The time bind and God's time

The

time bind and God's time

Fischer

Claude S.

Fischer, Claude S.

Author

Hout

Michael

Hout, Michael

Author

Latham

Nancy

Latham, Nancy

Author

University of California, Berkeley

Center for Working Families

University of California, Berkeley. Center for Working Families

Sponsor

text

working paper

Berkeley, CA Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley 2000 2000 monographic

Berkeley, CA

Center for Working Families, University of California, Berkeley

2000

monographic

English eng

English

eng

electronic application/pdf 29 p. born digital

electronic

application/pdf

29 p.

born digital

We address the question of whether family time constraints lead Americans in the 1990s to cut back on their religious activities. Using the 1988-1998 General Social Surveys, we looked at the answers to several questions about church membership and activities of married respondents, aged 55 or less, living in households with at least one employed spouse. We compared respondents by class, by whether or not they had children at home, and by how many hours spouses worked each week (and we controlled for several other factors – age, gender, ethnicity, income, and religion of origin). Having children and working many hours are the key indices of time pressure. In general, we found that Americans sustained their religious involvements despite high work commitments; and we found that parents were more involved than nonparents. Two notable exceptions arose: One, among middle-class couples only, high work hours – especially for wives' – depressed couples' church attendance (it is not clear why this was specific to the middle class). Two, long work hours reduced attendance and certain devotional activities among wives. The general pattern, however, suggests that religious activity was relatively inelastic to time pressures.

Claude S. Fischer is a faculty member at the Center for Working Families, and a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Michael Hout is a faculty member at the Center for Working Families, and a professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Nancy Latham is a graduate student in Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper No. 18

Berkeley Center for Working Families Working Paper

No. 18

Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/)

wfn_bwpaper_16.pdf

MChB English eng

MChB

English eng

English

eng