A new study out of California has found that black college students show greater religiosity and spiritual commitment than their peers.
Black students scored highest on seven of 12 categories measuring religious and spiritual commitment in a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The survey asked 112,232 students at 236 colleges and universities across the nation to respond to questions measuring spirituality, religious commitment, charitable involvement and a variety of similar topics.
White students scored lowest among six ethnic groups in five of the 12 scales, including an ethic of caring, charitable involvement and spiritual quest.
Black students are also more likely than whites to believe in God, pray and attend religious services frequently.
“The reality is that religion has been a very strong part of African-American culture and community for many years,” said Alexander W. Astin, co-principal investigator for the study.
“It’s not surprising to find these numbers given the strong role of religion within their community,” Astin said.
Of the ethnic groups surveyed, Latinos demonstrated the lowest levels of religious engagement, while Asian Americans topped the charts for religious skepticism and came in last for spirituality, equanimity and religious commitment.
By contrast, native Hawaiians showed the highest numbers for charitable involvement, spirituality, ecumenical worldview and religious struggle.
Women generally scored higher than men in the 12 categories, showing significantly higher levels of charitable involvement and religious commitment.
“While women’s higher levels of spirituality and religiousness might be expected, we were surprised that some of these differences aren’t more pronounced,” Astin said.
Men scored higher than women only in religious skepticism.
Seventy-six percent of the participants in the survey were white, 8 percent black, 7 percent Asian American, 5 percent Latino, 2 percent American Indian/Alaskan native, and 1 percent native Hawaiian/Pacific islander.
In an earlier study, the institute reported that four in five college students have an interest in spirituality, three in four are searching for meaning or purpose in life and three-quarters believe in God.
(RNS)
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