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The ‘Friendship Dynamics Of Religion,’ Or The ‘Religious Dynamics Of Friendship’? A Social Network Analysis Of Adolescents Who Attend Small Schools, Jacob Cheadle, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Longitudinal social network data on adolescents in seven schools are analyzed to reach a new understanding about how the personal and interpersonal social dimensions of adolescent religion intertwine together in small school settings. We primarily address two issues relevant to the sociology of religion and sociology in general: (1) social selection as a source of religious homophily and (2) friend socialization of religion. Analysis results are consistent with Collins’ interaction ritual chain theory, which stresses the social dimensions of religion, since network–religion autocorrelations are relatively substantial in magnitude and both selection and socialization mechanisms play key roles in generating them. …