Believing and Implicit Religion beyond the Churches

Religion, Superstition, Luck and Fear among 13-15 Year-old Girls in Wales

Authors

  • Leslie Francis University of Wales, Bangor
  • Mandy Robbins University of Wales, Bangor
  • Emyr Williams University of Wales, Bangor

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/imre2006.v9i1.74

Keywords:

superstition, unchurched, adolescent girls, Wales, beliefs, luck, supernatural

Abstract

A sample of 1,133 year-nine and year-ten pupils (13–15 year-olds), attending six state-maintained secondary schools in South Wales, completed a survey concerned with beliefs in the afterlife, beliefs in supernatural forces, beliefs about good luck, beliefs about bad luck, beliefs about protection from harm, and fear of the supernatural. The analysis distinguishes between the belief patterns of females who belong to and attend a Christian group (the churched) and females who neither belong to nor attend any religious group (the unchurched). The data demonstrate significantly greater belief in (but no significantly greater fear of) some aspects of the supernatural among the unchurched.

References

Beck, R. and Miller, J. P. (2001) ‘Erosion of Belief and Disbelief: Effects of Religiosity and Negative Affect on Beliefs in the Paranormal and Supernatural’, Journal of Social Psychology 141: 277-87.

Boyd, A. (1996) Dangerous Obsessions: Teenagers and the Occult, London: Marshal Pickering.

Davie, G. (1994) Religion in Britain Since 1945: Believing without Belonging, Oxford: Blackwell.

De Graaf, N. D. and Need, A. (2000) ‘Losing Faith: is Britain Alone?’, in Jowell R., Curtice J., Park A., Thomson K., Jarvis L., Bromley C. and Stratford N. (eds), British Social Attitudes: The Seventeenth Report, London: Sage Publications, pp. 119-36.

Ellis, L. (1988) ‘Religiosity and Superstition: Are They Related or Separate Phenomena?’, Psychology 25: 12-13.

Francis, L. J. (1984) Teenagers and the Church: A Profile of Church-going Youth in the 1980s, London: Collins Liturgical Publications.

Francis, L. J. and Kay, W. K. (1995) Teenage Religion and Values, Leominster: Gracewing.

Francis, L. J. and Brierley, P. W. (1997) ‘The Changing Face of the British Churches: 1975–1995’, in Bar-Lev M. and Shaffir W. (eds), Leaving Religion and Religious Life, Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, pp. 159-84.

Francis, L .J. (2001) The Values Debate: A Voice from the Pupils, London: Woburn Press.

Francis, L. J. (2003) ‘Religion and Social Capital: The Flaw in the 2001 Census in England and Wales’, in Avis P. (ed.), Public Faith: The State of Religious Belief and Practice in Britain, London, SPCK, pp. 45-64.

Francis, L. J and Robbins, M. (2004) ‘Belonging without Believing: A Study in the Social Significance of Anglican Identity and Implicit Religion Among 13–15 year old Males’, Implicit Religion 7: 37-54.

Francis, L. J., Williams, E. and Robbins, M. (2005) ‘The Unconventional Beliefs of Conventional Churchgoers: The Matter of Luck’, Implicit Religion, forthcoming.

Gill, R. (1999) Churchgoing and Christian Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Höllinger, F. and Smith, T. B. (2002) ‘Religion and Esotericism Among Students: A Cross-cultural Comparative Study’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 17: 229-49.

Rice, T. W. (2003) ‘Believe It or Not: Religious and Other Paranormal Beliefs in the United States’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42: 95-100.

Stark, R., Hamberg, E. and Miller, A. S. (2005) ‘Exploring Spirituality and Unchurched Religions in America, Sweden, and Japan’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 20: 2-23.

Wallace, A. F. C. (1966) Religion: An Anthropological View, New York: Random House.

Williams, E., Francis, L. J. and Robbins, M. (2005) ‘Attitudes toward Christianity and Paranormal Belief Among 13 to 16-year-old Students’ (under review).

Published

2006-03-31

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Francis, L., Robbins, M., & Williams, E. (2006). Believing and Implicit Religion beyond the Churches: Religion, Superstition, Luck and Fear among 13-15 Year-old Girls in Wales. Implicit Religion, 9(1), 74-89. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre2006.v9i1.74