The religiosity of children of immigrants and natives in England, Germany, and the Netherlands: The role of parents and peers in class

Abstract

This article examines the role of parents and peers for the religiosity of ethnic minority and majority adolescents, about which little is known in the literature. We analyze data from the nationally representative and cross-nationally comparative survey 'Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study in Four European Countries' CILS4EU (2010-2011) with information from >13,000 adolescents in England, Germany, and the Netherlands. Results from this school-based survey show that ethnic minority adolescents, and in particular those with Muslim parents, are more religious than native-majority adolescents. Transmission of more private aspects of religiosity (i.e. 'the subjective importance people attach to religion') is more successful among ethnic minority families compared with native-majority families. No minority-majority differences are found in the intergenerational transmission of more public dimensions of religiosity (i.e. frequency of 'religious attendance' and 'prayer'). Furthermore, we find that beyond the influence of parents, the religiosity of adolescents is positively associated with the average religiosity of their peers in class. In line with the argument that peer influence is stronger between members of the same, rather than different, ethnic groups, we also observe that the strength of the relation between average religiosity in class and individual religiosity increases with the share of co-ethnic peers in class.