This category comprises five indicators. All the components have declined with the exception of monthly attendance at religious services (shown separately below). The decline in club meeting attendance is steepest -more pronounced than the decline in group membership. This disparity supports the thesis that associations have become less participatory over the last thirty years: either group membership is becoming “thinner,” with members less predisposed to attend meetings, or groups no longer require as much participation through meetings.

Two measures of religious attendance show little change in the American public as a whole. Among youth, however, there has both been stability and change. Young adults attend houses of worship substantially less and have turned away from organized religion, although there is stability in the strength of their religious beliefs. Recent survey research, not included in our Index, suggests some conforming evidence: young adults have turned away dramatically from organized religion, but not from faith.

DETAILS
▪ “Belong to at least one group”: The General Social Survey (GSS) asks, “Now we would like to know something about the groups or organizations to which individuals belong. Here is a list of various organizations. Could you tell me whether or not you are a member of each type?” The last choice is “any other groups.” We show the proportion of people who say they belong to at least one.

▪ “Attend a club meeting”: The “DDB Life Style Survey” (DDB) asks whether people have gone to a club meeting within the last 12 months.

▪ “Participate in a community project”: DDB asks people whether they have worked on a community project within the last 12 months.

▪ Two measures of religious attendance are combined into one indicator for the purposes of constructing the Index, but are charted separately above:

▫ “Attend church or other place of worship nine times a year”: DDB asks for frequency of attendance; we use nine times per year as the minimum.

▫ “Attend monthly religious services”: GSS asks “How often do you attend religious services?” And we use once a month as the minimum.