Variations in Religious Development by Sexual Orientation: Results From a Nationally Representative US Sample

We compared religious development from early adolescence to middle adulthood between sexual orientations. Data were from Waves 1-5 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) restricted data sets using participants from the self-weighting core sample who had complete data for predictors and covariates (N = 10,879 at Wave 1; aged 12-21). Time-varying effect modeling examined changes in religious affiliation (any affiliation vs. no affiliation), importance, attendance, and prayer across ages 12-41 as a function of sexual orientation in adulthood (heterosexual, 86.1%; mostly heterosexual, 9.6%; bisexual, 1.6%; mostly gay/lesbian, 0.9%; gay/lesbian, 1.4%; and asexual, 0.5%). For the heterosexual group, levels of religious affiliation and attendance were highest at age 12 and decreased until age 20 and then stabilized. Importance and prayer remained relatively stable across time. Affiliation, attendance, importance, and prayer were generally significantly lower in the mostly heterosexual, bisexual, and mostly gay/lesbian groups compared to the heterosexual group. Affiliation did not significantly differ from heterosexual individuals at most ages for the gay/lesbian and asexual groups. Attendance and importance were significantly lower for the gay/lesbian group in middle adulthood and significantly lower for the asexual group in adolescence. Prayer was also significantly lower in middle adulthood for the mostly gay/lesbian group and in adolescence for the asexual group. Prayer was significantly higher in adolescence for the gay/lesbian group. Religiosity changes over development and varies by sexual orientation, particularly between those who are heterosexual and who have sexual orientations that are nonmonosexual.