National Study of Youth and Religion
The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) at the Carolina
Population Center, University of North Carolina is a longitudinal
extension of a baseline study of the religious practices of American
youth initiated in Fall of 2001 by researchers in the Department of
Sociology, University of North Carolina and funded by the Lilly
Endowment Inc. In the first phase of NSYR data collection two original
sets of data were produced: A nationally representative telephone
survey for 3370 youth between the ages of 13-17 and their parents, and
a follow-up in-person interview with a subset of 267 youth. The rich
data provided in the surveys and interviews has allowed project
researchers to investigate the shape and influence of religion and
spirituality in the lives of US adolescents.
The Lilly Endowment Inc. has since granted the NSYR funding for second and third waves of data collection. The
second wave of the NSYR telephone survey began in June of 2005 and was
completed in November of 2005 with 80% of the original participating
respondents (between the ages of 16-20). In-person,
semi-structured interviews following up on questions asked in the
telephone survey were conducted with 120 study participants around the
country.
The third wave telephone survey was fielded, when respondents were between the ages of 18 and 24, from September 2007 through April 2008 with 77% of the original Wave 1 participants. 228 in-person interviews were conducted with a sample of the telephone survey respondents from April 2008 through September 2008.
The substantive aims of NSYR data collection and analysis are:
- to examine continuity and change over time in religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in the developing lives of youth
- to explore links between these religious dynamics and other
aspects of youth's lives, including subjective well-being, family
processes, educational achievement, and career development
