Social, Moral and Religious Attitudes of Secondary School Students

Abstract

This paper reports some of the findings of a questionnaire survey of the social, moral and religious attitudes of 578 fifth formers in three Roman Catholic comprehensive schools and one local authority secondary school in the autumn of 1973. School and home variables related to differences in the scores obtained on six scales were identified and a brief review of student responses to open‐ended questions on religion carried out. The findings indicate that while the Catholic schools do differ significantly in some respects from the local authority school, there is also a large measure of overlap in the beliefs and values of the students. The data also showed that high levels of anti‐intellectualism and acceptance of the traditional role of the woman in the home are not features common to all Catholic schools. The need for more broadly based research is stressed.