Religion, Race/Ethnicity, and Perceived Barriers to Marriage among Working-Age Adults

ORCID

Haynes: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1408-9291

MSU Affiliation

College of Arts and Sciences; Department of Sociology

Creation Date

2026-06-01

Abstract

While a great deal of scholarly attention has been focused on correlates and predictors of obstacles to marriage, little attention has been given to the role of religion in predicting self-reported reasons for nonmarriage. This oversight in the literature is surprising, given the recent focus among researchers on the role of religious factors in shaping intimate relationships. Further, few scholars have explored racial/ethnic variations in the association between religion and perceived barriers to marriage. Our study addresses this gap in the literature using data from the National Survey of Religion and Family Life (NSRFL), a 2006 telephone survey of working-age adults that contains oversamples of African Americans and Latinos. Results indicate that church attendance is associated with a reduction in perceived barriers to marriage, at least among non-Hispanic White respondents. © 2011 The Author.

Publication Date

10-31-2011

Publication Title

Sociology of Religion

Publisher

Oxford University Press

First Page

429

Last Page

451

Rights

© The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. All rights reserved.

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Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srr053