Family Size and College Aspirations: A Note on Catholic-Protestant Differences.

Data from a study of college aspirations among 40,000 Minnesota adolescents indicate that the relationship of family size to aspirations is somewhat higher among Protestants than Catholics. Overall aspirational differences between religious groups are minor. Further analysis suggests that these differences are probably not a function of financial capacities but rather of more basic socialization practices. The data are used to illustrate an alternative approach in analyzing the relevance of religion to contemporary society: examining processual differences between religious groups rather than concentrating only on outcomes—such as net differences in aspirations. The paper concludes by speculating that social process may be critical in distinguishing Protestants from Catholics but has generally been neglected in contemporary research on religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]