Demographic and socioeconomic predictors of religious/spiritual beliefs and behaviours in a prospective cohort study (ALSPAC) in Southwest England: Results from the offspring generation

Background: We explored associations between possible demographic and socioeconomic causes of religious/spiritual beliefs and behaviours (RSBB) in the offspring generation of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Methods: We examined approximately 4,450 offspring aged 28 years with RSBB data from a prospective birth cohort study (ALSPAC) in Southwest England. Three RSBB outcome measures were assessed: religious belief (belief in God/a divine power; yes/not sure/no), religious affiliation (Christian/none/other) and religious attendance (frequency of attendance at a place of worship). We explored age- and sex-adjusted associations between 35 demographic and socioeconomic exposures and each of the three RSBB outcomes using multinomial regression. Exposure-sex interactions were also examined. Results: Some sociodemographic factors were associated with RSBB in this cohort; for instance, being female and from an ethnicity other than White were associated with increased religiosity across all domains. For many other exposures, however, associations were frequently null or inconsistent, often depending on the specific exposure and outcome combination. As an example, higher educational attainment was associated with higher rates of religious attendance, but not with religious belief or affiliation; in contrast, higher income was associated with lower levels of religiosity. No consistent interactions between sex and the exposures on RSBB were found. Effect sizes were also rather weak, with most pseudo-R2 values below 0.5% and a maximum of 1.2%. Conclusions: The results highlight that several demographic and socioeconomic factors are associated with RSBB in this cohort. However, the number of these associations, and their magnitude, is smaller than comparable results from the parental generation of these offspring, suggesting that patterns of sociodemographic factors associated with RSBB differ between these generations. In addition to describing these associations, this paper will help inform future studies using these data, particularly regarding the choice of potential sociodemographic confounders.