Jane Lankes Smith, The Ohio State University, Research Scientist
Title: How is Religiosity Related to Fertility? Evidence from Five Field Sites
Abstract: Decades of research demonstrate an association between religiosity — including religious beliefs, involvement, practice, salience, and more — and fertility. Despite this extensive canon of work, demographic studies of fertility generally focus on one dimension of religiosity at a time. This narrow measurement contrasts with sociology of religion, psychology, religious studies, and anthropology, which emphasize the importance of a multi-dimensional approach where religiosity is conceptualized as a series of intertwined facets. This project explores how dimensions of religiosity are related to fertility in a cross-national and cross-cultural analysis. Using a novel dataset of five field sites in Bangladesh, India, the Gambia, Malawi, and the United States, it aims to bolster demographic models of how religion shapes childbearing, address inconsistencies in the literature, and contribute to broader debates about the power of values across the demographic transition.
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