Citation
Uecker, Jeremy E. (2014). Religion and Early Marriage in the United States: Evidence from the Add Health Study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. vol. 53 (2) pp. 392-415 , PMCID: PMC4096940Abstract
Early marriage has important consequences for individuals in the United States. Several studies have linked religion to early marriage but have not examined this relationship in depth. Using data from Waves 1, 3, and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I conduct multilevel event-history analysis to examine how religion, at both individual and contextual levels, is associated with early marriage. Further, I test mediators of the religion-early marriage relationship. I find significant variation in early marriage by religious tradition, religious service attendance, religious salience, belief in scriptural inerrancy, and religious context in high school. The individual religious effects-but not the school context effects-are explained in part by differential attitudes toward marriage and cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]Copyright of Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)