The Influence of Religious Attendance and Gender in Accessing High-Status Social Ties

• Main Author: Phillips, James William
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2011
• Subjects: religion; gender; social ties; social networks; status; Sociology
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3045; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4044&context=etd

Religious participation often influences the composition of one's social network, but less is known about the degree to which religious attendance increases access to highly-influential individuals who can offer potential advantages in terms of resource distribution. Using data from the Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity (PS-ARE) I examine the influence of religious attendance and gender on accessing high-status social ties, which are defined as having conversations with the highly educated, elected public officials, and congregation leaders. I estimate ordered logistic regression models and find that increased religious attendance is associated with greater odds of accessing high-status social ties. Additionally, I test for any moderating influence of gender and find that similarly attending women and men largely access such social ties equally, with a few exceptions. This study identifies religion as an organization that offers similar social networking opportunities for women and men alike. Since women attend religious services more frequently than men, this study draws conclusions that the relationship between religious participation and access to high-status social ties may be particularly meaningful for women on the aggregate, who often experience social networking disadvantages within other organizations.