaton 1979; Wilson and Filsinger 1986; Brodbar-Nemzer 1986; Stoltzenberg, Blair-Loy and Waite 1995). Indeed, high levels of apostasy among children of divorced parents suggest that family disruption is closely related to religious disaffiliation (Hadaway and Roof 1988). Further, th