WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Church-friendly American teens are far more likely to graduate high school and succeed in education than their religiously unaffiliated peers.

Religiously-affiliated youth are 40 percent more likely to graduate high school than their unaffiliated peers and 70 percent more likely to enroll in college, according to a study from Sociologists at Rice University and Brigham Young University.

“Youth have a unique chance to form relationships with peers and mentors outside of their classroom at school or their neighborhood at home,” Lance Erickson told Phys.org., the lead study author and a sociologist at BYU. “Mentors especially care for, counsel with and encourage youth throughout their growing years in a way that teachers and parents might not be able to.”

Erickson and co-author James Phillips of Rice University studied data from more than 8,379 teens across the country. Some of their findings zeroed in on educational attainment by religious affiliations:

• Catholic teens, mainline Protestants and black Protestant congregations are twice as likely as unaffiliated teens to finish high school and about 80 percent more likely to enroll in college.

Jewish and Mormon youths have the highest odds of graduating high school and college enrollment.