Conscientious Objection in Medical Students

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Nearly half of medical students believe it is the right of doctors conscientiously to object to any procedure, and this is especially the case among Muslim medical students, according to research by Sophie Strickland published on 18 July in the ‘online first’ version of the Journal of Medical Ethics.

Strickland contacted 1,437 medical students at St George’s University of London, King’s College London, Cardiff University and the University of Leeds, sending them on 5 May 2008 an email link to an anonymous online questionnaire hosted by the Survey Monkey website. 733 responses (51% of the target population) had been received by the time the survey closed on 24 June 2008.

29% of the medical students stated that they had no religion and 12% were atheists. 17% were Protestant Christians, 11% Roman Catholics, 9% Muslims, and 21% of other religious persuasions. Almost two-thirds of respondents were women, which may account for the relatively religious nature of the sample.

Asked in general whether doctors should be allowed to object to any procedure on moral, cultural or religious grounds, 45% agreed, 41% disagreed, and 14% were unsure. The proportion in agreement fell to 36% among the irreligious and atheists but soared to 76% for Muslims. It was somewhat higher among Protestants (51%) than Catholics (46%).

Faced with a follow-on question enquiring whether they would object to performing eleven specific medical procedures, 15% objected to all of them, ranging from 6% for atheists to 30% for Muslims. Of those raising objections, 20% cited religious reasons, 44% non-religious reasons, and 36% a combination of both. Muslim students were most likely to report religious only objections (28%).

Muslims were particularly exercised about most abortion-related procedures, especially abortion for congenital abnormalities after 24 weeks and abortion for failed contraception before 24 weeks. However, there was also a significant amount of Muslim concern about intimate examination of a person of the opposite sex and reservations about the treatment of patients intoxicated with alcohol or recreational drugs.

Although General Medical Council guidelines provide for some accommodation of conscientious objection among doctors, it is clear from this study that the views of many Muslim medical students, and of some others, could well be in potential conflict with those guidelines once they qualify and begin to practise medicine in the community. Since fieldwork was completed three years ago, some of these tensions are presumably already being evidenced on the ground.   

For the abstract of Strickland’s article on ‘Conscientious Objection in Medical Students: A Questionnaire Survey’, and options to purchase the full text, go to:

http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2011/06/29/jme.2011.042770.abstract

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Muslim-Western Tensions – British Experiences

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Clive D. Field

‘Muslim and Western publics continue to see relations between them as generally bad, with both sides holding negative stereotypes of the other.’ However, there has been ‘somewhat of a thaw in the U.S. and Europe compared with five years ago’.

This is according to the latest findings from the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, released on 21 July. It was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between 21 March and 15 May 2011 among 23 publics, including Great Britain (where 1,000 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed by telephone).

The Muslim-related questions have been analysed by Pew for six Western publics (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, and the USA), seven Muslim publics (Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, and Turkey) and for Israel.  

The present post mainly focuses on the British data, but the international results may be readily viewed in the report Muslim-Western Tensions Persist, which is available for download at:

http://pewglobal.org/files/2011/07/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Muslim-Western-Relations-FINAL-FOR-PRINT-July-21-2011.pdf

64% of Britons held a favourable opinion of Muslims. This represented a fall of seven points since 2005 (just before 7/7) but a 4% recovery from 2010. It was also, jointly with France, the best figure among the six Western nations, higher than Russia (62%), USA (57%), Germany (45%), and Spain (37%).

Nevertheless, 22% of Britons regarded Muslims unfavourably, which was far more than took the same view of Christians (6%) or Jews (7%). 83% were well-disposed to Christians and 76% to Jews, much the same as in 2004.

Moreover, only 39% of Britons assigned no negative traits to Muslims. Specifically, 43% described them as fanatical, 38% as arrogant, 32% as violent, 29% as selfish, 18% as immoral, and 16% as greedy. Similarly, 61% did not associate Muslims with respect for women, 45% with tolerance, 34% with generosity, and 22% with honesty.

52% in Britain saw most Muslims as wanting to remain distinct from mainstream society, rising to 59% for those without degree-level education. Apart from the USA (51%), other Western countries recorded even higher figures, as much as 72% in Germany. Just 28% of Britons thought Muslims wanted to adopt British customs, albeit an improvement on 19% in 2005 and 22% in 2006.

52% of British adults assessed relations between Muslims around the world and Westerners as being generally bad (nine points less than in 2006) and 40% as generally good. 48% of Americans also said bad, 58% of Spaniards, 61% of Germans, and 62% of French.

Of Britons who said relations were bad, 34% believed Muslims were mostly to blame for this state of affairs (compared with 25% in 2006), 26% Western people, and 24% both groups.

So-called ‘Islamic extremism’ seems to have soured relations. 70% in Britain were concerned about this and a mere 28% unconcerned. Notwithstanding, 70% represented a fall of 7% since the 2006 (post-7/7) survey and a return to 2005 (pre-7/7) levels. Russians (76%) and Germans (73%) were more concerned than Britons, Americans (69%), French (68%), and Spaniards (61%) somewhat less.

In similar vein, 52% in Britain claimed that some religions were more prone to violence than others, and three-quarters of these cited Islam as the single most violent religion (against 63% immediately before 7/7).

59% of Britons thought Muslim nations should be more economically prosperous than they were. This lack of prosperity was largely attributed to internal deficiencies in those nations: government corruption (51%), lack of democracy (46%), lack of education (36%), and Islamic fundamentalism (31%). No more than 15% were willing to allocate blame to US and Western policies.

Finally, a footnote on religion more generally. Professing Christians in the Western countries were asked whether they first considered themselves as citizens of their nation or as Christians. In Britain 63% of Christians placed their nationality first, exactly three times the proportion which put their Christian identity first. This reflected a shift since 2006, when the figures had been 59% and 24%. Americans were most likely to put Christianity (46%) above nationality, French the least (8%).

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Religion and Belief in Higher Education

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Fresh empirical insights into the state of religion in UK higher education are offered in a new report commissioned by the Equality Challenge Unit, undertaken on its behalf by researchers at the University of Derby, and launched on 11 July.

The topic has assumed increasing importance in recent years, as a result of the diversification of the religious background of students and staff (partly reflecting greater religious pluralism in the UK, and partly a consequence of internationalization).

Additionally, the Equality Act 2010 established religion or belief as an equality strand in mainland Britain, thereby imposing duties on higher education institutions and necessitating a stronger evidence base to demonstrate compliance.

Paul Weller, Tristram Hooley and Nicki Moore, Religion and Belief in Higher Education: The Experiences of Staff and Students explores four main aspects of the subject: participation and access, religious observance, discrimination and harassment, and good relations.

A mixed methodology was employed for the study, including – of particular interest to BRIN users – a national online survey of UK higher education academic and support staff (n = 3,077 from 131 institutions) and students (n = 3,935 from 101 institutions) between 28 October 2010 and 3 January 2011.

These ‘samples’ were essentially self-selecting, recruited through ‘key gatekeepers’, national networks and various online publicity mechanisms. Although, in certain respects, their profiles were ‘not far removed’ from Higher Education Statistics Authority data, there is no real means of assessing their typicality in religious terms.

The figures from this research are thus described by the authors as ‘indicative’ and presented with a heavy health warning: ‘It is important to note that this survey was not intended to be statistically representative, as in higher education there is a current lack of the data that would allow the necessary sampling to take place.’

‘Because of the impossibility of constructing a precise sample, readers should not attempt to extrapolate figures and percentages given in this report across the sector as a whole.’ With this significant caveat, we may note some of the key quantitative findings:

STAFF

  • 47% identified themselves as Christians, 37% as of no religion, 5% as spiritual, 3% as Muslims, and 9% as of other faiths or beliefs
  • 43% said that religion was in the foreground of their life, 23% in the background, and 32% that it did not feature in their life
  • One-half had no recollection of how, if at all, their institutions monitored staff religion or belief
  • 20% indicated that they would be uncomfortable about disclosing their religion to their university, rising to 34% of pagans, 33% of spiritual, and 28% of no religion
  • 11% (22% of Muslims and Buddhists) were members of a religion or belief society in their institution
  • 94% felt that they had not been discriminated against or harassed because of their actual or perceived religion or belief since 2003, the 6% with negative experiences (including 18% of Muslims and 10% of Jews) attributing them in roughly equal measures to immediate colleagues, other staff, and students
  • 79% felt comfortable expressing their religion or belief identity in the workplace
  • 73% had never been approached by anyone with the intention of bringing them over to their religious point of view
  • 53% agreed and only 8% disagreed that their institution valued the religion or belief identities of its employees, the rest being neutral

STUDENTS

  • 44% described themselves as Christians, 31% as of no religion, 9% as Muslims, 5% as spiritual, and 11% as of other faiths or beliefs
  • 49% said that religion was in the foreground of their life, 27% in the background, and 23% that it did not feature in their life
  • Two-fifths had no recollection of how, if at all, their institutions monitored student religion or belief
  • 16% indicated that they would be uncomfortable about disclosing their religion to their university, with twice this number for Buddhists and those calling themselves spiritual
  • 22% considered that their course content was presented in a way which was sensitive to their religion or belief, 10% disagreed (15% among Muslims and 13% for Christians), 20% were neutral, and 48% held that their religion was irrelevant to the course
  • 23% stated that the teaching on their course was conducted in a way which was sensitive to their religion or belief, 11% disagreed (16% of Muslims and 15% of Christians), 20% were neutral, and 47% argued that their religion was irrelevant to the course
  • 44% considered that campus facilities for people of their religion were adequate, 15% inadequate, with the remainder unsure
  • 27% were members of a religion or belief society in their institution, rising to 63% of Jews, 48% of Muslims and 44% of Sikhs
  • 94% felt that they had not been discriminated against or harassed because of their actual or perceived religion or belief, but Jews (27%), Sikhs (17%) and Muslims (14%) reported much higher levels of discrimination
  • 86% agreed and just 11% disagreed that harassment on the grounds of religion was dealt with as a serious disciplinary offence by their institution 
  • 68% felt their university was understanding or tolerant towards students with a specific religion, a mere 3% describing it as ignorant or intolerant (the rest being neutral or stating no opinion) 
  • 90% felt comfortable expressing their religion or belief to friends, 72% to fellow students, and 69% to personal academic tutors
  • 54% had never been approached by anyone with the intention of bringing them over to their religious point of view, with one-fifth having been approached and feeling uncomfortable or harassed as a result

The main research report, Religion and Belief in Higher Education, is available to download from:

http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/files/religion-and-belief-staff-and-students-in-he-report.pdf/view

Raw topline data and questionnaires will be found in Nicki Moore, Tristram Hooley and Kieran Bentley, Religion and Belief in Higher Education: The Experiences of Staff and Students – Appendix 2, Survey Data, which can be found at:

http://www.derby.ac.uk/ehs/research/religion-and-belief-in-HE/downloads

Also on this Derby site are Appendix 1, which deals with the project approach, and Appendix 3, which is a literature review.

Readers of this post may like to consult another recent post, on British Muslim students’ experience of higher education, which is at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=1344

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How Much Does Religion Matter?

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Religion plays a far less central role in the lives of Britons than of many other peoples, according to an international Ipsos Global @dvisor survey released on 6 July. Full data tables are not yet available, but a press release and presentation slides will be found at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/newsevents/latestnews/810/How-much-does-religion-matter.aspx

Fieldwork was undertaken online between 6 and 21 April 2011 among adults aged 16-64 in 24 developed and developing countries. There were 18,473 respondents, including approximately 1,000 in Great Britain, all members of the Ipsos Online Panel.

Only 29% of Britons agreed that religion provides the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to thrive in the 21st century. This was 19% below the weighted global average, putting Britain in 18th equal position.

Britain occupied exactly the same slot in terms of the number professing no religion – 37% compared with the international average of 25%, peaking in Japan (67%) and China (62%).

Even among the three-fifths of Britons who proclaimed a faith, the strength of their affiliation was variable. Thus:

  • Just 52% said that it was an important part of their lives, ranking Britain 17th in the world league table, and falling to 48% for British Christians
  • No more than 14% described it as a major motivation for giving time or money to people in need, putting Britain in 20th equal place 
  • A mere 9% acknowledged their religion as the only true path to salvation, liberation or paradise, 16% less than the global mean, and in 15th equal position

Across all these measures, the most consistently religious nations were Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, both overwhelmingly Muslim, with Brazil, India, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States generally also performing well. Within Europe, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain and Sweden tended to be even less religious than Britain.

A final question probed inter-religious integration. Two-thirds of Britons had no friends or acquaintances (35%), or less than half (30%), from a different religion. Sweden apart, countries recording a higher figure than this were all religiously monochrome: Hungary, Italy, Poland and Spain (Catholic); Russia (Orthodox); Saudi Arabia and Turkey (Muslim); and China and Japan (no affiliation).

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British Muslim Students’ Experience of Higher Education

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Clive D. Field

British Muslim students get comparatively low A Level grades, overwhelmingly enter post-1992 universities (former polytechnics), live at the parental home during term-time, and are decreasingly satisfied with the quality of the higher education which they receive.

These conclusions emerge from a study of 5,523 students (3,555 males, 1,968 females) of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin and living in the United Kingdom who attended business schools at universities in England and completed the National Student Survey between 2008 and 2010. Business and related studies are one of the most popular subjects for British Muslim university students.

The research is reported in Aftab Dean and Steve Probert, ‘British Muslim Students’ Experience of Higher Education: An Analysis of National Student Survey Results for UK Business Schools’, Perspectives: Teaching Islamic Studies in Higher Education, Issue 2, June 2011, pp. 18-25. This can be accessed at:

http://www.islamicstudiesnetwork.ac.uk/assets/documents/islamicstudies/Perspectives2.pdf

Fewer than one in ten of these Muslim business school students achieved high A Level grades, under one-third medium grades and well over one-half low grades. This distribution compared unfavourably with other ethnic minorities (especially Indians and Chinese), although blacks also performed fairly badly.

77% of Muslim students attended post-1992 universities, 4% Russell Group institutions and 19% other pre-1992 universities. There were no major differences between men and women Muslim students. The concentration in post-1992 universities is naturally causally linked with low A Level grades.

Unlike other ethnic minority students, the vast majority of Muslim students (almost two-thirds of the men and three-quarters of the women) lived at home with their parents while studying for their degree. Such Muslim students rated their overall university experience lower than those living in other types of accommodation, particularly private halls. The pedagogical implications of this finding, with particular reference to Muslim women students, are explored in the article’s conclusion.

In general, Muslims also scored their higher education experience as lower than those from other ethnic groups. Overall satisfaction of Muslims decreased over the three surveys, and female Muslims were less content than their male counterparts. Relative to all students and to white students, Muslims were more dissatisfied with their teaching, academic support, and aspects of assessment and feedback. In their summation, the authors highlight the importance of ‘culturally responsive teaching’.

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Religious Education and the English Baccalaureate

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The campaign (RE.ACT) to persuade the Coalition Government to change its mind about excluding GCSE Religious Education (RE) from the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) in secondary schools hotted up on 24 June with the simultaneous publication of two new surveys accompanied by rather alarmist press releases.

The first was a report by the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE), based on an online (Survey Monkey) poll of RE teachers in 1,918 schools over a 10-day period commencing 22 May 2011. These schools represented 53% of the maintained secondary school sector in England.

The report was launched with a joint release by NATRE and the Religious Education Council of England and Wales with the key message that ‘Religious education in schools is being killed off’. Government’s ‘rapidly implemented plans to shake up the educational system are set to shake out RE. This may not be deliberate but is the inevitable unintended consequence of other actions.’

Informing these headlines was the fact that, according to the NATRE survey, 20% of schools were already failing to meet the legal requirement to provide RE for all pupils at Key Stage 4, with 24% expecting to fall short in 2011/12. Even at Key Stage 3 9% of schools did not meet the obligation. Neither were faith schools immune from non-compliance.

Moreover, 32% of schools had experienced a drop in GCSE entries for 2011/12 in the full RE course and 22% in the short course, the EBacc being the single commonest reason cited for the decline.  More than one-quarter of academy, community and grammar schools also anticipated specialist RE staff reductions for 2011/12.

The NATRE report is available at:

http://www.retoday.org.uk/media/display/NATRE_EBacc_Survey2_report_final.pdf

The second study was a ComRes poll, commissioned by Premier Christian Media Group (which has organized a petition of over 140,000 signatures to press for the inclusion of RE in the EBacc), and undertaken among an online sample of 2,005 Britons aged 18 and over on 10-12 June 2011.

The press release accompanying the results was entitled ‘Teach young people about other religions or risk religious extremism, warns new public poll’. This was a reference to the findings that:

  • 81% of respondents believed that, without education, people become intolerant of different cultures and religions;
  • 77% were convinced that knowledge of different religions helped promote community cohesion;
  • 71% predicted that British society would become more divided, unless children and young people are taught about different cultures and religions; and
  • 57% envisaged such teaching would reduce extremism and fundamentalism in Britain

Additionally, 88% of the sample agreed that learning about different cultures and faiths in Britain and the rest of the world is important, and 84% that it contributed to an understanding of modern society. 68% judged that children and young people did not know enough about religions and cultures other than their own. 

The full computer tabulations for the ComRes poll, with a range of breaks (gender, age, social grade, region, employment sector, knowledge of world religions, level of RE at school), can be downloaded from:

http://www.comres.co.uk/premierextremismpoll24jun11.aspx

It could be argued that these high values in favour of RE are somewhat misleading in that, in the ComRes poll, RE was not in contention with other curriculum subjects. It is therefore instructive to examine the ComRes outcomes alongside a survey by YouGov among 1,374 Britons aged 18 and over, interviewed online on 15-16 June 2011.

Although this did not expressly mention the EBacc, it did ask which of twenty GCSE subjects should count towards the construction of school performance league tables. RE came only sixteenth in the rank order, scoring 21%, with just Latin, media studies, drama and dance below it.

The subjects topping the YouGov list were mathematics, English, science, modern languages, and history/geography – precisely the disciplines included in the EBacc. So perhaps public support for school RE is not quite so strong as the RE lobbyists would wish to be the case? The YouGov statistics can be found at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-yougov-gcses-240611.pdf

This YouGov poll was a replication of an earlier one, conducted on 11-12 January 2011, which ranked RE as the fifteenth most important GCSE subject in the construction of school league tables, with 22% support. See our coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=833

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Charitable Giving to Religious Causes

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Although Britons self-report as fairly generous in their charitable donations, relative to other countries, they accord a low priority to giving to religious organizations. This is suggested by a fourteen-nation study undertaken this spring by GfK Verein for the Wall Street Journal Europe, in which some 1,000 Britons aged 15 and over were interviewed.

Just 7% of Britons claimed to donate to religious organizations, whereas 49% gave to child welfare, 47% to health research, 29% to anti-poverty programmes, 27% to disaster relief, 21% to animal welfare, 10% to education, and 8% to human rights organizations. Only environmental protection (6%) and culture and heritage (3%) scored worse than overtly religious causes.

Internationally, Britain’s contribution to religious organizations was lower than all other countries except Belgium (3%), Portugal (6%), and Sweden (1%). It stood at only half the European average (14%) and was dwarfed by the United States (35%). Indeed, in America giving to religious organizations far exceeded contributions to other types of charity.

The survey also addressed the extent to which charitable giving was motivated by religious beliefs. Unfortunately, GfK’s press release of 21 June does not cover the British responses to that particular question. The release will be found at:

http://www.gfknop.com/imperia/md/content/gfk_nop/newsandpressinformation/pm_gfk_verein_charity_eng_fin.pdf

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Gay Pride

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Individuals who profess no religion take somewhat more pride in how Britain treats gay people than do those with a faith, according to a newly-released survey by YouGov, in which 2,086 adults aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 4-9 May 2011.

Whereas 51% of the religionless agreed with this statement, the proportion fell to 47% for Anglicans, 45% for Roman Catholics, 37% for the mainline Free Churches, and 45% for non-Christians, perhaps suggesting a lingering homophobia on the part of some believers.

The number not proud of Britain’s treatment of gays was 13% overall, peaking at 19% for Presbyterians, Methodists and Muslims. However, cell sizes for these groups were small. That left two-fifths who were neutral on the subject, possibly a little confused by the slightly ambiguous wording of the question.

The survey results are available at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-demos-patriotism-ge_280611.pdf

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Veracity of Clergy

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Clergy and priests are the sixth most trustworthy group in society, according to an Ipsos MORI poll for the British Medical Association and published on 27 June. Fieldwork was conducted on 10-16 June 2011 among 1,026 adults aged 15 and over throughout the United Kingdom.

Respondents were read a list of 21 groups and asked which of them they generally trusted to tell the truth. Doctors scored most highly (88%), followed by teachers (81%), professors (74%), judges (72%), scientists (71%), and then clergy/priests on 68%. Politicians as a whole (14%), government ministers (17%), and journalists (19%) occupied the bottom three positions.

Clergy/priests were slightly more trusted by men than women, the over-55s than the young, non-manual than manual workers, those in full-time employment than non-workers, readers of ‘quality’ than ‘popular’ newspapers, whites than non-whites, and among Scots than the three other home nations. Overall, 20% of the sample did not trust clergy/priests, while 12% expressed no views on the subject.

The veracity rating of clergy/priests has fallen over time, from 85% in 1983, when Ipsos MORI first started asking the question. In that year they topped the list of 13 groups which were covered, even beating doctors by 3%. Although they still exceed the average rating, of 52% in 2011, clergy/priests have clearly suffered a loss of prestige over time, whereas doctors and teachers in particular have consolidated their position of trustworthiness.

Detailed computer tabulations for this year’s survey will be found at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-trust-in-professions-june-2011-tables.pdf

For trend data, go to:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/Veracity2011.pdf

or

http://www.brin.ac.uk/figures/#Trust

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Alcohol, Young People and Religion

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Young people who profess no religion are significantly more likely to have had an alcoholic drink than those with a faith. Indeed, religion is one of the most important factors affecting the likelihood of youth’s consumption of alcohol. This is according to bivariate and multivariate analytical research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 17 June.

Details of the study are to be found in Pamela Bremner, Jamie Burnett, Fay Nunney, Mohammed Ravat (all of Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute) and Willm Mistral (University of Bath), Young People, Alcohol and Influences: A Study of Young People and their Relationship with Alcohol and in the associated technical document. These may be downloaded from:

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/young-people-alcohol-and-influences

Fieldwork was undertaken by means of self-completion questionnaire administered by Ipsos MORI, in invigilated classroom conditions, to a representative sample of 5,785 teenagers aged 13-14 (year 9) and 15-16 (year 11) attending all types of secondary schools in England (apart from special schools). The fieldwork dates were 9 February to 22 May 2009.

In year 9 30% of pupils had never had an alcoholic drink and 70% had, but the latter proportion stood at 81% for those with no religion and dropped to 62% among those with a faith. Drinkers in year 11 numbered 89%, 94% of those without religion and 84% with one.

Among believers, Christians were far more disposed to have drunk alcohol than Muslims, 71% and 13% respectively in year 9, 91% and 26% in year 11. Thus, 87% of year 9 and 74% of year 11 Muslims had not drunk. In fact, across both age groups, the odds of Muslims having had alcoholic drink were 25 times lower than for non-Muslims.

Of those who had never consumed alcohol 25% in year 9 and 34% in year 11 gave religious reasons for not drinking, and these were disproportionately Muslims. In general, however, young people mostly rationalized their abstinence in secular terms, such as lack of interest and potential damage to health, more than on religious grounds.

One-half of both years 9 and 11 identified with a religion, four-fifths of them with Christianity. The number professing no religion edged up from 44% to 48% between years 9 and 11, while those saying their religious beliefs were important to them fell from 26% to 20%. Many believers were apparently fairly nominal. Listeners to religious music were only 7%, and they were three times less likely to have drunk alcohol than non-listeners.

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