DEMOGRAPHY© Volume 18, Number 4 November 1981 RELIGION, SOCIALIZATION, AND FERTILITY Susan G. Janssen Robert M. Hauser Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Abstract-Longitudinal data from a large .. sample of Wisconsin men and women are used to examine the effects on fertility of religious and secular socialization, including farm upbringing. Analyses of children ever born (CEB) and of parity progression show that current religious choice is more important in explaining fertility than is religion of orientation or denomina- tion of secondary school. The effects of current and background religion are additive, and the effect of current religion is the same for men as for women at each parity progression. Catholic religious background affects fertility primarily by increasing the likelihood of having a third or fourth child; its indirect effects on fertility operate through religious schooling and current religious affiliation. Unlike religious background, the positive influence of farm background on fertility persists among men and women, even when current farm employment is controlled. The purpose of this paper is to analyze some effects of religion and socialization on fertility. The fertility of a single co- hort to age 36 is analyzed in terms of both the sequence of parity progressions and the number of children ever born. The main interest lies in hypotheses about religion and socialization that have been invoked to explain postwar trends in religious differentials in fertility in the United states. Separate but parallel anal- yses of the fertility of women and men are conducted. Religion has been an important vari- able affecting the desires, expectations, .and experiences of fertility among mar- ried couples. From the mid-1940s through the late 1960s, researchers have found that Catholics desire, expect, and have more children than non-Catholics (Bouvier and Rao, 1975); further, a posi- tive association between religiosity or devoutness and fertility has been found in Catholic samples (Ryder and Estoff, 1971; Bouvier and Rao, 1975; Westoff and Ryder, 1977). The post-war trend in the Catholic/ 511 non-Catholic fertility differential has been characterized by increasing diver- gence between the two groups up to the mid-1960s and a more rapid convergence in the 1970s. As fertility levels among both groups have declined (over the past decade or so), the convergence between Catholics and non-Catholics is due in large part to the much faster decline in Catholic fertility. Westoff and Jones (1979), drawing on theories of minority group consciousness, economic develop- ment, and fertility, have proposed that five factors might explain both the diver- gence and convergence: (1) social, eco- nomic, and residential differentiation be- tween Catholics and other Americans; (2) strong minority group feelings among Catholics; the tendency of Catholic schools and institutions to contribute to a separate group consciousness; (4) church sanctions against the use of con- traceptives; and (5) the secular forces affecting the fertility of all segments of the society. During the period of diver- gence, the first four of these factors strongly affected Catholics' lives; the Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/demography/article-pdf/18/4/511/905293/511janssen.pdf by guest on 03 April 2022