Preferred Name
Molly Bradshaw
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
5-6-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
School of Communication Studies
Advisor(s)
C. Leigh Nelson
Isaac Woo
Eric Fife
Abstract
Two separate studies were conducted to examine whether communication variables impact religious views and church attendance. For the first study, 228 students from a large Southeastern university completed a web survey. The second study was a web survey of 204 adults that was conducted via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTURK). Both surveys were sent out to determine one’s motivations to attend a small, medium, or large church using family communication, anxiety, expectations, and religion variables as predictors. Family communication, anxiety, and expectancy variables were positively correlated to many aspects of religious views. Hierarchical regression models utilizing demographics, family communication, anxiety, expectancy violations, and religious variables to predict types of church attendance were significant. This indicates that understanding one’s family communication patterns, expectancies, and religious views surrounding church and religion influence people’s desire to attend a specific sized church environment.
Recommended Citation
Bradshaw, Molly, "Understanding motivations to attend various sized churches: A study using family communication patterns, expectancy violations, and anxiety to predict church attendance" (2021). Masters Theses, 2020-current. 94.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/masters202029/94
Included in
Christianity Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Quantitative Psychology Commons
