(RNS) – American teens are not as hostile toward organized religion as researchers once thought, according to a recent study conducted at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The National Study of Youth and Religion found that about two-thirds of American 12th-graders say they do not feel alienated from organized religion. Only 15 percent said they feel hostile toward established religion, while another 15 percent said they have no feeling about religion at all.

The study also found that the numbers of teens who said they are alienated from religion have hovered at about 15 percent of the population since studies began in 1976.