SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND SOCIAL STATUS.

The relationships between various aspects of social participation-voluntary organization members hips, church attendance, and informal association with friends--and a number of social status and social background factors are examined using data from a representative sample of residents of a suburban county adjacent to Washington, D.C. In particular, the role of direct intergenerational transmission of participation patterns in determining levels of social participation Is investigated by using the technique of path analysis to derive estimates of the effects of parents' participation patterns (for which no direct measurements are available) upon those of their offspring. For both males and females, membership in voluntary organisations appears to be at least as strongly influenced by parent's level of participation in suck organizations as by respondent's socioeconomic status. In the case of church attendance, however, a strong direct intergenerational effect is found only for females, and sot for males. Church attendance of males appears to be strongly influenced by their spouses' attendance patterns, a result which is consistent with the role of women as expressive leaders of families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]