PHILADELPHIA African-American youth who regularly attend church services get into less trouble than those who don.

That is the conclusion of a study by Byron Johnson, director of the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society at the University of Pennsylvania. His findings are compiled in a report entitled "The Role of African-American Churches in Reducing Crime Among Black Youth."

Johnson examined whether involvement in religious institutions buffers African-American youth from the effects of living in "bad neighborhoods." Johnson found that when African-American youth are involved in the church, the negative effect of living in an environment of neighborhood disorder is reduced by 22 percent. His research shows that church-going youth are less likely to hang out and drink on street corners, use illicit drugs and create a sense of danger on the streets.

"This study overall findings show that the contribution of the church to potentially reduce black youth crime should no longer be an overlooked or nvisible institutionamong criminologists," Johnson said.

Johnson study examined data from the National Youth Survey, a longitudinal study of a national probability sample of 1,700 persons aged 11 to 17, originally surveyed in early 1977. Johnson analyzed the fifth wave of data collected in 1981 when the respondents were 15 to 21 years old.

Johnson tested three hypotheses.

His first hypothesis was that African-American youth who frequently attend religious services are less likely to engage in criminal activities than are their less religious peers.

Second, he hypothesized that black youth living in "bad neighborhoods" are more likely to engage in criminal activities than their counterparts living in "good neighborhoods."

Finally, Johnson tested the hypothesis that the harmful effects of rundown neighborhoods on crime among black youth are reduced by an individual religious involvement.

A few variables were also considered such as attachment to family and youthsattitudes about criminal acts being right or wrong.

The study indicated that attending regular religious services and being involved in church activities are likely to foster social networks with positive influences on at-risk youth, reduce delinquent behavior and subsequently reduce neighborhood crime.

Johnson said that an unexpected finding in the study was that youths from "bad neighborhoods" with high levels of community church involvement have lower rates of serious crime than youths from "good neighborhoods." Thus, it possible that black youngsters who are highly involved in churches located in decaying neighborhoods rife with disorder may still live in more "moral" communities than their counterparts in better neighborhoods.

The study was co-sponsored by Penn Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society and the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute.