Investigating the Effect of Bias in Survey Measures of Church Attendance
That church attendance rates are overestimated by conventional surveys is well established. Much of the extant literature places the locus of the error primarily on measurement; overreporting on the part of the respondent. However, there has been relatively little research into the effect of this me...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2012
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2012, Volume: 73, Issue: 4, Pages: 361-383 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | That church attendance rates are overestimated by conventional surveys is well established. Much of the extant literature places the locus of the error primarily on measurement; overreporting on the part of the respondent. However, there has been relatively little research into the effect of this measurement error on the individual demographic predictors commonly associated with church attendance. In this paper, demographic subgroups are compared on their propensities to report church attendance in conventional surveys and time diaries across 14 countries and four decades. Findings indicate that these covariates are strongly correlated with both measures of attendance, but parameter estimates do not significantly or consistently differ between these modes. This finding suggests that, while conventional survey measures may overestimate population rates of attendance in some countries (i.e., North America), parameter estimates for these demographic predictors are largely unaffected by overreporting bias. Finally, limitations and future directions of research are discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srs042 |