The Childhood Roots of Our Adult Communities

What makes some people join community groups as adults—like sports teams, volunteer organizations, or book clubs—while others don't? To find answers, researchers analyzed data from over 200,000 people across 22 countries, looking for connections between their childhood experiences and their current level of community involvement. The results were surprising.

“For some who felt like outsiders in childhood, joining a group as an adult can be a powerful act of finding connection.”

The single strongest predictor of whether someone participated in *any* community group as an adult, religious or not, was whether they regularly attended religious services as a child. On average, adults who went to services at least once a week around age 12 were 1. 5 times more likely to join secular (non-religious) groups and over 3 times more likely to continue attending religious services themselves. Why would a religious upbringing have such a strong link to non-religious community life?

The researchers suggest it’s less about the specific faith and more about the social skills learned. Religious communities often act as a training ground for 'belonging.' They provide a space for kids to build social networks, learn to cooperate, and develop a sense of shared responsibility. These skills and habits of participation then carry over into adulthood, making people more likely to seek out and join other kinds of groups. The study also uncovered another counterintuitive finding: people who experienced childhood abuse or felt like an outsider in their family were often *more* likely to join secular groups as adults.

This suggests that for some, community participation may be a way to find the healing, connection, and sense of belonging they didn't have growing up.