This survey, part of a larger study of the priest shortage, uses important components from the 1970 National Opinion Research Center (NORC) priest survey conducted by Greeley and Schoenherr. One-third of the dioceses and religious institutes from the earlier survey were randomly selected. Questionnaires were sent to 28 dioceses and 29 institutes, with a return rate of 86.8 percent or N=1,062.
- Data File
- Cases: 1,062
Variables: 163
Weight Variable: 163)WT - In 1970 Schoenherr and Greeley oversampled large dioceses and used a weighting formula to redress the proportions of priests from large and small dioceses. This research used the same weights, taken directly from Schoenherr's research reports (pp. 440-441 from Schoenherr's 1989 report, The Catholic Priest in the U.S.: Demographic Investigations by Richard Schoenherr and Lawrence Young). When both diocesan and religious priests were studied together, this study weighted the two types to be sure their proportions were correct.
- Data Collection
- Date Collected: 1985
- Funded By
- The Lilly Endowment, Inc.
- Collection Procedures
- Self-administered mail surveys
- Sampling Procedures
- In 1970 a National Opinion Research Center team set out to survey a random sample of American priests at the request of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. "The researchers used a stratified two-stage cluster sample with probabilities proportional to size. In the first-stage sample, 85 of the 155 American dioceses and 91 of the 252 self-governing units of religious institutes were selected. In the second-stage sample, 7,260 of the approximately 64,000 American priests were selected, 5,155 of whom returned usable questionnaires, yielding a response rate of 71 percent.
The data for the 1985 analysis were collected during the spring and summer of 1985. The study was designed to be a partial replication of the 1970 study, involving a smaller sample and shorter questionnaire. From the dioceses and religious institutes contained in the first-stage of the 1970 survey approximately one-third were randomly sampled. From the lists of priests they supplied, 12.5 percent were selected randomly, resulting in total of 1,224. Of these, 1,062 returned usable questionnaires resulting in a response rate of 87 percent." (Verdieck, Shields, and Hoge, 1988, p. 526). - Principal Investigators
- Dean R. Hoge
- Related Publications
- Hoge, Dean R., Joseph J. Shields, and Mary Jeanne Verdieck. 1988. "Changing Age Distribution and Theological Attitudes of Catholic Priests, 1070-1985," Sociological Analysis 49:3 264-280.
Verdieck, Mary Jeanne, Joseph J. Shields, and Dean R. Hoge. 1988. "Role Commitment Processes Revisited: American Catholic Priests 1970 and 1985," Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 27:4 524-535.
