Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 1998 English Church Attendance Survey (SN:4394) found there had been a drastic drop in those, aged under 15, attending the English church in the 1990's. The aim was to discover why they had left and what, if anything, could be done about it. A key finding was the lack of 'fun' in church, the influence of grandparents and the importance of having people in church who understood tweenagers, their values and their language. The sample of church tweenagers was structured by denomination, churchmanship, environment and area. Other tweenagers were contacted through schools, those which agreed to take part in the survey, clustered in geographical areas close to responding churches. In addition, forms were distributed to various Christian organisations working with young people in this age range.

Main Topics:

This study includes young people who attend church and those who are not regular churchgoers. Topics covered include: religious affiliation; activities in spare time; computer and internet access; television viewing; opinions about themselves; trust; reasons for attendance and lack of attendance at church; belief in God; religious experiences; church activities; youth groups; young peoples' opinions and attitudes towards church.

One-stage stratified or systematic random sample

The sample of church tweenagers was structured by denomination, churchmanship, environment and area.

Postal survey

The documentation mentions the qualitative research undertaken by the discussion or focus groups, this is not held at the UK Data Archive.