WASHINGTON -- Researchers have found black youth are far more likely to attend church than their white peers, according to a news report in Speaking Out News, a weekly newspaper in Huntsville, Ala.

The National Study of Youth and Religion found the gap is largest among high school seniors, with black students nearly 50 percent more likely to go to church at least once a week. Among seniors, 45 percent of blacks reported weekly church attendance, compared to 31 percent of whites, the newspaper reported.

"I think we always suspected the disparity, but I was surprised by the margin and quite surprised that the trend was still growing," said Kristin Moore, president of Washington-based Child Trends, the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that released the study.

The study found the attendance rate for black youth has climbed since 1995 while the attendance rate for whites held steady.

Teens who attend church are less likely to smoke, abuse drugs, drink alcohol or run afoul of the law. They are more likely to play sports, volunteer in the community and tend to make better grades in school, according to the research findings.

The Child Trends study, done by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, analyzed responses from 3,000 teens. Researchers conducted personal interviews at schools across the country.

Some experts think the entertainment nature of services influences the disparity, the newspaper reported. Black churches have long been known for lively gospel singing and rousing preaching.

But the crucial reason, according to experts, reaches back more than 200 years to a time when Negro spirituals rang from the cotton fields of the old South.

Christian Smith, a sociology professor at University of North Carolina and primary investigator of the study, said oppression is a likely factor.

"Historically, the church has been more important to blacks than whites because of their lack of other institutions," Smith said. "Government wasn't going to work for them. They didn't have a business community. Even in slavery days, church meetings were allowed when nothing else was."

Long after slavery ended, the church remained a significant part of black culture, often becoming political and social centers, the newspaper reported.

Some pastors, however, are not convinced race is the only factor.

The Rev. W.J.G. McLin, pastor at St. Peter CME Church, a black congregation in Kansas City, Kan., said teens seem to enjoy the charismatic and Pentecostal churches. The megachurch trend is drawing members from traditional congregations as well.

"I don't think it is so much a racial difference than (it is) a denominational one," he said.