Francis, Leslie J., Williams, Emyr and Village, Andrew. (2011) Multi-faith Britain and family life : changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, and divorce among different faith groups 1983–2005. Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol.26 (No.1). pp. 33-41. ISSN 1353-7903

PDF WRAP_Francis_Multifaith_Britain_Annotated.pdf - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 7 July 2012. - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (206Kb)

Abstract

The inclusion of a question on religious affiliation in the decennial census for England and Wales, and for Scotland, for the first time in 2001 acknowledged that adequate profiling and interpretation of the contemporary multi-cultural landscape of Britain depended as much upon mapping religious identity as upon charting ethnic origin. Taking marital status as a key indicator of family life and family values in Britain, this study draws on the British Social Attitudes Survey data, collected annually since 1983 (except for 1988 and 1992), in order to model the changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, and divorce among the six faith groups identified on the census form (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism). The analyses draw attention to the limitations of the data source (the small number of adherents to the minority faith groups), to the clear and complex associations between faith traditions and marital status, to the persistence of these associations across the period for which data are available, and to the way in which members of faith groups are following the liberalising trends prevalent among the religiously unaffiliated.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Institute of Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Marital status -- Great Britain, Marriage -- Great Britain -- Religious aspects, Divorce -- Great Britain -- Religious aspects, Unmarried couples -- Great Britain -- Religious aspects
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Contemporary Religion
Publisher:	Routledge
ISSN:	1353-7903
Date:	2011
Volume:	Vol.26
Number:	No.1
Page Range:	pp. 33-41
Identification Number:	10.1080/13537903.2011.539840
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
References:	Bahr, Howard, M. and Chadwick, Bruce, A.1985 Religion and family in Middletown, USA. Journal of Marriage and the Family 47 (1985): 407-414. Chatters, Linda, M., Taylor, Robert, J. and Lincoln, Karen, D. African American religious participation: a multi-sample comparison. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 38 (1999): 132-145. Coleman, David and Salt, John. The ethnic group question in the 1991 census: a new landmark in British social statistics. Ethnicity in the 1991 Census: volume 1 demographic characteristics of the ethnic minority populations. Eds. David Coleman and John Salt. London: HMSO, 1996. DeMars, Alfred and Leslie, Gerald, R. Cohabitation with the future spouse: its influence upon marital satisfaction and communication. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46 (1984): 77-84. Dempsey, Ken and de Vaus, David. Who cohabits in 2001? The significance of age, gender, religion and ethnicity. Journal of Sociology 40 (2004): 157-178. Francis, Leslie, J. (2003), Religion and social capital: the flaw in the 2001 census in England and Wales. Public Faith: the state of religious belief and practice in Britain, Ed Paul Avis. London: SPCK, 2003. 45-64, de Graaf, Paul, M. and Kalmijn, Matthijs. Change and stability in the social determinants of divorce: a comparison of marriage cohorts in the Netherlands. European Sociological Review 22 (2006): 561-572. Howard, David and Hopkins, Paul, E. Race, religion and the Census. Population, Space and Place 11 (2005): 69-74. Lehrer, Evelyn, L. The role of religion in union formation: an economic perspective. Population Research and Policy Review 23 (2004): 161-185. Macourt, Malcolm. Counting the people of God? The census of population and the Church of Ireland. Dublin: Church of Ireland Publishing, 2008. Petrowsky, Marc. Marital status, sex, and the social networks of the elderly. Journal of Marriage and the Family 38 (1976): 749-756. Stolzenberg, Ross, M., Blair-Loy, Mary and Waite, Linda, J. Religious participation in early adulthood: age and family life cycle effects on church membership. American Sociological Review 60 (1995): 84-103. Swann Report. Education for All. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1985. Voas, David. Estimating the Jewish undercount in the 2001 Census: a comment on Graham and Waterman (2005) ‘Underenumeration of the Jewish population in the UK 2001 Census: Population, Space and Place, 11: 89-102. Population, Space and Place 13 (2007): 401-407. Voas, David and Bruce, Steve. The 2001 census and Christian identification in Britain. Journal of Contemporary Religion 19 (2004): 23-28. Weller, Paul. Identity, politics, and the future(s) of religion in the UK: the case of the religious question in the 2001 decennial census. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 19 (2004): 3-21. Wilcox, Bradford. and Wolfinger, Nicholas, H. Then comes marriage? Religion, race, and marriage in urban America. Social Science Research 36 (2007): 569-589. Williams, Emyr and Francis, Leslie, J. Marriage, cohabitation and divorce: the social significance of religion and the changing context of family life in Britain 1983-2005. The Public Significance of Religion. Eds Hans-Georg. Ziebertz and Leslie J. Francis. (in press).
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/41311

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item