From: Chana Tannenbaum
chanmosh@gmail.com
To:
lookjed@mail.biu.ac.il
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 8:07 PM
Subject: some empirical data about "what are they doing all those years"
I asked 355 recent yeshiva high school graduates who were studying in Israel to rate their religious level entering high school and when they left. Below are the results -
Self described Religious Level_(1= not observant, 5= very observant)
Level of Observance Gender N Mean SD
Before Male 166 3.75 1.018
High school Female 188 3.63 .883
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Level of observance Gender N Mean SD
After Male 166 3.73 1.140
High School Female 188 4.03 .773
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What is significant for this discussion is that the males do report that they perceived themselves as being less religious coming out of high school then when they entered while the females report an increase in observance. (The statistics did not change when allowing for single sex vs coeducational yeshivot.)
Dr. Chana Tannenbaum
