The effects of religious commitment on the attitudes and behavior of teens regarding premarital childbirth.

Using the NELS data set from the 1988-1992 period, this study used a longitudinal data set to address whether very religious teens maintained different attitudes and behaviors regarding premarital childbirth than their less religious counterparts. The results of this study support the notion that a high level of religious commitment among adolescents makes it less likely that teens will have permissive attitudes about premarital childbirth and also makes it less likely that they will become never married single parents during their high school years. The variables for "religiosity" were taken from the NELS surveys for 1988 and 1990. The variables measuring attitudes and behaviors regarding premarital childbirth were obtained from the 1992 data set. This procedure helped address any issues regarding the direction of causality. The significance of these results is discussed.