PSYC 631 Liberty University Psychology Adolescence Development Paper assignments.pdf

PSYC 631

REFLECTION PAPER ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

OVERVIEW

The purpose of this paper is to apply the course content of this module to your own life.

Information can be better internalized and learned more fully when the content is found to be

meaningful to the learner. Therefore, you will explore the theories covered this module by

reflecting on your past personal experiences as an adolescent.

INSTRUCTIONS

this module (Religious/Spiritual Development), you will apply various theories and research

findings of your choice to your personal experiences when you were navigating adolescence.

You will also apply at least 1 scriptural reference to the research or to your experiences.

Be sure that your paper demonstrates critical thinking and integration of course content. It should

not be simply a collection of personal stories. Although the specific content of your papers will

vary depending on your topic choice, below is a list of some general questions you may wish to

consider when you are completing your reflection:

 How well do the major research findings/theories apply to your personal experiences? Do

your experiences fit with what research suggests? What are the specific ways your

experiences match or diverge from certain findings?

 For identity-related development, did you progress through the various stages of

development theorized? What stages were you in as you began/ended adolescence?

 For religious/spiritual development, what were some of the purposes/advantages or

disadvantages of your religious/spiritual beliefs in your adolescent life? How have your

views on God stayed the same or changed from when you were in adolescence?

 Do you feel that your experiences were typical of most other adolescents? Why or why

not?

 How do findings relating certain features of development to positive or negative

outcomes apply to your experiences?

 What environmental factors might have contributed to or altered your developmental

trajectory in adolescence (e.g., family, peer, school influences)?

 How do findings regarding any age/gender differences reflect your experiences?

Paper requirements include:

 Your paper must be 2–3 pages (double-spaced) in current APA format. This length

requirement does not include the title or reference pages.

 Your paper must use and cite at least 1 module reading and 1 scriptural reference.

 An APA-style title page and reference page must be included.

 First person is allowed for this assignment.

 Your paper must be submitted as a Word document.

Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

Institutional and Personal Spirituality/Religiosity

and Psychosocial Adjustment in Adolescence:

Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations

Marie Good •Teena Willoughby

Received: 23 April 2013 / Accepted: 30 July 2013 / Published online: 18 August 2013

ÓSpringer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Spirituality/religiosity is hypothesized to pro-

mote positive adjustment among adolescents. The goals of

this study were to assess the unique and joint associations

between two dimensions of spirituality/religiosity—insti-

tutional and personal—and a range of domains of psy-

chosocial adjustment (intrapersonal well-being, quality of

parent–child relationship, substance use, and academic

orientation) and to evaluate the direction of effects in these

associations. Participants included 803 predominately

Canadian-born adolescents (53 % female) from Ontario,

Canada, who completed a survey in grade 11 and grade 12.

At the concurrent level, higher personal spirituality/religi-

osity consistently and uniquely predicted more positive

adjustment in terms of well-being, parental relationship,

and academic orientation. Higher institutional spirituality/

religiosity uniquely and consistently predicted lower sub-

stance use, particularly when personal spirituality/religi-

osity also was high. With regard to the direction of effects

(i.e., longitudinal associations), institutional spirituality/

religiosity predicted lower future substance use. The results

imply that the personal and institutional dimensions of

spirituality/religiosity may be associated differentially with

psychosocial adjustment, and it may be only in the domain

of substance use that spirituality/religiosity predicts change

in behavior over time.

Keywords Religion Spirituality Direction of

effects Psychosocial adjustment Substance use

Introduction

The field of positive youth development has emerged in the

past two decades partly in response to the negative por-

trayals, or ‘‘deficit view,’’ of youth (Lerner et al. 2003,

p. 172). The deficit view characterizes adolescence as a

stage fraught with difficulties, and portrays adolescent

behaviors as deviations from healthy development. The

positive youth development framework, in contrast, has

reinterpreted adolescence as a period where resources and

competencies are developed. Instead of focusing on man-

aging and reducing problems, positive youth development

places emphasis on strengthening youths’ existing intra-

and inter-individual resources to promote thriving. In par-

ticular, researchers investigating positive youth develop-

ment emphasize that thriving is fostered when individuals

possess a strong, integrated sense of moral and civic

identity, when they are involved in their communities, and

when they are committed to ideas and institutions where

the focus is placed beyond the self (Lerner et al. 2003). In

recent years, spirituality and religiosity—in both institu-

tional (i.e., interpersonal, public) and personal (i.e., intra-

personal, private) forms—have been studied within the

positive youth development framework as factors that may

promote thriving in young people (e.g., Lerner et al. 2008).

Among researchers in the field of positive youth

development and beyond, however, there is a great deal of

debate over what is the most appropriate definition(s) of

spirituality and/or religiosity, and no gold standard exists

(e.g., see Hill et al. 2000; Pargament 1999). In fact, Hill

and Edwards (2013) estimate that over 200 measures of

M. Good T. Willoughby

Department of Psychology, Brock University, 500 Glenridge

Ave, Saint Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada

M. Good (&)

Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 1265 Military

Trail, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada

e-mail: [email protected]

123

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

DOI 10.1007/s10964-013-9989-2

different aspects of these constructs have been published. It

is inevitable, therefore, that there will be disagreement

among researchers regarding which of these measures (and

their accompanying operational definitions) is best.

Although definitions of spirituality and religiosity vary

across studies, spirituality often is defined as the search for

sacred, divine, or nonmaterial aspects of life, whereas

religiosity is conceptualized as behaviors and beliefs

associated with organized religion. Despite this apparent

separation between the concepts of spirituality and religion,

there is evidence to suggest that, for many individuals, the

search for the sacred takes place within faith institutions

(Smith and Denton 2005; Zinnbauer and Pargament 2005).

Rather than define spirituality and religiosity as separate

constructs, therefore, we believe it may be more useful to

conceptualize a single construct of spirituality/religiosity

encompassing two dimensions: institutional (i.e., involve-

ment in and attitudes towards religious organizations/tra-

ditions) and personal (i.e., feelings toward and behaviors

facilitating a connection with the sacred), which is con-

sistent with Cornwall et al. (1986; for excellent reviews on

the definition and measurement of spirituality and religi-

osity, see Hill and Edwards 2013; Hill et al. 2000; Zin-

nbauer and Pargament 2005). The aim of the present study

is to enhance our understanding of how both the institu-

tional components of spirituality/religiosity (i.e., involve-

ment in religious activities) and the personal components

(i.e., connection with the sacred or a higher power) may be

associated differentially and/or jointly with a wide range of

psychosocial adjustment domains.

Problems with Conceptualization and Measurement

of Spirituality/Religiosity in the Extant Literature

Inconsistencies and inadequacies in the measurement of

spirituality/religiosity have limited our understanding of

the way in which its various dimensions are linked to

adjustment. The most common way in which spirituality/

religiosity has been measured is with one- or two-item

variables reflecting the frequency of participation in reli-

gious activities (Rew and Wong 2006). Researchers have

reported consistent associations between these measures of

religious involvement and positive adjustment in terms of

lower substance use (e.g., Good et al. 2009), less depres-

sive symptoms (e.g., Schapman and Inderbitzen-Nolan

2002), higher academic achievement (e.g., Glanville et al.

2008), and better family relationships (e.g., Regnerus and

Burdette 2006). Because participation in religious groups is

correlated moderately to strongly with behaviors involved

in a personal search for the sacred (e.g., McCullough and

Willoughby 2009), however, it is not possible to infer from

these studies whether institutional spirituality/religiosity

is associated uniquely with adjustment, or whether the

associations could be (at least partially) explained by per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity.

Although some researchers have examined differential

associations between institutional versus personal spiritu-

ality/religiosity and adjustment (e.g., Regnerus and Smith

2005), most of these studies have measured ‘‘personal

spirituality/religiosity’’ as the private aspects of religious

commitment (e.g., scales comprised of items assessing

importance of religion in daily life, private Bible-reading,

etc.).These scales, therefore, do not capture personal spir-

ituality/religiosity for individuals whose search for the

sacred is not tied to religion. This limitation is an important

one, as statistics from nationally-representative surveys in

Canada, Europe, and the US indicate that, for some ado-

lescents, the search for the sacred may be pursued outside

of religious organizations and traditions. Bibby (2009), for

example, reported that, although only 13 % of Canadian

high school students said that religious involvement was

very important to them, over 75 % reported that they often

wondered about ‘‘ultimate questions’’ (such as what hap-

pens after death and the purpose of life), 66 % believed

that God or a higher power cared about them personally,

and 54 % believed they had ‘‘spiritual needs’’ (see also

Lippman and Keith 2006; Smith and Denton 2005).

Ensuring that the measurement of personal spirituality/

religiosity is inclusive of youth who are not involved in

religious organizations or traditions, therefore, is

important.

Studies examining the association between psychosocial

adjustment and ‘‘inclusive’’ measures of personal spiritu-

ality/religiosity (i.e., scales that reflect a search for the

sacred that is not inherently tied to organized religion; for

example, see Ritt-Olson et al. 2004; Seidlitz et al. 2002;

Underwood and Teresi 2002) typically do not account for

shared variance between personal spirituality/religiosity

and institutional spirituality/religiosity. Because scales

such as those used in the studies cited above typically are

correlated with religious activity involvement (e.g., Kelley

and Miller 2007), these studies suffer from the same lim-

itation as studies that exclusively assess religious activity

involvement. Namely, some of the associations that have

been reported between psychosocial adjustment and per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity may have been at least par-

tially due to the overlap between personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity. Failing to account for shared vari-

ance between personal and institutional dimensions when

assessing their associations with other variables may result

in misleading findings. McCullough and Willoughby

(2009), for example, reported that the associations between

‘‘religiousness’’ (a composite scale consisting of items such

as religious involvement and importance of religion) and

personality traits were quite different after ‘‘spirituality’’

(i.e., the Self Transcendence Scale, which includes items

758 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

such as ‘‘Sometimes I have felt my life was being directed

by a spiritual force greater than any human being’’) was

partialed out, even though the two variables were corre-

lated quite strongly (r=.46). The development of the

Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness and Spiritu-

ality (MMRS; Fetzer Institute 1999), which consists of 12

subscales assessing different aspects of institutional and

personal forms of spirituality/religiosity, is a promising

step in the direction of understanding the unique associa-

tions between personal versus institutional aspects of

spirituality/religiosity and adjustment. The results from

studies that have used the MMRS, however, have yielded

inconsistent findings, as researchers have been inconsistent

in the number and type of subscales used across studies

(e.g., Desrosiers and Miller 2007; Pearce et al. 2003; Dew

et al. 2008).

Further, a limitation shared by studies that use only one

dimension of spirituality/religiosity (i.e., either personal or

institutional) and studies where numerous dimensions of

spirituality/religiosity are considered (such as those cited

above using the MMRS), is that both of these approaches

preclude the examination of the joint effects of spirituality/

religiosity dimensions. This limitation is important, as one

of the main tenets of developmental systems theory (upon

which the positive youth development framework is based)

is that, in order to understand human development, it is

necessary to consider the interactions between individual-

level traits and the social contexts in which individuals are

situated (e.g., Lerner and Castellino 2002). Developmental

systems theory proposes that optimal development occurs

when there is goodness-of-fit between an individual and his/

her social context (e.g., Lerner et al. 2008). In applying

these concepts to the topic of spirituality/religiosity, it could

be hypothesized that the impact of a personal search for the

sacred on an adolescent’s life may be enhanced by partic-

ipation in a community of believers, and vice versa (King

2008). Similarly, individuals who are involved in religious/

spiritual groups may be more likely to follow their stan-

dards of behavior (e.g., avoiding premarital sex, abstaining

from substance use) if they personally espouse the beliefs of

their congregations (e.g., Nonnemaker et al. 2006).

Despite a strong theoretical rationale, the hypothesis that

the association between personal spirituality/religiosity and

adjustment may be enhanced by institutional spirituality/

religiosity (or vice versa) remains largely untested in

empirical studies. In fact, only three studies of which the

authors are aware have addressed this issue, and all of these

have conceptualized the personal aspect of spirituality/

religiosity in such a way that would exclude individuals

whose personal connection with the sacred is not tied to a

religious organization. Specifically, Nonnemaker et al.

(2006) found that the protective effect of private religiosity

on the probability of initiating experimental smoking was

enhanced when individuals reported higher levels of public

religiosity, and Regnerus and Smith (2005) found that

personal importance of religion was a stronger predictor of

good family relationships and lower self-reported theft at

higher levels of religious service attendance. More

recently, Hardy et al. (2012) found that religious involve-

ment was a stronger predictor of desire to incorporate

positive moral qualities into one’s identity when religious

commitment was high.

From the research reviewed above, it is clear that the way

in which spirituality/religiosity has been conceptualized and

measured has limited our understanding of how the different

dimensions of spirituality/religiosity are associated uniquely

and/or jointly with psychosocial adjustment. We believe,

therefore, that it may be advantageous to conceptualize

spirituality/religiosity in terms of two distinct dimensions—

institutional and personal—measured, respectively, by

involvement in religious or spiritual activities/groups, and

the ‘‘inclusive’’ search for the sacred (i.e., using scales that

are relevant for individuals whose personal search for the

sacred is, or is not, tied to religious traditions). This con-

ceptualization facilitates a straightforward assessment of

both the unique and joint associations between the social/

contextual (i.e., institutional) aspects of spirituality/religi-

osity, as well as the individual (i.e., personal) aspects, and

psychosocial adjustment.

Only one study of which the authors are aware has

conceptualized spirituality/religiosity in a similar way to

what we propose (Walker et al. 2007). However, the

interaction between the institutional and personal variables

was not considered, and the researchers focussed on only

one domain of psychosocial adjustment (substance use). In

order to gain a more complete and nuanced understanding

of the way that personal and institutional spirituality/reli-

giosity may be associated with adjustment, it is important

to consider multiple domains within the same study. It may

be that personal spirituality/religiosity uniquely predicts

some aspects of adjustment, while institutional spirituality/

religiosity uniquely predicts others. Further, some domains

may be best predicted by the interaction between institu-

tional and personal spirituality/religiosity. In the present

study, therefore, we consider a wider range of domains,

including intrapersonal well-being, quality of relationship

with parents, substance use, and academic orientation.

Personal and Institutional Spirituality/Religiosity:

Associations with Multiple Domains of Psychosocial

Adjustment

Intrapersonal Well-Being

Personal spirituality/religiosity may be associated uniquely

(i.e., over and above institutional spirituality/religiosity)

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 759

123

with positive intrapersonal well-being (e.g., less depressive

symptoms and anxiety, greater life satisfaction). Behaviors

involving a personal search for the sacred may promote

feelings of peace, hope, wonder, self-transcendence, and

connection with a higher power (e.g., Hart 2006; Jan-

koswki and Sandage 2011), as well as effective coping in

the face of stress. For instance, Barnes et al. (2004) found

that engaging in meditation was associated with decreases

in blood pressure in African American adolescents at risk

for hypertension, and Sharp (2010) found that prayer

helped individuals who were victims of abuse to manage

their negative emotions. We expect that the association

between personal spirituality/religiosity and well-being

would be maintained in a model where institutional spiri-

tuality/religiosity was statistically controlled, as the bene-

fits specific to personal spirituality/religiosity (e.g., peace,

coping) are likely more proximal to the domain of intra-

personal well-being than the assets specific to participation

in religious activities (e.g., social capital, community

involvement; Smith 2003a). For example, in a study using

five subscales from the Multidimensional Measure of

Religiousness/Spirituality (daily spiritual experiences, for-

giveness, positive religious coping, congregational bene-

fits, and congregational problems) as well as items

assessing self-rated spirituality and religiosity, frequency

of prayer, and religious service attendance, Kelley and

Miller (2007) found that daily spiritual experiences was the

only scale that uniquely predicted life satisfaction.

Although interactions between personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity were not assessed, the association

between personal spirituality/religiosity and well-being

may be stronger for individuals who are involved in a

religious or spiritual community, as the link between one’s

personal search for the sacred and well-being may be

enhanced by the social benefits inherent in belonging to a

supportive community of fellow believers (King 2008).

Relationship with Parents

Personal spirituality/religiosity also may be associated

uniquely with more positive parent-adolescent relation-

ships. Support for this idea comes from studies on attach-

ment and religiosity, where researchers have suggested that

an individual’s internal working model may generalize to

his/her image of God (e.g., Granqvist et al. 2007). Namely,

individuals who report a positive internal working model

may be more likely to perceive God or a higher power as

being loving as opposed to distant or controlling (e.g.,

Kirkpatrick and Shaver 1992). Although the link between

‘‘non-religious’’ spirituality and parental relationship

quality has not been widely explored in the literature, a

recent study (Desrosiers et al. 2010) found that perceived

warmth and care from parents was associated positively

with adolescents’ ‘‘relational spirituality’’ (a composite of

daily spiritual experiences, forgiveness, and positive reli-

gious coping).

In contrast, after accounting for personal spirituality/

religiosity, institutional spirituality/religiosity may not be

associated with parental relationship quality. Although

studies have found that religious attendance is associated

with positive parental relationships (e.g., Regnerus and

Burdette 2006), both Regnerus and Smith (2005) and Re-

gnerus and Burdette (2006) found that, when religious

service attendance and personal importance of religion

were entered into the same regression model, only impor-

tance of religion predicted positive parent-teen relation-

ships. These studies imply that it may be an adolescents’

personal commitment to their religious/spiritual beliefs,

rather than involvement in religious groups, that is linked

with positive parental relationships (which would be con-

sistent with the attachment theory model). It may be

expected, then, that ‘‘inclusive’’ scales of personal spiri-

tuality/religiosity also would uniquely predict parental

relationship quality after accounting for institutional spir-

ituality/religiosity.

Substance Use

One domain of adjustment in which institutional (but

not necessarily personal) spirituality/religiosity may be

expected to have unique benefits is in adolescent substance

use. Because religious congregations generally present

their adherents with a set of moral directives regarding

what is right and wrong (e.g., Smith 2003b)—and in many

religions, the wrongness of adolescent substance use is a

component of those beliefs—the behavior of religiously-

involved adolescents may reflect what they have been

taught in their congregations (Rew and Wong 2006). A

unique association between institutional spirituality/religi-

osity and lower substance use also may be expected

because of the enhanced social network closure (i.e., the

embedding of an individual within a system of intercon-

nected individuals; Coleman 1988) that occurs in many

religious communities (Smith 2003a). Network closure

may facilitate better parental monitoring and supervision

(e.g., Fletcher et al. 2001), and parental knowledge about

their adolescents’ activities is associated with less

involvement in risk-taking (e.g., Stattin and Kerr 2000).

Adolescents who attend religious activities, therefore, may

be better monitored, and, as a result, engage in less sub-

stance use—regardless of whether or not they are pursuing

a personal search for the sacred.

Although some studies have found personal spirituality/

religiosity to be associated with lower levels of engage-

ment in risk behavior (e.g., Ritt-Olson et al. 2004), the

correlations could have been partially attributed to

760 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

institutional spirituality/religiosity, given that institutional

spirituality/religiosity was not assessed. Further, few

studies have assessed whether the nature of the association

between spirituality/religiosity and substance use is best

understood in terms of the interaction between personal

and institutional spirituality/religiosity. It may be expected

that institutional spirituality/religiosity would be a stronger

predictor of substance use if personal spirituality/religiosity

also was high. Indeed, Nonnemaker et al. (2006) and Re-

gnerus and Smith (2005) reported that the association

between the importance of religion and risk-taking was

stronger for adolescents who frequently attended church. It

is not clear if a similar interaction would be found when

using a more ‘‘inclusive’’ measure of personal spirituality/

religiosity.

Academic Orientation

Institutional spirituality/religiosity, as compared to personal

spirituality/religiosity, also may be associated uniquely with

academic success. Regnerus (2000) hypothesized that

involvement in religious institutions may reinforce behav-

iors that promote academic success, and the social capital

gained from religious participation may transfer into the

school domain in the form of greater educational aspirations

and tools for achieving higher grades. Further, McCullough

and Willoughby (2009) proposed that institutional spiritu-

ality/religiosity (but not necessarily personal spirituality/

religiosity) promotes self-regulation, which is known to be

important for academic achievement (e.g., Shoda et al.

1990). More specifically, they reported that the association

between ‘‘religiousness’’ (i.e., a composite of items such as

religious involvement) and self-control was different after

‘‘spirituality’’ (i.e., self-transcendence) was partialed out

(and vice versa), even though the two constructs were cor-

related quite strongly (r=.46). Partialing out self-tran-

scendence resulted in a stronger positive correlation between

religiousness and self-control. With regard to self-tran-

scendence, zero-order correlations indicated no relationships

with conscientiousness or self-control, but partial correla-

tions revealed that self-transcendence was associated sig-

nificantly with lower conscientiousness and less self-control.

Indeed, other studies have found that religious involve-

ment is associated with higher educational aspirations,

school engagement, and grades (e.g., Loury 2004; Regnerus

and Elder 2003). Although these studies did not include

personal forms of spirituality/religiosity in their models, we

expect that the association between institutional spirituality/

religiosity and academic success would hold even after

personal spirituality/religiosity was statistically controlled,

as religious activities may facilitate assets that are more

proximal to school success (e.g., social capital, self-control)

than the assets that may be promoted by personal

spirituality/religiosity. As no studies have examined the

association between personal forms of spirituality/religios-

ity and academic achievement when controlling for insti-

tutional spirituality/religiosity, this issue represents an

important area of inquiry.

The Direction of Effects in the Association

between Institutional Versus Personal Spirituality/

Religiosity and Psychosocial Adjustment

Another important way in which our understanding of the

role of spirituality/religiosity in the lives of adolescents

could be enhanced is by considering the direction of effects

in the associations between the dimensions of spirituality/

religiosity and adjustment. When a concurrent association

is found between spirituality/religiosity and some domain

of adjustment, it is unclear whether that association is a

function of socialization effects (i.e., prior involvement in

religious groups or one’s prior search for the sacred pre-

dicts adolescents’ subsequent psychosocial adjustment),

selection effects (i.e., prior adjustment predicts change in

adolescents’ subsequent decisions regarding participation

in religious groups and involvement in behaviors that

facilitate a search for the sacred), or third variables (i.e.,

unmeasured variables cause change to occur in both spir-

ituality/religiosity and psychosocial adjustment). No stud-

ies of which the authors are aware have assessed the

direction of effects in the relationship between both per-

sonal and institutional spirituality/religiosity and psycho-

social adjustment.

A few studies, however, have examined this issue using

limited measures of spirituality/religiosity, with the results

primarily supporting the socialization hypothesis. For

example, religious service attendance and the importance of

religion consistently have been found to predict subsequent

substance use (e.g., Mason and Windle 2002). Further,

Possel et al. (2011) found that intrinsic religious orientation

predicted lower depressive symptoms 4 months later, after

controlling for initial level of depressive symptoms (but not

vice versa). Sallquist et al. (2010) assessed the socialization

and selection hypotheses for the relationship between a latent

spirituality/religiosity variable (encompassing both personal

and institutional dimensions) and multiple domains of

adjustment (social competence, self-esteem, loneliness, and

externalizing problems). The results supported both the

socialization and selection hypotheses for social compe-

tence, but only the socialization hypothesis for loneliness.

These studies represent important steps forward in our

understanding of the direction of effects in the association

between spirituality/religiosity and adjustment; however,

further research is needed, given that the personal and

institutional dimensions of spirituality/religiosity have not

been adequately measured and assessed simultaneously and/

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 761

123

or jointly, and most studies have included only a limited

number of psychosocial adjustment domains.

Present Study and Hypotheses

To address the above gaps, the goal of the present study

was to evaluate the unique (and joint) concurrent- and

longitudinal associations between personal versus insti-

tutional spirituality/religiosity and a wide range of psy-

chological adjustment domains, including intrapersonal

well-being, quality of relationships with parents, sub-

stance use, and academic orientation. We assessed three

different aspects of institutional spirituality/religiosity

(religious service attendance, involvement in other reli-

gious/spiritual activities, and enjoyment of participation

in one’s religious/spiritual group) and three aspects of

personal spirituality/religiosity (perceptions of and expe-

riences with the sacred, wondering about spiritual issues,

and the frequency of prayer). These spirituality/religiosity

variables were selected for several reasons. First, they are

frequently used as aspects of scales that combine personal

and institutional spirituality/religiosity in adolescent

populations, but they are not expected to be correlated so

highly as to introduce problems of collinearity. The item

assessing wondering about spiritual issues is less common

in the literature; however, it was included in response to

nationally-representative surveys suggesting that Cana-

dian teens frequently wonder about issues related to

spirituality and the supernatural (Bibby 2009). Second,

these items incorporated not only behavior related to

spirituality/religiosity (religious activities, prayer, spiritual

wondering), but also beliefs about that behavior (enjoy-

ment of religious activities, perceived effects of one’s

spirituality).

Two research questions were addressed. First, we

assessed how the institutional and personal dimensions of

spirituality/religiosity uniquely and jointly predicted the

four domains of psychosocial adjustment at the concurrent

level. Given the literature reviewed above, we expected

that personal spirituality/religiosity would be related

uniquely to more positive intrapersonal well-being and

parent-adolescent relationship quality, and that institutional

spirituality/religiosity would be related uniquely to lower

substance use and greater academic orientation. With

regard to the joint effects of personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity, we expected that the associations

between personal spirituality/religiosity and well-being

would be stronger for adolescents reporting higher insti-

tutional spirituality/religiosity. Similarly, we expected that

the link between institutional spirituality/religiosity and

substance use would be stronger when personal spirituality/

religiosity also was high. In other words, when spirituality

and religiosity were congruent (both high), we expected

that is when their ability to predict positive adjustment

should be the strongest.

For our second research question, we explored the

direction of effects in the association between personal

versus institutional spirituality/religiosity and psychosocial

adjustment. Given the dearth of longitudinal studies

examining the direction of effects for the relationship

between adjustment and both personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity, it is difficult to make specific pre-

dictions; however, in light of the general consistency with

which the socialization hypothesis has been supported in

the few studies that have been conducted on this issue (i.e.,

higher prior spirituality/religiosity predicting better sub-

sequent adjustment), we expected that the socialization

hypothesis would be supported for the domains related to

loneliness/depressive symptoms (i.e., intrapersonal well-

being) and risk-taking (i.e., substance use).

Students were assessed first at the end of grade 11 and

again at the end of grade 12 because it was expected that

some development in spirituality/religiosity may occur

between those 2 time points. This is not to say that the

grade 11–12 transition is the only or most important age

period during which spirituality/religiosity development

may occur, but it is the period during which most students

make their first major independent life decision—what they

are going to do after high school. During this time period,

students go from their homeostatic high school existence

(to which they have been accustomed since grade 9) to

having to decide on a career or a college major, applying to

work or college/university, and for many adolescents,

being on the cusp of leaving home for the first time. This

transition may prompt identity exploration, which often

involves the examination of spirituality/religiosity issues

(Kroger 1996). Furthermore, some researchers have sug-

gested that individuals may consider their career to be an

extension of their spirituality/religiosity values, wherein

the spiritually or religiously-motivated desire to serve

others or treat others with kindness and compassion is

fulfilled in part through a vocation (e.g., Duffy 2006).

Therefore, in this period of exploration regarding career

decisions, development in various domains of spirituality/

religiosity also may take place, and, therefore, may be a

particularly important time during which to explore the

associations between various aspects of spirituality/religi-

osity and psychosocial adjustment. Finally, because gender

differences consistently have been found for institutional

(e.g., Stark 2002) and personal spirituality/religiosity (e.g.,

Smith and Denton 2005), we controlled for gender in all

analyses. Spirituality/religiosity also may be associated

with socioeconomic status (e.g., Hood and Belzen 2005),

and therefore, we also controlled for parental education

level.

762 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

Method

Participants

Students from eight high schools encompassing a school

district in Ontario, Canada took part in the study. This

study was part of a larger longitudinal-sequential project

examining youth lifestyle choices across the high school

years (e.g., see Willoughby and Hamza 2011). In the larger

study, surveys were completed several times between 2003

and 2008, with some students starting the study in 2003 and

others joining the study in subsequent years. The current

analysis is based on 803 students (52 % female) who

completed the survey in May 2007 when they were in

grade 11 (Mage =16.23) and again in May 2008 when

they were in grade 12 (Mage =17.31), as questions

regarding spirituality/religiosity were only included in the

surveys conducted in 2007 and 2008. Students who took

part in only one administration of the survey were not

included in the analyses.

The overall participation rate for eligible students (i.e.,

students who were registered in a course during the period

when the survey was conducted) was 83 % in 2007 and

85 % in 2008; nonparticipation was due to student absen-

teeism (15, 14 %), parental refusal (.04, .01 %), or student

refusal (2, 1 %) in 2007 and 2008, respectively. There were

no significant differences between longitudinal participants

and those who completed the survey at only one time point

on any of the spirituality/religiosity variables or parental

relationship quality. There were slightly more girls than

boys in the longitudinal sample (52 % girls) than in the

non-longitudinal sample (49 % girls) and parental educa-

tion level was higher for longitudinal participants

(p\.001), but the magnitude of this difference was small

(v2

diff =.21, g

=.01). The longitudinal sample also

reported lower substance use, higher intrapersonal well-

being, and more positive academic orientation than the

non-longitudinal sample, but again the magnitude of the

differences were small (i.e., g

\.02 for all variables).

Consistent with the broader Canadian population (Sta-

tistics Canada 2006), 92 % of the participants were born in

Canada and the most common ethnic backgrounds reported

other than Canadian were Italian (31 %), French (18 %),

British (15 %), and German (12 %) (information on lan-

guage(s) spoken in the home was not available). Data on

socioeconomic status indicated mean parental levels of

education falling between ‘‘some college, university or

apprenticeship program’’ and ‘‘completed a college/

apprenticeship/technical diploma.’’ Further, 70 % of the

respondents reported living with both birth parents, 12 %

with one birth parent and a stepparent, 15 % with one birth

parent (mother or father only), and the remainder with

neither parent (e.g., other relatives, foster parents, etc.). The

school board did not permit the release of students’ religious

affiliations; however, the board was publicly funded (i.e., the

schools were not private) and the religious affiliation of the

population in this region is 37 % Catholic, 42 % Protestant,

14 % no affiliation, and 17 % other (e.g., Muslim, Hindu,

Jewish) (Statistics Canada 2001).

Procedure

Active informed assent was obtained from the adolescent

participants. Parents were provided with written corre-

spondence mailed to each student’s home prior to the sur-

vey administration outlining the study; this letter indicated

that parents could request that their adolescent not partici-

pate in the study. An automated phone message about the

study also was left at each student’s home phone number.

This procedure was approved by the participating school

board and the University Research Ethics Board. At all time

periods, the questionnaire was administered to students in

classrooms by trained research staff. Students were

informed that their responses were completely confidential.

Measures

All measures were assessed in both 2007 and 2008 (see

Table 1for descriptive information). Correlations are

reported in Table 2.

Demographics Sex and parental education (one item per

parent, averaged for those reporting on both parents,

r=.44) were measured. Higher scores indicated female

gender and greater parental education.

Institutional Spirituality/Religiosity Institutional spiritu-

ality/religiosity was measured by three variables: (a) a single

item assessing involvement in religious services (‘‘In the past

month, how often have you gone to church/temple/syna-

gogue?’’); (b) a single item assessing other religious activity

involvement [(‘‘How often in the last month have you gone to

religious/spiritual meetings other than church/synagogue/

temple (e.g., youth groups)?’’]; and (c) one items assessing

enjoyment of religious activities (‘‘I enjoy attending activi-

ties held by my religious/spiritual group’’). These three items

were standardized (because they were measured on different

scales) and averaged to create a composite variable (alpha

values for grade 11 =.66; grade 12 =.71).

Personal Spirituality/Religiosity Personal spirituality/

religiosity was assessed by three variables: (a) a seven-item

measure adapted from the Spiritual Transcendence Index

(STI; Seidlitz et al. 2002) assessing perceptions of and

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 763

123

experiences with the sacred, (e.g., ‘‘My spirituality gives me a

feeling of fulfillment’’); (b) wondering about spiritual issues,

as assessed by a single item (‘‘I often wonder about spiritual

issues (i.e., life after death, the existence of a higher power,

etc.’’); and (c) frequency of prayer assessed by one item (‘‘In

the past month, how often have you prayed’’). These three

variables were standardized and averaged to create a com-

posite variable (alpha for grade 11 =.70; grade 12 =.72).

Intrapersonal Well-Being Intrapersonal well-being was a

composite of five scales: (a) Depression-related symptoms,

measured using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies

Depression (CES-D) scale (Radloff 1977), which consisted

of 20 items (e.g., ‘‘I felt that I was just as good as other

people’’); (b) social anxiety-related symptoms, assessed

using 14 items (e.g., ‘‘I only talk to other people my age

that I know really well’’) from Ginsburg et al. (1998);

experiencing 25 life stressors including finances, friends/

peers, school work, and self-image; (e.g., ‘‘How often does

it bother you to have problems with peers?’’); (d) self-

esteem, measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale

Table 1 Means and standard deviations of study measures

Domain Variable No.

items

Range Scale anchors Grade 11 Grade 12

M(SD) aM(SD) a

Gender Gender 1 1–2 1(male)to2(female) 1.53 (.50) –

Parental

education

Mother’s education level 1 1–6 1(did not finish high school) to

6(professional degree)

3.43 (1.46) –

Father’s education level 1 1–6 1(did not finish high school) to

6(professional degree)

3.39 (1.51) –

Personal Spiritual Transcendence

Index

7 1–5 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly

agree)

3.08 (1.02) .96 3.03 (1.05) .97

Wondering about spiritual

issues

1 1–5 1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly

agree)

3.66 (1.09) – 3.53 (1.11) –

Frequency of prayer 1 1–4 1(never)to5(every day) 2.49 (1.57) – 2.18 (1.50) –

Institutional Religious service

attendance

1 1–5 1(never)to5(every day) 1.59 (.77) – 1.49 (.73) –

Attendance at other

religious activities

1 1–5 1(never)to5(every day) 1.18 (.51) – 1.18 (.52) –

Enjoyment of religious

activities

1 1–4 1(I don’t attend or I never enjoy) to

4(I always enjoy)

1.39 (.71) – 1.37 (.70) –

Intrapersonal

well-being

Depression 20 1–4 1(most of the time) to 5(never) 2.05 (.68) .92 2.12 (.68) .93

Social anxiety 14 1–4 1(almost always/always)to4(almost

never/never)

1.68 (.51) .91 1.78 (.56) .93

Daily hassles 25 1–3 1(often bothers me)to3(never

bothers me)

1.79 (.38) .87 1.79 (.39) .91

Self-esteem 10 1–5 1(strongly disagree)to5(strongly

agree)

3.81 (.72) .91 3.76 (.72) .89

Life satisfaction 1 1–4 1(almost never/never)to4(almost

always/always)

2.33 (.80) – 2.19 (.79) –

Parental

relationship

Relationship with mother 17 1–4 1(almost never/never)to4(almost

always/always)

3.00 (.58) .90 2.96 (.59) .88

Relationship with father 17 1–4 1(almost never/never)to4(almost

always/always)

2.84 (.57) .91 2.80 (.55) .90

Substance use Alcohol frequency 1 1–8 1(never)to8(every day) 2.71 (1.42) – 2.93 (1.46) –

Alcohol amount 1 1–6 1(less than one drink)to6(more than

10 drinks)

3.37 (1.54) – 3.56 (1.50) –

Smoking 1 1–8 1 (none)to8(more than a pack) 1.29 (.90) – 1.35 (1.02) –

Marijuana 1 1–6 1(never)to6(every day) 2.29 (1.57) – 2.45 (1.64) –

Academic

orientation

School grades 1 1–5 1(below 50 %) to 5(A) 3.55 (.87) – 3.57 (.83) –

Educational aspirations 1 1–6 1(not finish high school)to

6(professional training)

4.98 (1.06) – 4.90 (1.07) –

Importance of doing well

in school

1 1–4 1(not at all important)to4(very

important)

3.37 (.75) – 3.36 (.77) –

764 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

(Rosenberg 1965), which consists of 10 items (e.g., ‘‘I feel

that I have a number of good qualities’’); and (e) life sat-

isfaction, measured with one item (‘‘I am happy with my

life’’). A composite index was formed by standardizing

each scale score and combining the scores such that higher

values indicated more positive intrapersonal well-being. To

establish the validity of a one-factor solution, a factor

analysis was conducted using principal components anal-

ysis. The results revealed a one-factor solution (factor

loadings of .5 or higher), supporting our decision to create

a composite (alpha =.80 in grade 11; .81 in grade 12).

Parental Relationship Parent–child relationship was

measured by 17 items from the Inventory of Parent and

Peer Attachment (Armsden and Greenberg 1987). Partici-

pants completed this scale for both mother and father (e.g.,

‘‘My mother trusts my judgment’’; ‘‘My father can tell

when I’m upset about something’’). Higher scores indi-

cated more positive relationships with one’s parents. The

correlation between the mother and father scales was

r=.49 (in grade 11, and .51 in grade 12 (ps\.01).

Substance Use Alcohol use was measured by two items:

typical frequency of alcohol use; and average consumption

per drinking episode. Smoking was indicated by the typical

number of cigarettes smoked each day. Marijuana use was

assessed by the typical frequency of use in the past year. A

composite index was formed by standardizing each score

and combining the scores. Reliability for the composite

index was .78 in grade 11, and .75 in grade 12. Principal

components analysis revealed a one-factor solution (factor

loadings of .5 or higher), supporting our decision to create

a composite (see also Donovan et al. 1988).

Academic Orientation Academic orientation was mea-

sured by three questions: (a) ‘‘What grades do you typically

get in school?’’; (b) ‘‘How important is it to you that you do

well in school?’’; and (c) ‘‘How far do you plan to go in

school?’’. A composite index was formed by standardizing

and combining items; alpha values were .71 and .70 in

2007 and 2008, respectively.

Plan of Analysis

In order to address our research questions, four steps were

taken, First, preliminary analyses were conducted in order

to: (a) screen data for outliers; and (b) impute missing data.

Second, factor analyses were conducted in order to validate

Table 2 Correlations between study measures

Measure 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Personal 11 – .69*** .44*** .35*** .08* .05 .18*** .14*** -.21*** -.18*** .22*** .23***

2. Personal 12 – .42*** .49*** .06 .07 .14*** .21*** -.15*** -.17*** .18*** .23***

3. Institutional

– .62*** .00 .02 .06 .06 -.16*** -.19*** .12** .13**

4. Institutional

– .01 -.03 .05 .08* -.13*** -.15*** .10* .14***

5. Intrapersonal

well-being 11

– .62* .52* .39* -.01 .01 .16* .15*

6. Intrapersonal

well-being 12

– .37*** .49*** -.03 -.02 .22*** .23***

7. Parental

relationship 11

– .65*** -.18*** -.18*** .19*** .15***

8. Parental

relationship 12

–-.10** -.15*** .20*** .21***

9. Substance use

– .69*** -.35*** -.32***

10. Substance

use 12

–-.31*** -.31***

11. Academic

orientation 11

– .74***

12. Academic

orientation 12

–

Gender .15*** .17*** .03 .05 -.11** -.05 .05 .10* -.17** -.19*** .27*** .29***

Parental

education

.06 .08* .13*** .14*** .12** .07* .05* .04 -.11** -.10** .24*** .22***

*p\.05; ** p\.01; *** p\.001

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 765

123

the appropriateness of the variables that we considered, a

priori, to represent personal and institutional spirituality/

religiosity. Third, four regression analyses were conducted

within each grade in order to assess the concurrent asso-

ciations between represent personal and institutional spir-

ituality/religiosity and the four psychosocial adjustment

variables. Fourth, two regression analyses were conducted

across grades in order to assess longitudinal associations.

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Data Screening

Multivariate outliers on the six spirituality/religiosity vari-

ables (Mahalanobis distance scores significant at p\.001)

at either wave were removed (n=10, 1.3 % of the sample),

as well as a small number of cases (n=37, 5 % of the

sample) where data screening revealed that these partici-

pants did not take the questionnaire seriously. The final

analysis sample comprised 756 participants (53 % female,

47 % male, Mage in Grade 11 =16.41 years, Mage in

Grade 12 =17.36 years). All variables exhibited accept-

able skewness and kurtosis (Kline 2005).

Missing Data

To counterbalance missing data due to survey length, we

included three versions of the survey at each time so that the

same scales were not always near the end of the survey. For

multi-item scales (i.e., variables in Table 1for which the

number of items =[1), composite scores were computed

for participants who responded to at least 50 % of the items.

For respondents who did not give a sufficient number of

responses within a multi-item scale or who did not provide a

response to a single-item measure), missing values within

each wave were imputed using the expectation–maximiza-

tion (EM) algorithm. EM is an iterative maximum-likeli-

hood (ML) procedure in which a cycle of calculating means

and covariances followed by data imputation is repeated

until a stable set of estimated missing values is reached (see

Schafer and Graham 2002). An average of, 7.8 % of the

data were imputed in 2007 and 7.6 % were imputed in 2008.

This percentage of imputed data is comparable with other

longitudinal survey studies (e.g., Feldman et al. 2009).

Establishing Personal and Institutional Spirituality/

Religiosity as Separate Factors

In order to establish that the variables we selected a priori to

represent institutional and personal spirituality/religiosity

did, in fact, comprise two statistically separate domains, we

conducted a principle components analysis (PCA) followed

by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). First, in both

grades, all spirituality/religiosity variables were entered

into a PCA with oblique (oblimin) rotation. Two compo-

nents emerged at each grade with eigenvalues greater than

one. The first component represented a ‘‘personal’’ factor

(loadings over .5 for the STI, frequency of prayer, and

wondering about spiritual issues), while the second com-

ponent represented an ‘‘institutional’’ factor (loadings over

.5 for religious service attendance, involvement in other

religious activities, and enjoyment of religious activities).

A CFA was then conducted using AMOS 17.0, where we

specified two (correlated) latent factors (personal and

institutional) for each grade, with STI, prayer, and wonder

loading on the personal factor, and religious service atten-

dance, other religious/spiritual activity involvement, and

enjoyment of religious involvement loading on the institu-

tional factor. As recommended by Hu and Bentler (1999),

CFI values greater than .95 and RMSEA’s less than .06

(simultaneously) were used as the criteria for a well-speci-

fied model. The results of the two-factor model for grade 11

revealed adequate fit, v

(6) =28.16, p\.001, CFI =.98,

RMSEA =.07. Following Kline (2005), to assess if the

two-factor model was better than a one-factor model, we

conducted a Chi-square difference test between a model

where the correlation between the latent factors was freely

estimated (i.e., two factors) and a model where the corre-

lation was fixed to 1.0 (i.e., one factor). The results revealed

that the fit of the two factor model was significantly better

than the one-factor model v2

diff (1) =193.24, p\.001

[CFI =.80 RMSEA =.20 for the fixed model]. Similarly,

in grade 12, the results for the two-factor model revealed an

adequate fit to the data (v

(6) =30, p\.001, CFI =.98,

RMSEA =.07), and in the test of Chi-square difference, the

two-factor (i.e., freely estimated correlation between fac-

tors) model was statistically better than the one-factor (i.e.,

fixed) model, v2

diff (1) =210.3, p\.001 [CFI =.82

RMSEA =.81 for the fixed model]. Given these results, we

concluded that the creation of separate personal and insti-

tutional composite variables was appropriate.

Main Analyses

Research Question 1: How Do the Institutional

and Personal Dimensions of Spirituality/Religiosity

Uniquely and Jointly Predict Psychosocial Adjustment

in Grade 11 and in Grade 12 (Concurrent Associations)?

At each grade, four hierarchical regression analyses were

performed using SPSS—one for each domain of adjust-

ment. All predictor variables were standardized prior to

766 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

being entered into the model, with the exception of the

variable representing the interaction between institutional

and personal spirituality/religiosity (the interaction variable

was the product of the standardized institutional and per-

sonal variables, as recommended by Aiken and West

1991). Gender and parental education were entered on Step

1, and the two spirituality/religiosity dimensions were

entered on Step 2. On Step 3, the interaction term was

entered. Full results are reported in Table 3.

Grade 11 For intrapersonal well-being, the model

explained 3.8 % of the variance in total, and the R-squared

change was significant for the first two steps. The results

from the final (i.e., second step) model indicated that being

Table 3 Results from

concurrent regression analyses

*p\.05; ** p\.01;

*** p\.001. All predictors are

standardized. The interaction

term is the product of the

standardized variables

Intrapersonal well-being Parental relationship Substance use Academic orientation

b (SE) b (SE) b (SE) b (SE)

Grade 11

Step one

Gender -.08 (.03)** .03 (.02) -.13 (.03) *** .20 (.03)***

Parent Ed .09 (.03)** .03 (.02) -.08 (.03) ** .19 (.03)***

Model R

.025*** .006 .039*** .127***

Step two

Gender -.09 (.03)** .01 (.02) -.11 (.03)*** .19 (.03)***

Parent Ed .09 (.03)** .02 (.02) -.06 (.03)* .18 (.03)***

Personal .10 (.03)** .10 (.02)*** -.11 (.03)*** .13 (.03)***

Institutional -.05 (.03) -.02 (.02) -.07 (.03)* .01 (.03)

D.013** .031*** .037*** .027***

Model R

.038 .037 .075 .155

Step three

Gender .09 (.03)** .01 (.02) -.11 (.03)*** .19 (.03)***

Parent Ed -.09 (.03)** .02 (.02) -.06 (.03)* .18 (.03)***

Personal .10 (.03)** .10 (.02)*** -.13 (.03)*** .14 (.03)***

Institutional -.07 (.04)* -.02 (.02) -.01 (.04) -.01 (.04)

Pers 9Inst .04 (.03) .01 (.02) -.08 (.03)** .03 (.03)

D.001 .000 .009** .001

Model R

.039 .037 .084 .156

Grade 12

Step one

Gender -.04 (.03) .05 (.02)** -.14 (.03)*** .22 (.03)***

Parent Ed .06 (.03)* .02 (.02) -.07 (.03)* .17 (.03)***

Model R

.007 .013** .043*** .129***

Step two

Gender -.05 (.03) .04 (.02)* -.13 (.03)*** .20 (.03)***

Parent Ed .06 (.03)* .01 (.02) -.05 (.03)* .16 (.03)***

Personal .09 (.03)** .10 (.02)*** -.07 (.03)* .13 (.03)***

Institutional -.07 (.03)* -.01 (.02) -.07 (.03)* .02 (.03)

D.012* .035*** .025*** .028***

Model R

.019 .049 .065 .157

Step three

Gender -.05 (.03) .04 (.02)* -.13 (.03)*** .20 (.03)***

Parent Ed .06 (.03)* .02 (.02) -.05 (.03)* .16 (.03)***

Personal -.10 (.03)** .10 (.02)*** -.07 (.03)* .13 (.03)***

Institutional .10 (.04)** .03 (.03) -.06 (.04) -.01 (.04)

Pers 9Inst .05 (.03) .02 (.02) -.01 (.03) .03 (.03)

D.003 .002 .000 .002

Model R

.022 .051 .064 .158

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 767

123

male, higher parental education, and higher personal spir-

ituality/religiosity predicted more positive well-being. For

parental relationship quality, the model explained 3.7 % of

the variance. The first step was not significant (indicating

that neither gender nor parental education predicted

parental relationship quality), but the second step was

significant, with personal (but not institutional) spirituality/

religiosity predicting better relationship quality. For sub-

stance use, the R-squared change was significant for each

step, and the overall model explained 8.4 % of the vari-

ance. The results from the final model indicated that the

interaction between personal and institutional spirituality/

religiosity was significant, with the interaction explaining

1 % of the variance. Simple slopes and standard errors

were calculated for the regression of substance use on

institutional spirituality/religiosity at different levels of

personal spirituality/religiosity (Aiken and West 1991). As

illustrated in Fig. 1, at low personal spirituality/religiosity

(one standard deviation below the mean), the relationship

between institutional spirituality/religiosity and substance

was not significant (B =.08, p=.29); however, at high

levels of personal spirituality/religiosity (one standard

deviation above the mean), institutional spirituality/religi-

osity negatively predicted substance use (B =-.13,

p=.003). Finally, for academic orientation, the first two

steps were significant, and the model accounted for 15.6 %

of the variance. Being female, higher levels of parental

education, and personal (but not institutional) spirituality/

religiosity predicted having a more positive academic

orientation.

Grade 12 For intrapersonal well-being, the first and

second steps were significant, and the overall model

accounted for 2.2 % of the variance. Higher parental edu-

cation and personal spirituality/religiosity were positive

predictors of well-being. In contrast to grade 11, however,

institutional spirituality/religiosity also emerged as a sig-

nificant negative predictor of well-being. Further inspec-

tion revealed that personal spirituality/religiosity was a

suppressor of institutional spirituality/religiosity, and vice

versa. Although neither variable on its own was a signifi-

cant predictor of intrapersonal well-being, the coefficients

increased when the other variable was entered in the

model. To a lesser extent, gender also was a suppressor of

personal spirituality/religiosity, and parental education was

a suppressor of institutional spirituality/religiosity. There-

fore, when the variance associated with personal spiritu-

ality/religiosity and parental education was removed,

institutional spirituality/religiosity predicted less positive

intrapersonal well-being; similarly, when the variance

associated with institutional spirituality/religiosity and

gender was removed, personal spirituality/religiosity was

associated with more positive well-being. For parental

relationship quality, the first and second steps were sig-

nificant, and the model accounted for 5.1 % of the vari-

ance. Being female and having higher personal spirituality/

religiosity predicted higher parental relationship quality.

For substance use, the overall model accounted for 6.5 %

of the variance. The first two steps were significant, with

being female, higher parental education, greater personal

spirituality/religiosity and greater institutional spirituality/

religiosity predicting lower levels of substance use. For

academic orientation, the first two steps were significant,

with the model accounting for 15.8 % of the variance.

Being female, higher parental education, and personal

spirituality/religiosity significantly predicted stronger aca-

demic orientation.

Research Question 2: What is the Direction of Effects

in the Association Between Personal Versus Institutional

Spirituality/Religiosity and Psychosocial Adjustment?

The socialization (i.e., prior personal and/or institutional

spirituality/religiosity predict subsequent psychosocial

adjustment after controlling for over-time stability in

adjustment), and selection (i.e., prior psychosocial adjust-

ment predicts changes in institutional and/or personal

spirituality/religiosity after controlling for over-time sta-

bility in institutional and/or personal spirituality/religios-

ity) hypotheses were assessed using autoregressive path

models. These models allow researchers to assess direction

of effects by estimating reciprocal cross-lagged parameters

that test whether a variable assessed at one point in time

predicts another variable assessed at a later point in time,

after controlling for the over-time stability in the variable

being predicted (Little et al. 2009).

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Low Institutional

iritualit

/Reli

iosit

High Institutional

iritualit

/Reli

iosit

Grade 11 Substance Use

Low Personal Spirituality/Religiosity

High Personal Spirituality/Religiosity

B=.08, p=.29

B=-.13, p=.003

Fig. 1 Simple effects of the regression of grade 11 substance use on

institutional spirituality/religiosity at low and high personal spiritu-

ality/religiosity

768 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

To test the socialization hypothesis, four hierarchical

regression analyses were performed, one for each grade 12

adjustment variable. The corresponding grade 11 adjust-

ment variable was entered as a predictor at step 1 (to

control for stability in the construct) along with the

covariates. Grade 11 personal and institutional spirituality/

religiosity were entered as predictors in step 2, and the

interaction between grade 11 institutional and personal

spirituality/religiosity was entered at step 3. Support for the

socialization hypothesis (i.e., models where there was a

significant r-squared change after step 1) was found only

for substance use.

For substance use, the socialization hypothesis was

supported for institutional but not personal spirituality/

religiosity. The model accounted for 49 % of the variance.

More specifically, the first (R

=.48, p\.001) and second

steps of the regression model (DR

=.01, p\.05) were

significant, and higher institutional spirituality/religiosity at

grade 11 significantly predicted lower substance use in

grade 12 after controlling for stability in substance use

(b =-.06, p\.01).

To test the selection hypothesis, two hierarchical

regression analyses were performed, with grade 12 per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity as the criterion in one model

and grade 12 institutional spirituality/religiosity the crite-

rion in the other. In the first step, gender and parental

education, as well as the corresponding grade 11 spiritu-

ality/religiosity variable was entered. In the second step,

the four grade 11 adjustment variables were entered. The

results from the models revealed that the selection

hypothesis was not supported for any of the psychosocial

adjustment variables for either institutional or personal

spirituality/religiosity.

Discussion

Spirituality/religiosity—in both its institutional (i.e., inter-

personal, public) and personal (i.e., intrapersonal, private)

forms—has been hypothesized to promote positive adjust-

ment in young people (e.g., Lerner et al. 2008). The goals of

the present study were to evaluate the unique and joint

associations between personal versus institutional dimen-

sions of spirituality/religiosity and a wide range of psy-

chosocial adjustment domains, and to assess the direction of

effects in these associations. It was predicted that personal

spirituality/religiosity would be linked uniquely with more

positive intrapersonal well-being and quality of relationship

with parents. For institutional spirituality/religiosity, it was

expected to uniquely predict lower substance use and more

academic orientation. Further, joint (i.e., interactive) effects

were predicted in that the link between personal spirituality/

religiosity and well-being was expected to be stronger for

adolescents who reported high levels of institutional spiri-

tuality/religiosity, and the link between institutional spiri-

tuality/religiosity and substance use was predicted to be

stronger for adolescents who also were highly engaged in a

personal search for the sacred.

As expected, in both grades, personal spirituality/reli-

giosity was associated uniquely with intrapersonal well-

being. This result provides evidence that it may be per-

sonal—rather than institutional—spirituality/religiosity

that is linked with well-being, and strengthens the validity

of the findings from studies such as Ritt-Olson et al.

(2004), and Perez et al. (2009) where ‘‘spirituality’’ was

found to predict various aspects of intrapersonal well-

being, but institutional spirituality/religiosity was not sta-

tistically controlled. The consistency with which personal

spirituality/religiosity uniquely predicted well-being also is

pertinent given that the strength of the link between spiri-

tuality and well-being has been questioned (Koenig 2008)

because measures of ‘‘non-religious’’ spirituality often

include items that could be considered indicators of posi-

tive mental health (e.g., the Spiritual Well-Being Scale

includes items such as ‘‘I feel that life is a positive expe-

rience’’, and ‘‘I feel that life is full of unhappiness’’). Ko-

enig (2008) points out that, in these studies, individuals

who are well-adjusted would score higher than their peers

on measures of spirituality simply because the items used

to assess spirituality and well-being are similar. The pres-

ent study used a more narrow conceptualization of personal

spirituality/religiosity than is typically used in studies of

‘‘non-religious’’ spirituality (i.e., the personal spirituality/

religiosity variable did not include items that overlapped

with the construct of well-being) and still found a signifi-

cant association between personal spirituality/religiosity

and well-being in both grades, thus providing corroborating

evidence for the link between feeling a connection with the

sacred and feeling good about oneself.

Another finding where our predictions were confirmed

was for the unique link between personal spirituality/reli-

giosity and positive relationships with parents. Given that

only one other study of which the authors are aware has

examined the association between personal spirituality/

religiosity and parent–child relationships (Desrosiers et al.

2010), this study represents a significant advance of the

hypothesis that individuals who have positive internal

working models may not only report more positive rela-

tionships with parents, but also may be more likely to

perceive God or a higher power in a more positive manner

and engage in a search for the sacred (e.g., Granqvist et al.

2007).

Contrary to expectations, the association between per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity and positive adjustment was

not stronger for adolescents who reported higher institu-

tional spirituality/religiosity. This was an unexpected

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 769

123

finding, particularly given the emphasis that the Develop-

mental Systems Theory places on the importance of con-

gruence between an adolescent’s social/contextual and

individual/personal commitments (e.g., Lerner et al. 2008).

Our measure of institutional spirituality/religiosity (which

included involvement in religious activities and enjoyment

of participation in religious activities), however, may not

have captured the specific aspects of involvement in reli-

gious communities, such as social support, that may

enhance the association between personal spirituality/reli-

giosity and well-being (e.g., Desrosiers and Miller 2008).

In the future, it would be beneficial for researchers to

identify the specific aspects of religious/spiritual group

involvement that may enhance the link between personal

spirituality/religiosity and well-being.

In addition, contrary to our predictions, it was personal—

not institutional—spirituality/religiosity that was associated

with more positive academic orientation in both grades. This

finding was unexpected, given that institutional spirituality/

religiosity is thought to promote assets more directly relevant

for school success such as social capital and self-control

(e.g., Regnerus 2000). Interestingly, at the zero-order level,

institutional spirituality/religiosity was correlated signifi-

cantly with academic orientation at both grades, but in the

regression model, only personal spirituality/religiosity

emerged as a significant predictor. It is possible that the

associations between institutional spirituality/religiosity and

academic success found in prior studies, where personal

spirituality/religiosity was not statistically controlled (e.g.,

Loury 2004; Regnerus and Elder 2003), have been due at

least partially to shared variance with personal spirituality/

religiosity. The association between personal spirituality/

religiosity and academic orientation may be a function of

personality characteristics that may be more common in

individuals who seek a connection with the sacred. For

example, in adult samples, spiritual seeking (independent of

institutional spirituality/religiosity) has been associated with

openness to experience (e.g., McCullough and Willoughby

2009), which is linked to factors that promote school success,

such as intellectual curiosity (Costa and McCrae 1995).

Alternatively, individuals who report high levels of personal

spirituality/religiosity in late high school may have been

frequently involved in spirituality/religiosity groups or

activities in the past (Good et al. 2010). It is possible that

many of the young people who reported high levels of per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity in grades 11 and 12 were more

highly involved in religious/spiritual groups as children or

young adolescents, and the school-specific benefits of being

involved in religious activities (e.g., social capital, self-

control; King 2008; McCullough and Willoughby 2009;

Smith 2003a) may have been carried over to the high school

years—even though these adolescents may have decreased

(or stopped) their involvement in religious activities. This

also may explain partially the stronger relationship between

other adjustment variables and personal, as opposed to

institutional spirituality/religiosity. Future research should

investigate this possibility more directly (i.e., that the ben-

efits of early religious/spiritual group involvement may carry

over to positive adjustment later in life, even if involvement

declines or stops).

Another unexpected finding was that institutional spiri-

tuality/religiosity predicted less positive well-being

(although this relationship was significant only in grade

12). The results revealed that it was only after accounting

for the shared variance between personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity (and parental education, to a lesser

extent) that this association emerged. Interestingly, Kelley

and Miller (2007) also reported that religious attendance

became a significant negative predictor of life satisfaction

when controlling for Daily Spiritual Experiences. Because

decline in religious service attendance is so common in

high school (e.g., Smith et al. 2002), perhaps individuals

who attend religious activities frequently in late adoles-

cence (particularly if they are not personally spiritual/

religious) may be forced to participate in religious activi-

ties by parents. Such adolescents also may fare less well in

many areas of life, as parents who force religious atten-

dance may be less likely to grant their children autonomy

in other areas of life, and lower autonomy has been linked

to less positive adjustment (e.g., Soenens et al. 2007).

These adolescents also may be experiencing religious

doubt, which has been associated significantly (albeit

weakly) with negative adjustment (e.g., Hunsberger et al.

1996). The suggestion that institutional spirituality/religi-

osity may be linked with less positive well-being after

statistically controlling for personal spirituality/religiosity

must be interpreted with caution, however, as the effect

size was very small, and it was not found in grade 11.

Nonetheless, given that Kelley and Miller (2007) reported

similar results, future research should address this issue.

Although personal spirituality/religiosity uniquely and

consistently predicted positive adjustment in terms of greater

intrapersonal well-being, parental relationship quality, and

academic orientation, longitudinal results revealed that these

associations could not be explained by either the socializa-

tion or selection hypotheses. That is, grade 11 personal

spirituality/religiosity did not predict well-being, parental

relationship, or academic orientation in grade 12, and grade

11 well-being, parental relationship, and academic orienta-

tion did not predict personal spirituality/religiosity in grade

12. Our failure to find support for the socialization hypoth-

esis in the association between personal spirituality/religi-

osity and intrapersonal well-being was unexpected, given

that both Possel et al. (2011) and Sallquist et al. (2010) found

that prior spirituality/religiosity predicted subsequent well-

being. However, methodological differences between these

770 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

studies and the present study may explain the differential

findings; namely, Possel et al. used a much shorter time

frame (i.e., 4 months between assessment points) than the

1 year used in the present study, and Sallquist et al. used a

sample that was younger (i.e., 7th–9th grade) and lived in a

culture (Indonesia) where religion was a much more salient

part of daily life (Lippman and Keith 2006). It is likely that

these results reflect third variable effects (i.e., although the

variables are associated, other variables are influencing

change in both spirituality/religiosity as well as the

domain(s) of adjustment). For example, reporting high per-

sonal spirituality/religiosity may be part of a constellation of

factors that include feeling good about oneself, having good

relationships with one’s parents, and doing well in school.

Changes in this constellation of factors may be driven by

broader psychological-level variables such as personality or

temperament. Future research should investigate the specific

domains that may affect change in both personal spirituality/

religiosity as well as the domains of adjustment with which

personal spirituality/religiosity is correlated.

The domain of psychosocial adjustment where the results

implied that spirituality/religiosity may be influential, how-

ever, was for substance use. For substance use, the most

consistent finding was that institutional spirituality/religi-

osity was a significant unique predictor of less substance use,

both concurrently and longitudinally (although only at an

interaction level with personal spirituality/religiosity in

grade 11). This finding also builds upon and corroborates our

previous work, where institutional spirituality/religiosity

predicted lower subsequent substance use even after con-

trolling for non-religious extracurricular activities (Good

et al. 2009), and several pertinent individual- (e.g., tolerance

of deviance), peer- (e.g., friend tolerance of deviance), and

parent- (e.g., parental control) level characteristics (Good

and Willoughby 2011). Institutional spirituality/religiosity

may impact upon an adolescent’s engagement in substance

use because attending religious/spiritual groups can create

constraints on adolescents’ opportunities to take part in

substance use. Namely, adolescents who are involved in

religious activities may experience a greater degree of social

network closure (Smith 2003b), may be more involved in a

variety of activities (e.g., Bartko and Eccles 2003), and, if

their parents participate in religious activities (which is most

often the case for religiously-involved adolescents, Smith

and Denton 2005), they may be more likely to have parents

who use an authoritative parenting style (e.g., Gunnoe et al.

1999)—all of which can prevent engagement in risk-taking

(e.g., Fletcher et al. 2001; Mahoney and Stattin 2000;

Steinberg 2001). In addition, because the practices associ-

ated with religious activities (e.g., getting up to go to church/

temple/mosque on the weekend) may build self-control, and

self-control is important for avoiding substance use, self-

regulatory capacities fostered through involvement in

religious institutions may, at least partially, explain why

institutional spirituality/religiosity may influence adoles-

cent’s decisions surrounding substance use (McCullough

and Willoughby 2009). Although an interaction effect was

found in grade 11, which implied that the relationship

between institutional spirituality/religiosity and substance

use was significant only when personal spirituality/religi-

osity was high, the moderation was a weak effect, and was

only demonstrated in one grade; therefore, the bulk of evi-

dence in the present study points towards institutional spir-

ituality/religiosity uniquely predicting less substance use.

Future research should explore whether other aspects of

personal spirituality/religiosity not assessed in the present

study may jointly predict more positive adjustment.

Findings from the present study must be interpreted

against its limitations. The most significant limitation was

the reliance on self-report surveys. It would have been

beneficial to have multiple informants (i.e., parent report,

teacher report, student records), particularly for the

domains of parent–child relationships and academic ori-

entation. Further, the sample from which the population

was drawn also was fairly homogenous in terms of reli-

gion/ethnicity. Also, because students’ religious affiliations

were not known, differences in the results by religious

affiliation could not be examined. Our measures of spiri-

tuality/religiosity also were limited in the sense that they

did not reflect all possible components of the broad spiri-

tuality/religiosity construct. In particular, neither the per-

sonal nor institutional spirituality/religiosity scales

reflected personal commitment to or internalization of

religious beliefs. However, involvement in religious

activities and religious internalization often are correlated

very highly (e.g., Hardy et al. 2012). Limitations in the

timing of the survey administration also existed, as 1 year

might not have been a sufficient amount of time in which to

observe strong selection or socialization effects. Also, there

may be periods of the lifespan other than the transition

from grade 11 to 12, where spirituality/religiosity may play

an equally or more important role in the lives of young

people. Researchers have suggested, for instance, that

emerging adulthood is a period of intensive identity

exploration (Arnett 2000). Events such as marriage or

becoming a parent also may precipitate spirituality/religi-

osity development. To attain a more complete under-

standing of the role that spirituality/religiosity plays in the

psychosocial adjustment of individuals, it will be necessary

to study multiple transitions throughout the lifespan, over

both the short-term and long-term.

Finally, given that standardized path coefficients of .10

are typically seen as small effects in the social sciences, the

coefficients that were significant in the present study were

all small to medium in magnitude. The small effect sizes

also may be related to the fact that this sample was

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 771

123

comprised of Canadian adolescents, who typically view

spirituality/religiosity as less important than their US

counterparts. Theoretically, the strength of the association

between spirituality/religiosity and an individual’s behav-

ior may be expected to decline as religiosity becomes less

and less common within a given population (e.g., Regnerus

2003; Stark 1996). However, small effect sizes are com-

mon (even in US samples exploring the relationship

between spirituality/religiosity and adjustment), particu-

larly in cross-lagged models with high stability coefficients

between adjacent waves of data. In this case, small effects

would be expected. However, small effects are not neces-

sarily trivial effects, and the magnitude of effects is con-

sistent with the other studies that have used similar models

(e.g., Mason and Windle 2002).

Conclusions

The present study offers a significant contribution to the body

of knowledge on the association between spirituality/religi-

osity and psychosocial adjustment in adolescence. It was the

first study of which the authors are aware to assess the unique

and joint associations between personal and institutional

spirituality/religiosity and a wide range of psychosocial

adjustment domains, and also to have considered the direction

of effects in these associations. Given the differential associ-

ations of personal and institutional spirituality/religiosity with

psychosocial adjustment, researchers might consider adopting

a more nuanced approach to measuring spirituality/religiosity;

in particular, an approach that allows for the identification of

interactions between personal spirituality/religiosity and

various aspects of institutional spirituality/religiosity would

be beneficial. Further, assessing the direction of effects in the

association between spirituality/religiosity and adjustment

allowed us to consider whether the links between the different

domains of spirituality/religiosity and various domains of

psychosocial adjustment may be best explained by sociali-

zation, selection, or third variable effects. Here, we found that

substance use was the only domain where spirituality/religi-

osity may be exerting some influence on change in behavior

over time, whereas for the other variables with which spiri-

tuality/religiosity showed only concurrent correlations, it is

likely that unmeasured variables are driving change in

adjustment and spirituality/religiosity.

Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge funding received from

the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Author contributions MG conceived of the study, participated in

its design and coordination, performed statistical analyses, and draf-

ted the manuscript. TW designed and coordinated the survey, helped

with statistical analyses, and helped to draft the manuscript. All

authors read and approved the final manuscript.

References

Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and

interpreting interactions. Newbury Park: Sage.

Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent

and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relation-

ship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of

Youth and Adolescence, 5, 427–453.

Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development

from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist,

55, 469–480.

Barnes, V. A., Treiber, F. A., & Johnson, M. H. (2004). Impact of

transcendental meditation on ambulatory blood pressure in

African-American adolescents. American Journal of Hyperten-

sion, 17, 366–369.

Bartko, W. T., & Eccles, J. E. (2003). Adolescent participation in

structured and unstructured activities: A person-centered anal-

ysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32, 233–241.

Bibby, R. W. (2009). The emerging millennials: How Canada’s

newest generation is responding to change and choice. Leth-

bridge: Project Canada Books.

Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital.

American Journal of Sociology,94, S95–S120.

Cornwall, M., Albrecht, S. L., Cunningham, P. H., & Pitcher, B. L.

(1986). The dimensions of religiosity: A conceptual model with

an empirical test. Review of Religious Research, 27, 226–244.

Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1995). Domains and facets?

Hierarchical personality assessment using the Revised NEO

Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 64,

21–50.

Desrosiers, A., Kelley, B. S., & Miller, L. (2010). Parent and peer

relationships and relational spirituality in adolescents and young

adults. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 3, 39–54.

Desrosiers, A., & Miller, L. (2007). Relational spirituality and

depression in adolescent girls. Journal of Clinical Psychology,

63, 1021–1037.

Desrosiers, A., & Miller, L. (2008). Substance use versus anxiety in

adolescents: Are some disorders more spiritual than others?

Research in the Scientific Study of Religion, 19, 237–253.

Dew, R. E., Daniel, S. S., Goldston, D. B., & Koenig, H. G. (2008).

Religion, spirituality, and depression in adolescent psychiatric

outpatients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 196,

247–251.

Donovan, J. E., Jessor, R., & Costa, F. M. (1988). Syndrome of

problem behavior in adolescence: A replication. Journal of

Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56, 762–765.

Feldman, B. J., Masyn, K. E., & Conger, R. D. (2009). New

approaches to studying problem behaviors: A comparison of

methods for modeling longitudinal, categorical adolescent

drinking data. Developmental Psychology, 45, 652–676.

Fetzer Institute. (1999). Multidimensional measurement of religious-

ness/spirituality for use in health research. Retrieved from:

http://www.fetzer.org/images/stories/pdf/ MultidimensionalBoo-

klet.pdf on August 29, 2009.

Fletcher, A. C., Newsome, D., Nikerson, P., & Bazley, R. (2001).

Social network closure and child adjustment. Merrill-Palmer

Quarterly, 47, 500–529.

Ginsburg, G., La Greca, A., & Silverman, W. (1998). Social anxiety

in children with anxiety disorders: Relation with social and

emotional functioning. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology,

26, 175–185.

Glanville, J., Sikkink, D., & Hernandez, E. (2008). Religious

involvement and educational outcomes: The role of social

capital and extracurricular participation. The Sociological Quar-

terly, 49, 105–137.

772 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

Good, M., & Willoughby, T. (2011). Evaluating the direction of

effects in the relation between religious versus non-religious

activities, academic success, and substance use. Journal of Youth

and Adolescence, 40(6), 680–693.

Good, M., Willoughby, T., & Busseri, M. (2010). Stability and

change in adolescent spirituality/religiosity: A person-centred

approach. Developmental Psychology, 47(2), 538–550.

Good, M., Willoughby, T., & Fritjers, J. (2009). Just another club?

The distinctiveness of the relation between religious service

attendance and adolescent psychosocial adjustment. Journal of

Youth and Adolescence, 38, 1153–1171.

Granqvist, P., Ivarsson, T., Broberg, A., & Hagekull, B. (2007).

Examining relations among attachment, religiosity, and new age

spirituality using the Adult Attachment Interview. Developmen-

tal Psychology, 43, 590–601.

Gunnoe, M. L., Hetherington, E. M., & Reiss, D. (1999). Parental

religiosity, parenting style, and adolescent social responsibility.

Journal of Early Adolescence, 19, 199–225.

Hardy, S. A., Walker, L. J., Rackham, D. D., & Olsen, J. A. (2012).

Religiosity and adolescent empathy and aggression: The medi-

ating role of moral identity. Psychology of Religion and

Spirituality, 4(3), 237–248.

Hart, T. (2006). Spiritual experiences and capacities of children and

youth. In E. C. Roehlkepartain, P. E. King, L. Wagener, & P.

L. Benson (Eds.), The handbook of spiritual development in

childhood and adolescence (pp. 163–177). London: Sage.

Hill, P. C., & Edwards, E. (2013). Measurement in the psychology of

religiousness and spirituality: Existing measures and new

frontiers. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones

(Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality

(Vol 1): Context, theory, and research. APA handbooks in

psychology (pp. 51–77). Washington, DC: APA.

Hill, P. C., Pargament, K. I., Hood, R. W., McCullough, M. E.,

Swyers, J. P., Larson, D. B., et al. (2000). Conceptualizing

religion and spirituality: Points of commonality, points of

departure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 30, 51–77.

Hood, R. W., & Belzen, J. A. (2005). Research methods in the

psychology of religion. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.),

The handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp.

62–79). New York: Guilford Press.

Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in

covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new

alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55.

Hunsberger, B., Alisat, S., Pancer, S. M., & Pratt, M. (1996).

Religious fundamentalism and religious doubts: Content, con-

nections and complexity of thinking. International Journal for

the Psychology of Religion, 6, 201–220.

Jankoswki, P. J., & Sandage, S. J. (2011). Meditative prayer, hope,

adult attachment, and forgiveness: A proposed model. Psychol-

ogy of Religion and Spirituality, 3(2), 115–131.

Kelley, B. S., & Miller, L. (2007). Life satisfaction and spirituality in

adolescents. Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion,

18, 233–261.

King, P. E. (2008). Spirituality as fertile ground for positive youth

development. In R. M. Lerner, R. W. Roeser, & E. Phelps (Eds.),

Positive youth development and spirituality: From theory to

research (pp. 55–73). West Conshohocken: Templeton Founda-

tion Press.

Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Shaver, P. R. (1992). An attachment-theoretical

approach to romantic love and religious beliefs. Personality and

Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 266–275.

Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation

modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford.

Koenig, H. G. (2008). Concerns about measuring ‘‘spirituality’’ in

research. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 196,

349–355.

Kroger, J. (1996). Identity in adolescence. New York: Routledge.

Lerner, R. M., & Castellino, D. (2002). Contemporary developmental

systems theory and adolescence: Developmental systems and

applied developmental science. Journal of Adolescent Health,

31, 122–135.

Lerner, R. M., Dowling, E. M., & Anderson, P. M. (2003). Positive

youth development: Thriving as the basis of personhood and

civil society. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 172–180.

Lerner, R. M., Roeser, R. W., & Phelphs, E. (2008). Positive youth

development and spirituality: From theory to research. West

Conshohocken: Templeton Foundation Press.

Lippman, L. H., & Keith, L. M. (2006). The demographics of

spirituality among youth: International perspectives. In E.

C. Roehlkepartain, P. E. King, L. Wagener, & P. L. Benson

(Eds.), The handbook of spiritual development in childhood and

adolescence (pp. 109–123). London: Sage.

Little, T. D., Card, N. A., Preacher, K. J., & McConnell, E. (2009).

Modeling longitudinal data from research on adolescence. In R.

M. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent

psychology (pp. 15–54). Hoboken: Wiley.

Loury, L. (2004). Does church attendance really increase schooling?

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43, 119–127.

Mahoney, J., & Stattin, H. (2000). Leisure activities and adolescent

antisocial behavior: The role of structure and social context.

Journal of Adolescence, 23, 113–127.

Mason, W. A., & Windle, M. (2002). A longitudinal study of the

effects of religiosity on adolescent alcohol use and alcohol-

related problems. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 346–363.

McCullough, M. W., & Willoughby, B. L. B. (2009). Religion, self-

regulation, and self-control: Associations, explanations, and

implications. Psychological Bulletin, 135, 69–93.

Nonnemaker, J., McNeeley, C. A., & Blum, R. W. (2006). Public and

private domains of religiosity and adolescent smoking transi-

tions. Social Science and Medicine, 62, 3084–3095.

Pargament, K. I. (1999). The psychology of religion and spirituality?

Yes and no. International Journal for the Psychology of

Religion, 9, 3–16.

Pearce, M. J., Little, T. D., & Perez, J. E. (2003). Religiousness and

depressive symptoms among adolescents. Journal of Clinical

Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 267–276.

Perez, J. E., Little, T. D., & Henrich, C. C. (2009). Spirituality and

depressive symptoms in a school-based sample of adolescents: A

longitudinal examination of mediated and moderated effects.

Journal of Adolescent Health, 44, 380–386.

Possel, P., Martin, N. C., Garber, J., Banister, A. W., Pickering, N. K.,

& Hautzinger, M. (2011). Bidirectional relations of religious

orientation and depressive symptoms in adolescents: A short-

term longitudinal study. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality,

3, 24–38.

Radloff, L. (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale

for research in the general population. Applied Psychological

Measurement, 1, 385–401.

Regnerus, M. D. (2000). Shaping schooling success: Religious

socialization and educational outcomes in metropolitan public

schools. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 39, 363–370.

Regnerus, M. D. (2003). Moral communities and adolescent delin-

quency: Religious contexts and community social control. The

Sociological Quarterly,44, 523–554.

Regnerus, M. D., & Burdette, A. (2006). Religious change and

adolescent family dynamics. The Sociological Quarterly, 47,

175–194.

Regnerus, M. D., & Elder, G. H. (2003). Religion and vulnerability

among low-risk adolescents. Social Science Research, 32,

633–658.

Regnerus, M. D., & Smith, C. (2005). Selection effects in studies of

religious influence. Review of Religious Research, 47, 23–50.

J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774 773

123

Rew, L., & Wong, Y. J. (2006). A systematic review of associations

among religiosity/spirituality and adolescent health attitudes and

behaviors. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 433–442.

Ritt-Olson, A., et al. (2004). The protective influence of spirituality

and ‘‘health-as-a-value’’ against monthly substance use among

adolescents varying in risk. Journal of Adolescent Health, 34,

192–199.

Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self image. New

Jersey: Princeton University Press.

Sallquist, J., Eisenberg, N., French, D. C., Purwono, U., & Suryanti,

T. A. (2010). Indonesian adolescents’ spiritual and religious

experiences and their longitudinal relations with socioemotional

functioning. Developmental Psychology, 46, 699–716.

Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: Our view of the

state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7, 147–177.

Schapman, A. M., & Inderbitzen-Nolan, H. M. (2002). The role of

religious behavior in adolescent depressive and anxious symp-

tomatology. Journal of Adolescence, 25, 631–643.

Seidlitz, L., Abernathy, A. D., Duberstein, P. R., Evinger, J. S.,

Chang, T. H., & Lewis, B. L. (2002). Development of the

Spiritual Transcendence Index. Journal for the Scientific Study of

Religion, 41, 439–453.

Sharp, S. (2010). How does prayer help manage emotions? Social

Psychology Quarterly, 73, 417–437.

Shoda, Y., Mischel, W., & Peake, P. K. (1990). Predicting adolescent

cognitive and self-regulatory competencies from preschool delay

of gratification: Identifying diagnostic conditions. Developmen-

tal Psychology, 26, 978–986.

Smith, C. (2003a). Theorizing religious effects among American

adolescents. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42,

17–30.

Smith, C. (2003b). Religious participation and network closure

among American adolescents. Journal for the Scientific Study of

Religion, 42, 259–267.

Smith, C., & Denton, M. L. (2005). Soul searching: The religious and

spiritual lives of American teenagers. New York: Oxford

University Press.

Smith, C., Denton, M. L., Faris, R., & Regnerus, M. D. (2002).

Mapping American adolescent religious participation. Journal

for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41, 597–612.

Soenens, B., Vansteenkiste, M., Lens, W., Luyckx, K., Goossens, L.,

Beters, W., et al. (2007). Conceptualizing parental autonomy

support: Adolescent perceptions of promotion of independence

versus promotion of volitional functioning. Developmental

Psychology, 43, 633–646.

Stark, R. (1996). Religion as context: Hellfire and delinquency one

more time. Sociology of Religion,57, 163–173.

Stark, R. (2002). Physiology and faith: Addressing the

‘‘universal’’ gender differences in religious commitment. Jour-

nal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41, 495–507.

Statistics Canada. (2001). Religion and sex for population, for

Canada. Retrieved July 10, 2013, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/

tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/demo26a-eng.htm.

Statistics Canada. (2006). Population by ethnic origin. Retrieved

April 6, 2003, http://www12.statcan.ca.

Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2000). Parental monitoring: A reinterpreta-

tion. Child Development, 71, 1072–1085.

Steinberg, L. (2001). We know some things: Adolescent–parent

relationships in retrospect and prospect. Journal of Research on

Adolescence, 11, 1–20.

Underwood, L. G., & Teresi, J. A. (2002). The daily spiritual

experiences scale: Development, theoretical description, reli-

ability, exploratory factor analysis and preliminary construct

validity using health-related data. Annals of Behavioral Medi-

cine, 24, 22–33.

Walker, C., Ainette, M. G., Wills, T. A., & Mendoza, D. (2007).

Religiosity and substance use: Test of an indirect-effect model in

early and middle adolescence. Psychology of Addictive Behav-

iors, 21, 84–96.

Willoughby, T., & Hamza, C. (2011). A longitudinal examination of

the bidirectional associations among perceived parenting behav-

iors, adolescent disclosure and problem behavior across the high

school years. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(4), 463–478.

Zinnbauer, B. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2005). Religiousness and

spirituality. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), The

psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 121–142). New

York: Guilford.

Author Biographies

Marie Good is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology at the University

of Toronto. She received her Ph.D. from Brock University. Her

research interests include adolescent religion and spirituality, adoles-

cent identity development, and youth risk taking.

Teena Willoughby is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at

Brock University. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the

University of Waterloo. Her research interests include adolescent

development, particularly with regard to resilience, academic

achievement, risk behaviors, and media/technology influences on

lifestyle choices.

774 J Youth Adolescence (2014) 43:757–774

123

435

CHAPTER 13

Religion and Spirituality in

Adolescent Development

PAMELA EBSTYNE KING AND ROBERT W. ROESER

This chapter marks the first time that the topic

of adolescent religiousness and spirituality

has appeared in the Handbook of Adolescent

Psychology . Although significant attention was

devoted to the religious development of ado-

lescents in the early part of the twentieth cen-

tury (e.g., Hall, 1904 ), and again in the 1960s

and 1970s (see Spilka, Hood, Hunsberger,

& Gorsuch, 2003 ), this topic was relatively

neglected for much of the latter part of the twen-

tieth century. It is only relatively recently that

renewed interest in the topic of religious and

spiritual development during adolescence has

developed within the developmental sciences

(e.g., Barrett & Richert, 2003 ; Bloom, 2007 ;

Lerner, Roeser, & Phelps, 2008 ; Roehlkepartain,

King, Wagener, & Benson, 2006 ).

Benson, Roehlkepartain, and Rude ( 2003 )

documented this recent lack of attention to

religious and spiritual development during

childhood and adolescence by reviewing the

frequency of publications on these topics in

six top - tiered journals ( Child Development,

Developmental Psychology, International

Journal of Behavioral Development, Journal

of Adolescent Research, Journal of Early

Adolescence, and Journal of Research on

Adolescence ). Of the 3,123 articles published

in these journals between 1990 and July 2002,

only 27 or 0.9% referenced “ religion, ” “ reli-

gious development, ” “ spirituality, ” or “ spiritual

development ” as key words. Repeating this search

for the period from August 2002 to January 2008,

we found that only 20 of the 1530 published arti-

cles, or 1.3%, referenced these key words.

These searches document that religion and

spirituality are still rare topics of inquiry in the

field of developmental science. Nonetheless,

interest is increasing. The Society for Research

on Adolescence ’ s Study Group on Adolescence

in the 21st Century, for instance, noted that one

of the areas most in need of research “ across

all nations ” is the development of spiritual and

religious values and identities during adoles-

cence (Larson, Wilson, & Mortimer, 2002 ).

As noted in Roehklepartain et al. (2006), spe-

cial issues on the topic have also appeared

recently in peer - reviewed journals such as the

Journal of Adolescence, Annals of Behavioral

Medicine, Applied Developmental Science,

Review of Religious Research, Journal of

Health Psychology, Journal of Personality,

New Directions for Youth Development , and

American Psychologist (special section).

Another indicator of emerging interest in

this area is the inclusion of chapters on spiri-

tual and religious development in prominent

handbooks in the field of developmental sci-

ence such as this handbook. For example, for

the first time since its original publication

in 1946, the sixth edition of the Handbook

of Child Psychology included a chapter on

The authors thank Casey Clardy, Kayla Davidson, Jennifer Davison, Lauren White, Sonia Issac, and Jenel

Ramos for their invaluable assistance on this manuscript.

c13.indd Sec1:435c13.indd Sec1:435 2/17/09 10:44:55 AM2/17/09 10:44:55 AM

Handbook of Adolescent Psychology, edited by Richard M. Lerner and Laurence Steinberg.

436 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

spiritual development (Oser, Scarlett, & Bucher,

2006 ). In addition, comprehensive synthesis of

existing research and theory in the Handbook

of Spiritual Development in Childhood and

Adolescence (Roehlkepartain et al., 2006 ) and

the Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual

Development in Childhood and Adolescence

(Dowling & Scarlett, 2006 ) have recently been

published.

Given this emerging area of interest in the

study of adolescence, we pursue four aims in

this chapter. First, as a way of demonstrating

the importance of the growing scholarly atten-

tion to religiosity and spirituality, we provide

a demographic portrait of the role of religion

and spirituality in the lives of adults and ado-

lescents in the United States in particular. We

present facts that show religion/spirituality

to be an important part of the everyday lives

of tens of millions of Americans young and

old. To ignore this domain of study in human

development as has been the case historically

(Donelson, 1999 ) is thus to ignore some-

thing rather central to adolescent develop-

ment (e.g., Lerner et al., 2008; Roehlkepartain

et al., 2006 ), to the life of our nation (e.g., Pew

Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2008d) to

the global challenges of our times (e.g., Harris,

2004 ). After presenting a case for the impor-

tance of religion and spirituality in adolescent

development, we review theoretical perspec-

tives on religious and spiritual development

during adolescence with a particular emphasis

on a developmental system, social ecologi-

cal perspective. This perspective provides a

framework for organizing our review of extant

evidence regarding how different social con-

texts influence religious and spiritual devel-

opment during adolescence, as well as the

role of religion and spirituality in broader

aspects of adolescent development such as

health, subjective well - being, education, risk

behavior, and civic engagement. Finally, we

examine the problematic and sometimes

pathological role of religion/spirituality in

adolescent development. We conclude with

suggestions for future research.

THE ROLE OF RELIGION AND

SPIRITUALITY IN ADOLESCENTS ’

LIVES: DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

In 1999, Gallup International ( 1999 ) surveyed

over 50,000 people in 60 countries across the

world about their religious beliefs. The sample

represented approximately 1.25 billion people.

Results showed that 87% of respondents self -

identified with a collective religious tradition,

and approximately two - thirds reported that

“ God ” was very important in their lives. These

trends were particularly strong in West Africa,

Latin America, and North America. These

findings and others document that: (1) reli-

gion/spirituality is a central part of the lives of

a majority of the people across the world, par-

ticularly in developing nations; (2) the United

States stands out as one of the most religious

nations in the developed world, especially

compared to western European countries; and

China remains much less religious than other

developing nations (Pew Forum, 2002).

U.S. Adult Trends in Religious and

Spiritual Self - Identification

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and

Public Life ( 2008 ), the religious affiliations

of the U.S. adult population are changing in

dramatic ways. Currently, the adult popula-

tion identifies religiously as 51% Protestant

Christian; 24% Catholic Christian; 16% unaf-

filiated with a religion; > 2% Jewish, > 2%

Mormon, and > 1% Muslim. About 4% were

affiliated with other major faiths, and 1%

refused to answer or didn ’ t know.

These numbers reflect five basic trends

in American religious life. First, for the first

time in the history of the United States, a

nation founded on Protestant Christianity,

Protestantism represents only a slight religious

majority (51%) or may even now be less than

50% of the country (Portes & Rumbaut, 2007)

due to long - term declines in church member-

ship. Second, a small but increasingly signifi-

cant number of Americans identify religiously

as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Orthodox

Christian (e.g., Eck, 2007 ). Third, despite

c13.indd Sec1:436c13.indd Sec1:436 2/17/09 10:44:56 AM2/17/09 10:44:56 AM

The Role of Religion and Spirituality in Adolescents’ Lives: Demographic Trends 437

declines in church membership among U.S. -

born Catholics, the membership of the Catholic

church has remained stable (24%) in the United

States due to immigrants, mostly from Latin

America, the Philippines, and, to some extent,

Vietnam, who identify as Catholic (Portes &

Rumbaut). Fourth, an increasing proportion

of Americans identify themselves as unaffili-

ated with any religious tradition. That approxi-

mately 14% – 16% of American adults affiliate

with no religious tradition, and that this per-

centage has increased over the past decade and

a half, is taken as evidence of an increasing but

still minority trend toward secularization in the

United States (Portes & Rumbaut).

Finally, evidence suggests that there is great

fluidity among American adults with respect

to their religious affiliations. The Pew Forum

study (2007) found that more than one - quarter

of American adults (28%) have left the faith

in which they were raised during childhood in

favor of another religion or no religion at all.

If one included switching churches within the

Protestant faith in estimates of fluidity, this

percentage of changing denominations rises to

44%. Add to this kind of fluidity Americans ’

tolerance for exploring practices beyond their

tradition and the increase in interreligious mar-

riages, and the religious context in America

seems fluid indeed.

U.S. Adolescent Trends in Religious

and Spiritual Self - Identification

Given the high levels of religiosity among

American adults, it is not surprising that rep-

resentative studies of American youth have

documented that the vast majority of adoles-

cents in the United States tend to affiliate with

one particular religious group (84% – 87%;

Smith & Denton, 2005 ; Wallace, Forman,

Caldwell, & Willis, 2003 ). In addition, a sig-

nificant minority of young people today do not

identify with any religion (13% – 16%; Smith

& Denton; Wallace et al.). Similar to the find-

ings for adults (Pew, 2008), the number of

religiously unaffiliated adolescents seems to

be rising (Wallace et al.).

In terms of specific religious identifica-

tions, results of the National Study of Youth

and Religion (NSYR) show that religious

affiliations among adolescents parallel those

of adults (Smith & Denton, 2005 ). Results

documented that most youth in the United

States self - identify as Christian (75%); mainly

Protestant (52%) and Catholic (23%). In addi-

tion, 2.5% self - identity religiously as Mormon ,

1.5% as Jewish , 0.5% as Muslim, and another

1% – 2% identify with other religions (e.g.,

Jehovah ’ s Witnesses, Hindus, Buddhists, Eastern

Orthodox Christian, Unitarian Universalist,

etc.). Furthermore, results showed that

approximately 3% of adolescents self - identify

with two different religions, likely due to the

increase in interreligious marriages in U.S.

society (Eck, 2007 ). The rest of adolescents in

the NSYR, reflective of a substantial minor-

ity of adolescents (16%), did not report any

collective religious identity (see also Wallace

et al., 2003 ). These youth were labeled non-

religious (Smith & Denton, p. 31). Among

adolescents whom Smith and Denton called

nonreligious , most self - identified themselves

as “ just not religious ” (10%), “ atheist ” (1.5%),

or “ agnostic ” (1.5%). The remaining 3% of

the 16% “ nonreligious youth ” seemed uncer-

tain about their religious identity, suggesting

a small percentage of young people may have

relatively “ unexplored ” religious identities

in adolescence (Smith & Denton). Some of

these young people who did not identify with

a religion in fact were raised in a household

where there was religion. The main reason why

U.S. adolescents raised in a religion said

they were nonreligious was, by far, intellectual

skepticism and disbelief (Smith & Denton).

Religious Importance and Attendance

Among U.S. Adolescents

Perhaps the most studied variables indexing

religiosity beyond religious self - identification is

individuals ’ self - rated importance of religion to

themselves (or in their lives) and religious

attendance — usually frequency of attendance

or time spent in religious services. These

c13.indd 437c13.indd 437 2/17/09 10:44:56 AM2/17/09 10:44:56 AM

438 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

measures are often combined and called religi-

osity or religiousness — an unfortunate mixing

of what can be considered psychological iden-

tity beliefs and religious behavior. Nonetheless,

using these measures, several nationally repre-

sentative studies in the last 10 years suggest

that between 50% – 60% of American adoles-

cents can be considered “ strongly religious ”

(Benson et al., 2003 ; Wallace et al., 2003 ).

Smith and Denton ( 2005 ) report that about half

of all U.S. adolescents (ages 13 – 17 years) indi-

cate a strong, positive orientation to matters of

religion, faith and religious experience in their

lives. They point out that this means “ the other

half of U.S. teenagers express weak or no sub-

jective attachment to religion and have fewer

or no religious experiences ” (p. 68).

Interestingly, Benson et al. ( 2003 ) also

found sizeable proportions of youth who

reported high attendance at religious services

also reported low personal importance of reli-

gion. They speculated that parental pressures

to attend services or voluntary youth atten-

dance for the social rather than the religious

aspect of religious activities with same - aged

peers are the primary motivators behind such

adolescents ’ attendance at religious programs,

activities, and services. These results highlight

the importance of (1) conducting research

on the role of religion and spirituality in the

lives of adolescents; (2) attending to the diver-

sity of motives youth have for such attendance;

and furthermore (3) allowing for the possibil-

ity in such research that in fact religion/spiritu-

ality plays little to no role in the development

of some youth.

Age Differences

Research on age - related differences in indi-

cators of religious attendance and salience is

equivocal. Findings from one longitudinal

study showed widespread continuous levels

of religious attendance and importance across

adolescence. In a study of 370 youth, Benson,

Scales, Sesma, and Roehlkepartain ( 2005 )

found that about two - thirds showed continu-

ous levels of religious importance from the

middle to high school years. Nonetheless, that

finding means that the other third of their sam-

ple showed a discontinuity during this period

with attitudes changing from both favorable

to unfavorable and vice versa. Wallace et al.

( 2003 ) reported less attendance among older

adolescence and Smith and Denton ( 2005 )

reported minor age - related differences in vari-

ous indicators of religiosity in their cross - sec-

tional, national study of 13 – 17 year olds. These

authors posit that declines in religiosity noted

in other studies may begin after age 17.

Cohort Differences

Using data from the 1976 – 1999 panels of the

Monitoring the Future Study, Wallace et al.

( 2003 ) found a decline in religious attendance

among high school seniors across the 1970s and

1980s, and a stabilization of attendance among

12th graders across the 1990s. A conservative

interpretation of their findings, the authors

write, is that “ religiosity has been fairly stable

for over a decade among 8th and 10th graders

and for more than a quarter century among 12th

graders ” (Wallace et al., p. 121).

Sex Differences

Several studies have shown that sex differences

in religiosity are evident among adolescents

(Smith & Denton, 2005 ; Wallace et al., 2003 ).

Smith and Denton reported that, compared to

adolescent boys, adolescent girls aged 13 – 17

years old (1) attend religious services more

frequently; (2) see religion as shaping their

daily lives more; (3) are more likely to have

made a personal commitment to live life for

God; (4) are involved more often in religious

youth groups; (5) pray more alone; and (6) feel

closer to God. These gender differences, con-

sistent but fairly small in magnitude, remain

after accounting for youths ’ social back-

grounds. Furthermore, such sex differences

persist into adulthood (Batson, Schoenrade &

Ventis, 1993 ; Donahue & Benson, 1995 ).

Geographic Trends

There are also geographic differences in the

level of religiosity among adolescents. Smith

c13.indd 438c13.indd 438 2/17/09 10:44:57 AM2/17/09 10:44:57 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 439

and Denton ( 2005 ) found that adolescents in

the Northeast were generally the least reli-

gious, those in the South the most religious, and

those in the Midwest and West fell in between.

Wallace et al. ( 2003 ) reported slightly different

findings from data collected in the late 1990s.

Among this cohort of adolescents, those living

in the South indeed reported the most atten-

dance and highest centrality of religion to self

and those in the Midwest showed intermediate

levels of religiosity. These findings corroborate

those of Smith and Denton. However, youth in

the Monitoring the Future study in 1999 who

lived in the West and the Northeast were found

to be less religious on these measures than

those in the South and Midwest. These find-

ings concerning youth growing up in Western

states differ from the NSYR findings. It may be

that 10 years of immigration in Western states,

especially immigration of Latin Americans

who tend to be very religious, may account for

this difference (Eck, 2007 ).

In addition to these major geographical dif-

ferences, research shows that adolescents who

live in the most rural and sparsely populated

counties in the United States tend to be more

religious than those living in more populated,

urban environments (Smith & Denton, 2005 ;

Wallace et al., 2003 ). Furthermore, studies

within rural communities in Iowa show that

European American adolescents living on

farms had stronger ties to religious institutions

and were more committed to religious val-

ues than their peers who do not live on farms

(King, Elder, & Whitbeck, 1997 ).

In sum, demographic evidence in the United

States shows that formal religious participation

is important in about 50% of U.S. adolescents ’

lives, with some decline in religiousness among

older adolescents. There are also sex differ-

ences in which female adolescents are more

religious than their male peers. There is also evi-

dence to suggest that living in the South, the

Midwest, and to some degree the West, as well

as the less densely populated and more rural

areas of the country, is associated with greater

religiousness among youth. These levels of

youth religious involvement may impact the

development of adolescents. Such influences

would, of course, depend at least in part on the

nature of religious and spiritual development.

Accordingly, in the next section, we provide

an overview of theories of religious and spiri-

tual development during adolescence.

CONCEPTS AND THEORIES

OF RELIGIOUS AND

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN

ADOLESCENCE

The study of religion and spirituality in

developmental science hinges on whether it

is possible to formulate good theories from

which scientists derive clear and scientifi-

cally tractable definitions of what religion

and spirituality are substantively, what they

do functionally (Emmons & Paloutzian, 2003 ;

Weaver, Pargament, Flannelly, & Oppenheimer,

2006 ), and how they develop systematically

over ontogenetic time (cf. Lerner et al., 2008;

Oser et al., 2006 ; Roehlkepartain et al., 2006 ).

Indeed, the challenge of having “ good ” theo-

ries is one that has historically plagued the

study of the psychology of religion (Batson,

1997 ). Having good theory remains a signifi-

cant challenge in the contemporary study of

religious and spiritual development (RSD)

during adolescence.

Nonetheless, several key theoretical strands

can be discerned in current research on reli-

gious and spiritual development (RSD) dur-

ing adolescence. Specifically, RSD has been

discussed in terms of (1) a relational system

affording security and anxiety reduction; (2) a

meaning system affording existential answers

in the context of life ’ s “ boundary conditions ”

(e.g., death) and unexplainable life events; (3)

the development of cognitive schemas indexing

conceptions of religious phenomena such as

prayer and God; (4) an identity - motivation sys-

tem organized around particular religious and

spiritual goals, values, and ultimate concerns;

(5) states and stages of awareness that tran-

scend ego - consciousness and its boundedness

in time and space (e.g., mystical experiences,

c13.indd 439c13.indd 439 2/17/09 10:44:57 AM2/17/09 10:44:57 AM

440 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

construct - aware stages of functioning); and (6)

a dynamic developmental systems perspective

in which RSD is seen in relation to multiple

contexts, people, symbol systems, and oppor-

tunities and risks that foster or frustrate such

development across the life span. In addition,

not all current scholarship about RSD is theo-

retically framed. Accordingly, we begin this

discussion by describing two atheoretical defi-

nitions that nevertheless have served as a point

of departure for more theoretical approaches.

Atheoretical Approaches and the

Study of Religion and Spirituality

A proliferation of atheoretical, descriptive tax-

onomies of RSD and of the question of how to

distinguish religion and spirituality in human

development characterize the field of the psy-

chology of religion and spirituality today

(Paloutzian & Park, 2005 ). Traditionally, the

field of psychology of religion subsumed the

terms religion and spirituality under the con-

struct of religion (Spilka et al., 2003 ). However,

recent years have seen a divergence in these

constructs, both in the culture as well as in

the sciences (Koenig, McCullough, & Larson,

2001 ; Zinnbauer & Pargament, 2005 ). Thus,

debate over the substantive and functional dis-

tinctions between religiousness and spirituality is

one of a number of central conceptual challenges

in the psychology of religion today, and one that

bears centrally on developmental science theo-

ries of religious and spiritual development.

One prominent atheoretical approach to

distinguishing between religion and spiritual-

ity is to conceptualize religion at the level of

an organized sociocultural – historical system,

and spirituality at the level of individuals ’ per-

sonal quests for meaning, happiness, and wis-

dom. For instance, in chapter 1 , Definitions, of

the Handbook of Religion and Health (Koenig

et al., 2001 ), religion is defined substantively

and functionally as:

. . . an organized system of beliefs, practices,

rituals, and symbols that serve (a) to facili-

tate individuals ’ closeness to the sacred or

transcendent other (i.e., God, higher power,

ultimate truth) and (b) to bring about an under-

standing of an individual ’ s relationship and

responsibility to others living together in com-

munity. (p.18)

In contrast, spirituality is defined as:

. . . a personal quest for understanding answers

to ultimate questions about life, about meaning,

and about relationship to the sacred or transcen-

dent, which may (or may not) lead to or arise

from the development of religious rituals and the

formation of community. (p. 18)

This perspective is close to Pargament ’ s

( 2007 ) view of personal religiousness or spiri-

tuality as a “ quest for the sacred ” in which the

“ sacred ” is defined in terms of individuals ’

“ concepts of God, the divine and transcendent

reality, as well as other aspects of life that take

on divine character and significance by virtue

of their association with, or representation of,

divinity ” (Pargament, 2007 , p. 32). Koenig et al.

posit that there are five “ types ” of (individual -

level) spiritualities that are either “ moored ” or

“ unmoored ” to an established (social - level)

religious tradition. For the vast majority, they

posit that the spiritual life is “ moored ” or tied

to a formal religious tradition. Nonetheless,

Koenig et al. ( 2001 ) also acknowledge the

existence of individuals who search for mean-

ing to ultimate questions through unmoored

spiritualities such as “ humanist spirituality ” in

which the focal concerns center on humanity

as a whole, universal ethics, and the cultiva-

tion of human potential rather than around a

Transcendent God or Transcendental Reality.

This approach of assigning religion to the level

of context and spirituality to the level of the

person as a means of differentiating religion

from spirituality is somewhat elegant. Rather

than having to then decide if the person is

religious or spiritual at the individual level

(which tells one little about the meaning

and functional significance of these terms),

Koenig et al. propose that researchers focus

c13.indd 440c13.indd 440 2/17/09 10:44:58 AM2/17/09 10:44:58 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 441

several theories of the development of reli-

giously moored and unmoored spiritualities.

Religion and the Development of

Relational Security

Freud saw religion as a “ universal obsessional

neurosis ” derived from infantile human wishes

for love, comfort and security (Freud, 1961 ,

p. 43). Religion was an “ opiate ” derived across

human evolution to provide an illusory sense

of safety and security against the frailty of

life and the ubiquity of suffering. Despite the

fact that psychoanalytic accounts of religion

have been criticized thoroughly on a number

of grounds (see Spilka et al., 2003 ), Freud ’ s

“ opiate theory ” of religion informed and was

transformed by subsequent object relations

and attachment theorists.

With respect to Object Relations Theory,

Rizzuto ( 1979 ) argued that representations of

God are a universal outcome of a child ’ s rela-

tionships with their parents or other caretakers.

According to object relations theory, individuals

internalize affectively charged representations of

their relationships with significant others such

as parents as “ psychic objects. ” Internalized

images of parents become “ templates ” for

comprehending and understanding the devel-

opment of God images and relationships in

individuals.

For Rizzuto and other object relations theo-

rists, God images are posited to serve as “ tran-

sitional objects ” that can reduce attachment

insecurity as the child develops more inde-

pendence from caregivers (e.g., Dickie et al.,

1997 ), and at other times in the life course

characterized by significant life change and

stress. Of course, one such time in the life

course is adolescence and its suite of bio-

psychosocial changes. Evidence shows that

many young people in the United States and

around the world report relationships with

God (Gallup, 1999) and that as distance from

parents increase, intimacy with God increases

(Dickie et al.). Furthermore, there is some

evidence of important changes in conceptions

of God toward a more relational view during

attention on “ religiously moored ” or “ reli-

giously unmoored ” forms of spirituality at the

individual level. As mentioned earlier, given

that nearly a half of adolescents report no for-

mal religious engagement, and more and more

are identifying with no religion, a focus on

unmoored forms of spirituality during these

years is warranted in the future.

The notion of “ moored spiritualities ” is

akin to the situation when individuals identify

as “ religious. ” The notion of “ unmoored spiri-

tualities ” is akin to the situation in which indi-

viduals identify as “ spiritual, not religious. ”

Zinnbauer and Pargament ( 2005 ) summarize

research on adults that also applies to U.S.

adolescents with respect to identifications as

“ religious and spiritual ” and “ spiritual, not

religious. ” They suggest that:

1. Most people identify as both religious and

spiritual.

2. A minority of people identify as “ spiritual

not religious, ” sometimes using this iden-

tification as a repudiation of institutional

religion (e.g., Hood, 2003).

3. Religiousness and spirituality are con-

structs that overlap in the United States

and are very similar, but not identical.

4. The terms are both multidimensional and

multilevel constructs crossing biological,

mental, and social levels of analysis.

5. Both religiosity and spirituality develop

and change over time at the level of indi-

viduals and groups.

6. Religiousness and spirituality are develop-

ing different connotations in U.S. culture

and science, with a trend toward religion

being associated with the social system or

group level, and spirituality being associ-

ated with the individual level of analysis.

For purposes of this chapter, we use the

generic term religious and spiritual develop-

ment (RSD) to capture the development of

both moored and unmoored forms of spiritu-

ality during adolescence. This general notion

provides a point of departure for discussing

c13.indd 441c13.indd 441 2/17/09 10:44:58 AM2/17/09 10:44:58 AM

442 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

adolescence. In one study, Deconchy ( 1965 )

found three stages in such development from

ages 7 to 16 years among French Catholics. In

the first stage, from about 7 to 11 years, God

was seen as having concrete anthropomorthic

attributes. From 11 to 14 years, these attri-

butes of God became more abstract, follow-

ing general trends in cognitive development.

Interestingly, from 14 onward, youth reported

more abstract and relational conceptions of

God — focusing on their personal relation-

ships with God in terms of themes of love and

trust. These findings suggest that conscious

relational images of God may become more

salient during adolescence. Similarly, evi-

dence suggests that in adolescents ’ prayer life,

there is a development from instrumental forms

of prayer towards a dialogic style of prayer in

which attempting to get closer to God is cen-

tral (Scarlett & Perriello, 1991 ).

A related view of RSD comes from an

adaptation of the evolution - based theory of

parent - child attachments put forth by Bowlby

( 1988 ). Kirkpatrick ( 1997 ) likened individu-

als ’ relationships with God to their relational

attachments to parents and also posited that

the parent – child relationship serves as a tem-

plate for the kind of God image children

develop. Such attachment schemas, in both

cases, are assumed to serve the functions of

protection and comfort during times of stress.

Kirkpatrick and Shaver ( 1990 ) posited two

main hypotheses. First, they forwarded the

compensation hypothesis in which individuals

with insecure parental attachments are hypoth-

esized to develop a belief in a loving, personal,

and available God as a means of compensating

for the absence of relational security in infancy.

Second, they presented the mental model

hypothesis, in which attachments, secure or

insecure, provide a mental model upon which

individuals base their later religious beliefs

and relational images of God.

In a study of adults, Kirkpatrick and Shaver

( 1990 ) found that the relation between attach-

ment style and individuals ’ own religiosity

was moderated by their mothers ’ religiosity.

Among those who reported growing up with

religious mothers, those with any of three

types of attachment styles were more highly

religious. Those with secure attachments to

“ nonreligious ” mothers reported less religi-

osity themselves later. These findings were

interpreted as examples of basic “ mental mod-

eling effects. ” The study also showed that

those with avoidant attachments to “ nonreli-

gious ” mothers reported more of an orienta-

tion toward religion, more religious activity,

and greater closeness to God later. This find-

ing was interpreted as a “ compensation effect. ”

These individuals were also more likely to

report having had a “ sudden conversion expe-

rience ” as well. Kirkpatrick and Shaver note,

“ religion may function in a compensatory role

for those with a (retrospectively) reported his-

tory of avoidant attachment; that is, God may

serve as a substitute attachment figure ” (1990,

p. 315). Those individuals with ambivalent

attachments fell in between, but were more

like the securely attached in that they followed

the role of their mother in religion. Other

research with adults has also appeared more to

support the correspondence hypothesis — that

individuals develop attachments with God that

are similar to their attachment with parents

(Piedmont, 2005 ).

Research with youth utilizing the attach-

ment theory perspective on religion has been

conducted in Sweden, where the evidence

suggested support for the compensation

hypothesis. Youths with insecure early attach-

ments were more likely to believe in a loving

God (Granqvist, 2002 ). These results sug-

gest a number of possibilities for adolescents.

Those with secure attachments to parents are

likely to adopt the faith and God images (or

lack thereof) of their parents (e.g., Hertel &

Donahue, 1995 ). However, those with insecure

attachments are likely to seek security by join-

ing a religious organization and seeking social

support in that setting. Alternatively, they may

reject their parents ’ religion altogether as a

function of their distant or difficult relation-

ships with parents (e.g., Smith, 2003 b).

c13.indd 442c13.indd 442 2/17/09 10:44:59 AM2/17/09 10:44:59 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 443

In sum, several of the notions originally dis-

cussed in psychodynamic theories of religion

live on in the contemporary study of religious

and spiritual development in adolescence in

spirit if not specific content. One is the focus

on the relational elements of religious faith.

The notion of religious or spiritual develop-

ment as involving the development of a rela-

tionship with that which is perceived as the

Transcendent (i.e., God) or that of transcen-

dental value is present in many definitions of

religion today (e.g., Pargament, 2007 ). Indeed,

in a sense, William James ’ s ( 1902 ) view of reli-

gion was relational in that he defined personal

religion as “ the feelings, acts, and experiences

of individual men in their solitude, as far as

they apprehend themselves to stand in rela-

tion to whatever they may consider the divine ”

(p. 32). In sum, one way of understanding RSD

is in terms of the elaboration and internaliza-

tion of specific God images, with specific

affective tones, across time that serve noncon-

scious relational functions, such as anxiety

reduction. The research on such conjectures

suffers from methodological weaknesses how-

ever, such as the relative lack of ability of

researchers to accurately measure unconscious

“ God images ” (Piedmont, 2005 ).

Religion as a Meaning/Coping System

Another related way that scholars have concep-

tualized RSD is in terms of the development of

an attributional meaning system that addresses

certain kinds of life events, experiences, and

existence writ large. Meaning systems can be

defined as “ personal beliefs or theories [indi-

viduals] have about themselves, about others,

about the world of situations they encounter,

and their relations to it. These beliefs or theo-

ries form idiosyncratic meaning systems that

allow individuals to give meaning to the world

around them and to their experiences, as well

as to set goals, plan activities, and order their

behavior ” (Silberman, 2005 , p. 644.). Religions

provide individuals with meaning - enhancing

capabilities in the face of unexplainable events

by providing individuals with a ready set of

religious attributions for such purposes —

God ’ s grace, karma, sin, salvation, and so on.

Evidence suggests that religious attributions

for events are more likely in circumstances in

which naturalistic attributions (e.g., to people,

physical events, chance, etc.) prove unsatis-

factory (Spilka, Shaver, & Kirkpatrick, 1997 ).

Such events usually involve “ boundary condi-

tions ” in life such as inexplicable suffering,

moral transgressions, and death. According

to psychologists of religion, the motivational

impetus for religious attributional processes

in the face of such unexplained events and the

consequent meaning systems that evolve from

them includes the need to establish meaning,

personal control, and a sense of well - being

(Spilka et al., 2003 ). Over developmental time,

attributional processes are both contributory

to and a function of religious beliefs systems.

Such systems develop across the life span,

beginning with intuitive or folk belief systems

and changing toward more abstract belief sys-

tems during adolescence (e.g., Bloom, 2005 ;

Park, 2005 ).

Bering ( 2003 ) hypothesized that there exists

a unique attributional meaning system he called

the “ existential domain ” whose function is to

ascertain the meaning of events that happen to

oneself. As such, Bering described this domain

as an abstract ontological domain within

which the subjective narrative self is said to be

contained and whose function is said to be to

make meaning of, in order of developmental

complexity and abstractness, one ’ s life events,

one ’ s experience, and one ’ s existence in total-

ity. This domain is hypothesized to be inde-

pendent of both the physical domain, and its

function in explaining the movements and

dynamics of inanimate objects, and the social

domain and its function in the comprehen-

sion of intentional agents and other minds. It

is also hypothesized to be independent of the

biological domain and its function in explain-

ing animate objects and their dynamics of

growth and decay. Nonetheless, the domain

often involves elements of these other mean-

ing making systems. The triggers for meaning

c13.indd 443c13.indd 443 2/17/09 10:44:59 AM2/17/09 10:44:59 AM

444 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

making through the existential rather than the

physical, social, and biological domains of

mental life, according to Bering, are events

whose causes are not easily interpretable

through these other domains and whose causes

therefore demand some form of alternative

interpretation. For instance, individuals who

have a close encounter with death and can

find no logical explanation for their good for-

tune may invoke attributions about invisible

forces (karma) and intentional agents (God) as

a means of establishing existential meaning.

Furthermore, Bering sees this system as tied to

a more general intentional system that has been

documented to tend toward the attribution of

teleological purpose to an abstract agency (i.e.,

God) that is envisioned to be responsible for

events personal and otherwise (e.g, Bloom,

2005 ). Such a system, if proven to exist, would

have significant implications for religious and

spiritual development during adolescence,

insofar as identity development and questions

about purpose and existence become focal dur-

ing these years (Damon, 2008 ).

Smith and Denton ( 2005 ) described the

prevailing religious meaning system among

adolescents in the United States today — the vast

majority of whom self - identify as Christian — in

terms of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).

They suggested that MTD among adolescents

in the United States is “ diesm ” because it is

centered on a diety — an ultimate being called

“ God ” (or, less so in America, “ Allah ” and

“ Yahweh ” ) who created the universe, orders

it with divine moral laws, and then watches

over human life on earth. Given the central

role of God in such a worldview, questions

about “ What, in the end, does God want for

us and want for us to do? ” and “ What is the

way to God and happiness? ” arise. The MTD

worldview is “ moralistic ” in that it teaches that

living a good and happy life on earth requires

that one be a good and moral person.

Adolescents in the United States believe that

God wants them to be happy, and that the way

to happiness is by being morally good and

obeying the moral laws laid down in religious

scriptures. Being morally good not only leads

to happiness, but in general, youth believe that

“ good people go to Heaven when they die ”

(Smith & Denton, p. 163). Third, the MTD

worldview is “ therapeutic ” in that it frames

God as an ultimate and benevolent being who

assists us in feeling good and happy about

ourselves and our lives through grace and the

scriptures. Finally, Smith and Denton suggested

that the “ God ” of MTD is “ not one who is par-

ticularly personally involved in one ’ s affairs —

especially affairs in which one would prefer not

to have God involved ” (p. 164). This “ distant

God, ” they suggest, is selectively available for

taking care of needs, coping with stress, and

providing meaning to otherwise unexplainable

personal experiences and events.

Another area of study that builds on this

religion as a meaning system perspective is what

Pargament ( 2007 ) refers to “ religious coping. ”

Religious coping is defined as “ a search for

significance in times of stress in ways related

to the sacred. ” This definition means that some

individuals will use religious and spiritual

knowledge and imagery in their search for

the causes of and ways of responding to life

stress. For instance, some individuals interpret

the causes of certain life stressors in terms of

“ sanctification ” — a challenging experience

that is “ God given ” in some sense. Other

people use religious responses as a means of

addressing life stress — for instance, not only

attributing life stressors as “ God given ” but

reframing them in a positive light such that

they are spiritual tests or learning experiences

associated with suffering.

Despite the burgeoning literature on reli-

gious coping among adults (Pargament, 2007 ),

research on religious coping among adoles-

cents is not very well developed at this time

(Mahoney, Pendleton, & Ihrke, 2006 ). In one

of the few studies done on religious coping

with youth to date, Dubow, Pargament, Boxer,

and Tarakeshwar ( 2000 ) found that Jewish

adolescents used three different kinds of reli-

gious coping strategies in the face of stressors:

asking God for help in times of need, seeking

c13.indd 444c13.indd 444 2/17/09 10:44:59 AM2/17/09 10:44:59 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 445

support from Jewish culture and social rela-

tionships, and seeing one ’ s difficulties in a

spiritual light.

Religion as a meaning system can also

serve as a buffer against the effects of racial

and ethnic discrimination on minority and

immigrant youth (Eck, 2007 ). For example,

the use of Afrocentric coping strategies involv-

ing spirituality has been an important coping

resource for the African American community

for much of its history (McCrae, Thompson, &

Cooper, 1999 ). In a sample of 106 African

American high school – aged adolescents,

Constantine, Donnell, and Myers ( 2002 ) found

that the use of religious coping strategies was

greatest among those with a secure sense of

their African American identity. In a different

sample of 50 African American high school –

aged adolescents, Brega and Coleman ( 1999 )

found that those who were more religious were

less likely to internalize stigmatizing messages

in the wider society about African Americans.

In sum, a second way of understanding

RSD is in terms of the elaboration and inter-

nalization of a specific meaning system and

worldview that provides answers to the exis-

tential questions of life that defy naturalistic

explanations. In turn, questions take on emer-

gent significance during the adolescent years

as young begin to conceptualize the world

in increasingly abstract ways and encounter

increasingly adult - like life experiences, such

as unjust treatment at the hands of others.

Religion as Cognitive/Conceptual

Development

Another notion of RSD is one that sees religion

as involving a distinct representational domain

with its own focal psychological content, func-

tions, and stage structures (see Oser et al.,

2006 , for a review of such approaches). In con-

trast to psychoanalytic and objects relations

theories that focused on religion in relation

to basic motives of the personality and the qual-

ity of caregiver relationships, stage - structure

theories drew upon notions of constructivism

and Piaget ’ s theory of cognitive development.

These theories focus on age - related changes in

the kinds of mental representations that young

people could construct around religious topics

and issues, as well as their functional impli-

cations for the motivation and regulation of

behavior across development. Focal content

includes elements such as the development of

conceptions of prayer and God concepts over

time (e.g., Spilka et al., 2003 ). Stage - structure

theories have shown that, from childhood to

adolescence, religious concepts generally fol-

lowed the Piagetian stages of representational

development from more concrete and single

domain to more abstract and multidimensional

representations (see Oser et al. for details).

Faith Development Theory

One of the most comprehensive and enduring

stage - structure theories of religious develop-

ment was offered by James Fowler (1981).

Fowler ’ s Faith Development Theory is rooted

in genetic structuralism and describes devel-

opment that leads from the particular to the

universal and from heteronomy to autonomy.

Fowler ’ s theoretical approach establishes sig-

nificant age trends and the stages, drawing

heavily from Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg.

Faith Development Theory offers a framework

for understanding the ontogeny of how people

conceptualize God, or a Higher Being, and

how the influence of the divine has an impact

on core values, beliefs, and meanings in their

personal lives and in their relationships with

others. Erikson ’ s stage theory greatly contrib-

uted to the development of Faith Development

Theory (1981; also see Fowler & Dell, 2006 ).

Thus, Fowler (1981) contends that faith has

broadly recognizable patterns of development.

He describes this unfolding pattern in terms of

developing emotional, cognitive, and moral

interpretations and responses (for a discussion

of all six stages of his theory see Fowler or

Fowler & Dell).

Fowler ( 1981 ) described the substance of

religious faith as an individual ’ s personal way

of responding to that of “ transcendent value

and power as perceived and grasped through

c13.indd 445c13.indd 445 2/17/09 10:45:00 AM2/17/09 10:45:00 AM

446 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

the forms of the cumulative tradition ” (Fowler,

p. 9). Fowler describes faith as an “ orientation

of the total person ” involving an “ alignment of

the will ” and “ a resting of the heart ” in accor-

dance with “ a vision of transcendent value and

power, one ’ s ultimate concern ” (p. 14). Faith,

as such, is “ the human quest for relation to

transcendence ” (p. 14) and to “ that which

is universal ” (p. 15). Functionally, Fowler

hypothesized that religious faith serves “ to

give purpose and goal to one ’ s hopes and striv-

ings, thoughts and actions ” (p. 14). Although

Fowler ’ s theory has been criticized for its

strong cognitive basis and for its suggestion

that children are limited to less mature forms

of faith (e.g., Balswick, King, & Reimer,

2005 ), it put the study of religion, spirituality,

and faith on a serious developmental footing.

Specifically during adolescence, Fowler

attributes developments in cognitive func-

tioning as the basis for faith development.

Based on Piaget ’ s conception of early formal

operational thinking, Fowler suggests in this

synthetic - conventional stage, that adolescents

are capable of abstract thinking and begin to

reflect upon their own thinking and their sto-

ries and to name and synthesize their under-

standings into higher order, abstract concepts,

and conceptual systems. In addition, Fowler

also credits the emergence of mutual interper-

sonal perspective taking (e.g., Selman, 1980 )

as an important influence on faith development

at this stage. He suggests that a young person ’ s

capacity to be aware of what other people think

of them can make youth very sensitive to the

evaluations they have of others and the evalu-

ations others might have of them. In addition,

because some adolescents may lack “ third per-

son ” perspective taking, they are over dependent

on the responses and evaluations of others.

Because of these cognitive developments,

identity development becomes a more self -

reflective process. Fowler contends that at this

stage youth construct transcendent understand-

ings in terms of the personal and the relational.

God representations often have personal quali-

ties such as love, understanding, loyalty, and

support. During this stage, young people com-

mit to beliefs, values, and aspects of identity

that link them to significant others in their

lives. Within this synthetic - conventional stage,

normative to adolescence, dependence on oth-

ers for confirmation and clarity about one ’ s

sense of self and meaning can trap the adoles-

cent in the “ tyranny of the they. ” At this stage,

ideology is lived and asserted, and only in later

stages it is critically reflected on.

Cognitive – Cultural Foundations

A cognitive science approach to religion has

arisen that in some ways challenges and also

extends constructivist notions such as Faith

Development Theory with respect to religious

and spiritual development (Bloom, 2007 ). In

contrast to Piaget ’ s conception that children

are confused about religious/spiritual things

until they have acquired the ability to think

abstractly and differentiate reality from fan-

tasy, current cognitive – developmental research

points to young people ’ s seemingly inherent

intuitive capacities to differentiate objects into

those of natural and supernatural kinds (Bloom,

2005 ). The conjecture underlying the develop-

ment of such an intuitive capacity is that it

evolved from cognitive features designed for

other evolutionary tasks. These features, when

combined together, give rise to new and unex-

pected things—in this case, beliefs in souls,

Gods, and supernatural phenomena more

generally (Bloom, 2007 ). Mithen ( 1996 ), for

instance, traces the emergence of spirituality

to cognitive flexibility — the connection of pre-

viously separate domains of intelligence.

Alternatively, according to Bloom ( 2007 ),

the existence of different intuitive cognitive

mechanisms for understanding physical reality

and social reality present at or near birth give

rise to a fundamental dualistic outlook in human

functioning and to the universal themes of reli-

gion as well. These mechanisms evolved sepa-

rately and allow humans to distinguish between

a world of material things, on the one hand, and

the world of immaterial things like goals, desires

and agency, on the other. Johnson and Boyatzis

c13.indd 446c13.indd 446 2/17/09 10:45:00 AM2/17/09 10:45:00 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 447

( 2006 ) note the human attraction to representa-

tions of agents that combine the ordinary with

the extraordinary, as in the case of God. In sup-

port of these ideas, studies show that very young

children all over the world, often despite their

parents ’ own beliefs, seem to generate con-

cepts of God (Barrett & Keil, 1996 ; Barrett &

Richert, 2003 ). Young people (and adults) often

view God in concrete, anthropomorphic terms.

Nevertheless, they also see God as special and

someone who is not limited by the laws of

nature. The coapplication of these mechanisms

to ourselves and other humans, according to this

view, causes us to believe our bodies, as mate-

rial things, are different in kind from our minds

or our souls, as immaterial things.

According to Bloom ( 2007 ), the intersec-

tion of these mechanisms gives rise to the

ideas of bodies without souls, souls without

bodies, and the possibility of “ life after death. ”

Contrary to the popular belief that children

cannot fully grasp the concept of death, recent

research (Bering & Bjorklund, 2004 ; Boyer,

2001 ) points to afterlife beliefs held even by

youngsters. Young people can appreciate the

cessation of physical functioning. However,

they simultaneously struggle with death ’ s

elimination of mental functioning, due to the

application of different information processing

modules to understand the body and the mind.

In addition, the application of our social

information processing module to non - social

events causes human beings to be hypersen-

sitive to signs of agency in the natural world

and to over impute intentionality to complex

phenomena like the weather or the design

of nature. The consequence of this cognitive

functioning is to read agency into events in the

form of Gods and other supernatural beings

that are intuited to control events and personal

experiences. Studies by Evans ( 2000 , 2001 ),

for instance, reveal that 7 - to 9 - year - old chil-

dren typically hold creationist views whether

or not they grow up in secular or fundamen-

talist Christian homes. Children, that is, tend

to explain the origin of things in teleological,

creationist ways.

A key point in both classic Piagetian and

new cognitive science accounts of RSD dur-

ing adolescence is that with the development

of abstract symbolic representation and meta-

cognition during these years, intuitive reli-

gious beliefs from earlier life and the insights

that they have provided children about nature,

human nature and God can be challenged by

new inquiries and doubts and by new sources

of information from school, the media, peers,

and so on. Elkind ( 1997 ), for instance, posited

adolescence to be a period in which cognitive

development heralds a new “ search for com-

prehension. ” With respect to religion, Elkind

saw adolescents ’ emergent desire for com-

prehension as leading to two possibilities — a

deepening commitment to faith and its ability

to render life comprehensible; or a reflective

inquiry into and perhaps a repudiation of the

articles of faith that were assimilated earlier.

Given the widespread belief in souls, angels,

afterlives and so on among many adults in the

United States and the world, it seems these

early mechanisms are more often then not co -

opted into the shape of traditional religious

beliefs and doctrines than questioned in any

serious manner that leads to a new kind of

inner spiritual life for individuals (see Bloom,

2005 , for discussion). Nonetheless, it is clear

that adolescence represents a time of spiri-

tual questioning, doubting, and questing (see

Hunsberger, Pratt, & Pancer, 2002 ).

In sum, a third way of understanding RSD is

in terms of the elaboration or repudiation of intu-

itive religious concepts concerning faith, God,

the supernatural, creation, and so on, in terms

of the new information - processing capacities

that normatively emerge during adolescence.

Religion as Identity System

A fourth and related way that scholars have

defined RSD in adolescence is in terms a

domain or set of domains of identity devel-

opment (Allport, 1950 ; Roeser et al., 2008 a;

Templeton & Eccles, 2008 ). Such conceptual-

izations often are founded on the notion that

c13.indd 447c13.indd 447 2/17/09 10:45:01 AM2/17/09 10:45:01 AM

448 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

religion, like any other salient domain of social

experience, constitutes an important source of

individual differences in the kinds of social –

cognitive – affective self - schemas or representa-

tions that are elaborated across development as

a function of experience (e.g., Epstein, 1990 ;

Harter, 2006 ).

One early scholar who conceptualized

religion as part of one ’ s broader psychoso-

cial development was Erik Erikson ( 1968 ). In

contrast to early psychoanalytic perspectives,

Erikson was interested in the objective rela-

tionships between the person (ego) and their

social and cultural environments (ethos), and

the implications of these person – context rela-

tions for psychosocial identity development.

In his epigenetic theory of psychosocial

development, Erikson ( 1950 ) gave consider-

able attention to the role of religion and spiri-

tuality in development. According to Erikson,

identity development during adolescence

involved a more or less conscious recycling

through and reworking of prior developmen-

tal task resolutions from infancy, toddlerhood,

and childhood. Erikson proposed that earlier

task resolutions associated with security and

belonging (e.g., trust versus mistrust), self

and will (e.g., autonomy and initiative versus

shame, doubt, and guilt), and personal and

social competence (e.g., industry versus infe-

riority) were reworked during adolescence in

the process of identity exploration and com-

mitment and in the context of (emerging) adult

roles, relationships, institutions, and ideologi-

cal systems. Specifically, earlier task resolu-

tions around trust were said to be renegotiated

during adolescence in terms of the kinds of

people, role models, cultural ideals, and social

institutions in which the growing young per-

son could (or could not) have faith ; earlier task

resolutions around issues of autonomy and ini-

tiative were renegotiated in terms of the self -

images, purposes, and corresponding activities

and ideologies to which youth could (or could

not) freely choose to commit; and previous

task resolutions around issues of industry

were renegotiated in terms of desired social,

occupational roles in which youth could (or

could not) expect to excel. Depending on the

relative fit or mismatch of the social contexts

of adolescents development with respect to

accomplishing the general stage - salient task

of identity development, and the specific

stage - salient task involving a renegotiation of

issues of trust and faith as a key facet of iden-

tity development, Erikson posited subsequent

paths of positive and problematic development,

respectively, in terms of well - being, achieve-

ment, and social integration and participation.

Erikson suggested that the successful res-

olution of the first stage of development in

infancy (trust versus mistrust) shaped the life

virtue of hope, which “ is the enduring belief

in the attainability of fervent wishes ” (1964,

p. 118). Hopefulness is linked to beliefs about

whether the social, natural, and supernatural

worlds are trustworthy or not. Fowler ( 1981 )

described the substance of religious faith

as an individual ’ s personal way of respond-

ing to “ transcendent value and power as per-

ceived and grasped through the forms of the

cumulative tradition ” (Fowler, p. 9). Fowler

describes faith as an “ orientation of the total

person ” involving an “ alignment of the will ”

and “ a resting of the heart ” in accordance

with “ a vision of transcendent value and

power, one ’ s ultimate concern ” (p. 14). Faith,

as such, is “ the human quest for relation to

transcendence ” (p. 14) and to “ that which

is universal ” (p. 15). Functionally, Fowler

hypothesized that religious faith serves “ to give

purpose and goal to one ’ s hopes and strivings,

thoughts and actions ” (p. 14). Thus, for both

Erikson and Fowler, religion was conceptual-

ized as an institution that confirms and supports

individuals ’ hopes throughout the life span.

Religion not only provides a transcendent

worldview, moral beliefs, and behavioral

norms, but religious traditions also embody

these ideological norms in a community of

believers who can act as role models for youth

(Erikson, 1968 ). For many youth, it is clear that

religion and spirituality represent important

sources of hope, ideals, worldviews and role

c13.indd 448c13.indd 448 2/17/09 10:45:01 AM2/17/09 10:45:01 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 449

models that influence the course of identity

development during adolescence (King, 2003 ,

2008 ; Roeser, Issac, Abo - Zena, Brittian, &

Peck, 2008; Smith & Denton, 2005 ). One of

the shortcomings of Erikson ’ s work, however,

was the lack of a clear empirical basis for his

views on identity and the general lack of a

more domain - specific approach to identity -

related phenomena (e.g., gender identity, reli-

gious identity, etc.). Neo - Piagetian views of

identity have been more helpful in this regard

(e.g., Harter, 2006 ) and have recently been

applied to the question of how to differentiate

between religious and spiritual development.

Roeser et al. ( 2008 a) recently proposed a

new conceptualization in which they posited

that religious identities as primarily cultural

and collective in nature (see also Templeton

& Eccles, 2006), and spiritual identities as

primarily transcultural and contemplative in

nature (see also Ho & Ho, 2007 ). From this

perspective, the core of a religious identity

is a personal identification of oneself with a

social collective (group) characterized by a

particular cultural – historical – religious tradi-

tion (Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin - Volpe,

2004 ; Templeton & Eccles). Individuals who

claim membership in a particular religious

tradition share in common with other group

members collective sacred worldviews and

their associated “ beliefs, practices, rituals,

and symbols designed (1) to facilitate close-

ness to the sacred or transcendent (God, higher

power, or ultimate truth/reality) and (2) to fos-

ter an understanding of one ’ s relationship and

responsibility to others in living together in a

community ” (Koenig et al., 2001 , p. 18). Self -

identification with a particular religious group;

the meaning of that identification to the person

in terms of his or her representations of self,

world, life purpose, and the (prescribed) good

life; the centrality of the identification to a

person ’ s overall sense of identity; and shared

religious practices and the nature and number

of social bonds with group members are all key

substantive aspects of a collective religious iden-

tity . Functionally, collective religious identities

fulfill individuals ’ basic needs for meaning

and purpose, social belonging, esteem, self -

understanding, transcendence, and contribu-

tion to something greater than the self through

organized cultural forms (cf. Fowler, 1981 ).

In contrast to a religious identity, Roeser

et al. ( 2008 a) posited that the core of a spiri-

tual identity is a personal identification of

oneself with that which is pan - human and

transcultural, in terms of shared humanity

and universal values, ethics, and wisdom con-

cerning life ’ s ultimate existential questions

that are relevant to all human beings (Ho &

Ho, 2007 ). These ultimate concerns focus on

the nature of life and death, on how to lead a

good and satisfying life, and on the nature of

human identity and our relationality with all

that is “ not self ” (or not only “ my in - groups ”

which is “ ego - self ” extended socially; Roeser

et al.). The spiritual domain of identity devel-

opment can evolve from, co - evolve with, or

evolve independent of the religious domain

of identity development. That is, individuals

can self - identify as spiritual, religious, both, or

neither. The function of a spiritual identity is

to foster an embodied realization of identifica-

tion with that greater whole of being, whether

conceived of in terms of an ultimate being, an

ultimate state of being, or an ultimate reality

that represents the (hypothesized) unity behind

the apparent diversity of being (e.g., Piedmont,

1999 ). This functional definition is consistent

with the view of James ( 1902 ), who noted

that the function of personal religion was to

motivate individuals to realize a more satisfy-

ing existence. “ Not God, but life, more life, a

larger richer, more satisfying life, is, in the last

analysis, the end of religion. The love of life,

at any and every level of development, is the

religious impulse ” (p. 453). For James the core

of religion/spirituality at the individual level

is fundamentally about being whole, being

wholly human, and being part of the whole

that is existence.

The conceptualization of religion and spiri-

tuality in identity - related terms is consistent

with other contemporary scholarly movements

c13.indd 449c13.indd 449 2/17/09 10:45:02 AM2/17/09 10:45:02 AM

450 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

aimed at defining religion at the individual

level of analysis in terms of idiosyncratic

meaning systems (e.g., Silberman, 2005 ). By

operationalizing religion and spirituality at the

individual level of analysis in terms of cogni-

tive - affective belief systems concerning the

self and the world (e.g., Epstein, 1990 ) that

function to afford meaning and to motivate and

regulate behavior, scholars have successfully

been able to relate such religious meaning

systems to issues of engagement in religious

practices (e.g., Roeser, Rao, Shah, Hastak,

Gonsalves, & Berry, 2006 ); contribution to

others (e.g., Roeser et al., 2008 b), prejudice

(e.g., Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005 ), terrorism

(Silberman, Higgins, & Dweck, 2005 ), coping

(Park, 2005 ), parenting and discipline prac-

tices (Mahoney, 2005 ), and so on. Thus, fram-

ing religion and spirituality in terms of identity

and meaning systems regarding self and world

is one scientifically useful way to study both the

common and divergent functions and correlates

of these two facets of human development.

RSD as Evolution of Awareness

Another way RSD has been discussed is in rela-

tion to spiritual experiences and corresponding

phenomenological states of awareness — those

that transcend the limits of normal, everyday,

waking, ego - consciousness (King, 2003 , 2008 ;

Roeser, 2005 , 2008 a). Ego - consciousness

is, by definition, centered in the ego (on

“ Me ” ). According to the contemplative tra-

ditions of the world (Wilbur, 2006 ), the state

of ego - consciousness is said to be permeated

with a sense of uniqueness, separation, lack,

fear, desire, and division. States of aware-

ness that transcend ego - consciousness are

often labeled “ religious, ” “ spiritual, ” “ mysti-

cal, ” or “ non - ordinary ” (Hood, 2003 ) because

they transcend this limited state and bring one

temporarily into communion with “ something

more. ” Such states are often accompanied by

particularly powerful emotions such as awe,

wonder, elevation, and love that signal experi-

ences beyond the limits of self that often have

transformative value (Haidt, 2003 ).

Boyatzis ( 2005 ) has pointed out the com-

monness of spiritual experiences of children

and the lack of their study in the development

of beliefs and faith. The same situation holds

for adolescents who, as a function of devel-

opmental changes in brain, mind, and social

worlds may be even more likely to have such

experiences that inform their religious and spir-

itual development (Good & Willoughby, 2008 ).

Conceptions of spirituality as “ transcen-

dence ” often rest upon this notion of spiritu-

ality as “ states of consciousness ” that may,

through practice, become “ traits of conscious-

ness. ” The capacity to turn transient states

of ego - transcendence into enduring traits of

awareness in which a stable and clear state is

continually realized is a core goal of spiritual

development from a contemplative perspective

(Wilbur, 2006 ). This perspective is associated

with wisdom (Roeser, 2005 ).

Developmental Systems Theories

Stage - structural theories, once so prominent

in developmental science, have been subject

to greater levels of criticism with regard to

human development in general (Kagan, 1996 )

and RSD in particular (Spilka et al., 2003 ).

Developmental scholars have been moving

away from attempts to identify universal and

invariant stages of development and toward

an understanding of developmental path-

ways, lines of development, and the role of

culture and context in the process of develop-

ment. Developmental Systems Theory (DST)

shifts the focus from individuals to transac-

tions between individuals and their various

embedded sociocultural contexts of develop-

ment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979 ; Lerner, 2006;

Sameroff, 1983 ). In the rest of the chapter, we

use DST as a key theoretical frame to discuss

the contexts and processes involved in RSD

during adolescence.

Central to DST are the roles of plasticity,

context, and developmental regulation (Lerner,

2006). Plasticity refers to the potential for

individuals to change systematically in both

positive and negative ways throughout his or

c13.indd 450c13.indd 450 2/17/09 10:45:02 AM2/17/09 10:45:02 AM

Concepts and Theories of Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence 451

her life. Such plasticity is important in that it

legitimates the optimistic search for character-

istics of people and their contexts that promote

positive development generally and RSD dur-

ing adolescence in particular. Although people

have the capacity to develop along a vast array

of possible trajectories, the number of actual

developmental trajectories is constrained by

both individual and contextual factors.

Also foundational to DST is the significance

of context and person - by - context transactions.

From a developmental systems perspective,

spiritual development is also located not in the

person but in the ongoing transactions between

the person and her or his multiple embedded

sociocultural contexts of development (Lerner

et al., 2008). It is the goodness of fit between

person and environment that is of primary

concern in determining different developmen-

tal trajectories. In particular, optimal devel-

opment occurs when the mutual influences

between person and environment maintain or

advance the well - being of the individual and

context. This bidirectional relation is referred

to as adaptive developmental regulation . From

a DST perspective, RSD is best characterized

by the transactions between individuals and

their various embedded contexts over time,

as well as the fit of the developmental affor-

dances of those contexts with the salient devel-

opmental needs of adolescents (e.g., Eccles,

Lord, & Roeser, 1996 ). If the transactions of

the young person and their context leads to

adaptive developmental regulation, Lerner

et al. (2008) posit that youth will gain a grow-

ing sense of transcendence — a sense of connec-

tion to something beyond themselves as well as

a growing sense of self or identity. This experi-

ence of transcendence is hypothesized to moti-

vate a growing commitment to contributing to

the well being of the world beyond themselves.

Positive Youth Development and

Spirituality

A developmental systems approach has been

useful in studying positive youth develop-

ment. Based on the notion that the central

task of adolescence is identity development

(Erikson, 1968 ), researchers have used a DST

perspective to hypothesize that youth whose

interactions with their contexts are adaptive —

mutually beneficial to the young person and

society — are more likely to commit to a sense

of identity that promotes reciprocity with

their family, community, and society (Lerner,

Alberts, Anderson, & Dowling, 2006 ). This

idea was originally Erikson ’ s ( 1968 ), in that

he hypothesized that youth who success-

fully resolve the identity crisis gain a sense of

fidelity — a sense of loyalty to an ideology that

engages the young person in the world beyond

themselves (Furrow, King, & White, 2004 ;

King & Furrow, 2004 ; Youniss, McLellan, &

Yates, 1999 ). Such an understanding of spiri-

tuality is more than a feeling of transcendence,

but a motivational force that propels individu-

als to care for self and others and contribute

to something greater than themselves. As such,

spirituality nurtures a sense of thriving (see

Lerner et al., 2006; King & Benson, 2006 ) in

young people by providing the awareness of

responsibility and the passion to initiate and

sustain commitment to agency.

This perspective is an important lens for

spirituality, but it is also important to note that

adolescents are often co - opted into and become

faithful to things that are actually destructive to

others beyond the in group as in the case of child

soldiers or Hitler ’ s youth movement during

World War II (Erikson, 1950 ). Thus, it is impor-

tant to note that a developmental systems theory

provides a helpful framework for thinking about

negative spiritual development as well. Just as

a youth may interact with their family, peers,

and society in such a way that brings about a

moral spiritual sensitivity, transactions between

individuals and their contexts may bring about

deleterious forms of spirituality. For example,

families may interpret and enact religious ide-

ologies to create cultures of abuse (i.e. “ Spare

the rod, spoil the child) or cultivate generosity

and a spirit of gratitude and contribution.

History is full of examples where youth

have been socialized with an immoral and

c13.indd 451c13.indd 451 2/17/09 10:45:03 AM2/17/09 10:45:03 AM

452 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

destructive spiritual sensitivity, and such issues

are discussed more at the end of the chapter.

In the next section, we review evidence about

the core tenet of a DST perspective on RSD

during adolescence — that the nature of social

contexts really matter for RSD.

THE ECOLOGY OF ADOLESCENT

RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL

DEVELOPMENT

From a developmental systems perspective,

religious and spiritual development, similar

to other domains of development, are embed-

ded within networks of social relationships in

proximal and more distal social settings across

the life span. Nonetheless, as Regnerus, Smith,

& Smith ( 2004 ) note in their review article on

the state of this research:

Social scientists know more about which

American teenagers are religiously active than

how they got to be that way. We know less

about the social environment in which religious

development occurs, apart from the parent – child

relationship . . . scholars have often appeared

less concerned about the role of ecology and

social relationships than about personality, emo-

tions, and stages in the religious development of

the individual. (p. 27)

In this section, we review existing evidence

on how relationships with parents, peers, and

mentors, and experiences in families and

schools can shape religious and spiritual devel-

opment during adolescence. We then offer a

macrosystemic analysis of religion and spiri-

tuality as cultural phenomena and consider

the role of ethnicity and culture in RSD. We

discuss the role of religious institutions in ado-

lescents ’ RSD in a later section.

Family Influences

Parents play an important role in the religious

and spiritual development of adolescents (e.g.,

Boyatzis, 2005 ; Spilka et al., 2003 ). Similar to

research in other areas of socialization, parents

are posited to be key interpreters of religion

for young people, and parental beliefs and

practices are thought to provide the foundation

for young people ’ s development of their own

religious beliefs and practices (Ozorak, 1989 ),

both directly through explicit socialization prac-

tices, and indirectly through the influence of

religion on parenting behaviors (Spilka et al.).

Dollahite and Marks ( 2005 ) found that fami-

lies foster religious and spiritual development

in children through processes such as formal

teaching, parent – child discussion, role mod-

eling, and coparticipation in prayer and other

rituals.

The quality of the parent – adolescent rela-

tionship is key to the religious socialization

process. Studies in the United States and

Scotland have shown that family cohesiveness

is related to stability of religious participa-

tion of sons and daughters over time (Ozorak,

1989 ). Parent – child relationships character-

ized by frequent interaction and a high degree

of trust have been linked to greater religious

socialization (King & Furrow, 2004 ), and warm

close relationships are also linked to greater

correspondence of offspring ’ s religious beliefs

with those of their parents (Hoge, Petrillo &

Smith, 1982 ). Bao, Whitbeck, Hoyt, & Conger

( 1999 ) found that parental acceptance (trust,

care, absence of fault finding) was important

for the socialization of religious beliefs and

practices from parents to children with greater

acceptance leading to greater influence. Other

studies indicate that greater parent – child close-

ness leads to less religious rebellion over time

(Wilson & Sherkat, 1994 ). This literature sug-

gests that warm, supportive relationships with

religious parents is a means of enhancing the

RSD of adolescents.

There is some indication that mothers may

be more important in the religious socialization

of adolescents than fathers (Boyatzis, Dollahite

& Marks, 2006 ; Erickson, 1992 ; Hertel &

Donahue, 1995 ), although the research in

this area is somewhat equivocal (Mahoney &

Tarakestwar, 2005 ; Spilka et al., 2003 ). The

apparent greater impact of mothers, makes

sense, given that women traditionally have

c13.indd 452c13.indd 452 2/17/09 10:45:03 AM2/17/09 10:45:03 AM

The Ecology of Adolescent Religious and Spiritual Development 453

been called upon to organize the religious edu-

cation of children in the home (Slonim, 1991 ).

However, mothers who experience depression

are less able to carry out this role in the inter-

generational transmission of religion (Gur,

Miller, Warner, Wickramaratne, & Weissman,

2005 ).

Other studies have looked at parental reli-

gious socialization and have found that daugh-

ters are more influenced by their parents than

are sons. For instance, in a study of highly

religious parents, results showed that paren-

tal efforts to control their adolescent sons

with respect to problem behavior involve-

ment can backfire, whereas such strategies

are more effective with daughters (Mahoney

& Tarakeshwar, 2005 ). On the other hand,

Bao et al. ( 1999 ) found that parents who were

perceived as accepting had equal influence

on both sons and daughters in the religious

domain. These findings suggest that control-

ling parenting practices, in conjunction with

religious teachings, may be particularly prob-

lematic with adolescent sons, whereas sup-

port for autonomy and warmth can facilitate

religious socialization in sons and daughters

equally well during adolescence.

Another way parents can socialize adoles-

cents in the religious domain has to do with

engagement in family rituals around religion.

For instance, results of the NSYR showed

that 54% of U.S. families engaging in “ giv-

ing thanks before or after meals, ” and 44%

of youths said they talked with their families

about God, the scriptures, prayer, or religious

and spiritual matters one or more days a week.

Family prayer is very common in conserva-

tive Protestant, African American Protestant,

and Mormon families and likely is one major

way that parents socialize religious practices

in their offspring (e.g., Ozorak, 1989 ). In a

national Seven - Day Adventist population,

Lee, Rice, and Gillespie ( 1997 ) found that

family worship patterns that involved a high

degree of adolescent participation was posi-

tively linked with active adolescent faith scores.

Erickson ( 1992 ) found that parental religious

participation with adolescents was more effi-

cacious than mere parental religiousness.

Similarly, another study on Protestant youth

found that talking with parents about religious

issues and participating in religious activities

together predicted an adolescent ’ s experience

of God and their report of the importance of

religion (King, Furrow, & Roth, 2002 ).

Although many studies have documented

the importance of parents, some longitudinal

findings have failed to support the importance

of family life in long - term patterns of religi-

osity in children. For instance, O ’ Connor,

Hoge, and Alexander ( 2002 ) found no rela-

tion between various indicators of religious

socialization taken when adolescents were 16

years of age and their religious participation

at age 38. The relative dearth of longitudinal

studies on this topic make inferences about the

long - term effects of parenting on the religion

of offspring, especially given the consider-

able fluctuation of religious affiliations noted

earlier (e.g., Pew Forum, 2007), unclear at this

time. In addition, other sources of influence in

the family, including siblings, aunts and uncles,

and grandparents are important to consider in

the religious development of youth (Boyatzis

et al., 2006 ). Despite the importance of family

in RSD, adolescence is clearly a time when reli-

gious and spiritual doubts increase (Levenson,

Aldwin, & D ’ Mello, 2005 ). Factors other than

the family, such as peers and mentors, are likely

important in this developmental trend.

Peer Influences

The research on the effects of peers on adoles-

cent religiosity is still in a nascent stage and

results are not yet conclusive. Several find-

ings are worth mentioning at this point. First,

according to NSYR results (Smith & Denton,

2005 ), American youth generally report hav-

ing peers that share their religious beliefs.

When youths are asked to report on charac-

teristics of their five closest friends, between

two to three of these friends, on average, are

said to “ hold similar religious beliefs ” to the

target adolescent; in turn about one of these

c13.indd 453c13.indd 453 2/17/09 10:45:04 AM2/17/09 10:45:04 AM

454 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

friends, on average is said to “ be involved

in the same religious group. ” Conservative,

African American Protestant, and Mormon

teens were more likely to have friends in their

same religious group (Smith & Denton, 2005 ).

King and Furrow ( 2004 ) found that compared

to their less religious peers, religious youth

reported higher levels of positive social inter-

action, shared values, and trust with their clos-

est friends.

These findings suggest the existence of

both selection effects (youth pick religiously

similar peers) and socialization effects (peers

shape each other). For instance, in a longitudi-

nal study of children from ages 7 to 22 years

of age, results showed that the best childhood

and adolescent predictors of religiosity dur-

ing early adulthood were ethnicity and peers ’

church attendance during high school (Gunnoe

& Moore, 2002 ). Similarly, Regnerus et al.

(2004) found that peer church attendance was

an important predictor of youth church atten-

dance. Hoge and Petrillo ( 1978 ) found that

friends have at least moderate influence on

religious practices (e.g., youth group atten-

dance, enjoyment of that participation). Having

friends who verbally talk about religion and

spirituality has been found to be associated

with higher self - reported religious belief and

commitment among individuals, compared to

those with friends who did not talk about their

faith (Schwartz, Bukowski, & Aoki, 2006 ). In

addition, Schwartz ( 2006 ) found that not only

did friends ’ spiritual modeling and dialogue

account for significant variance in adolescent

religious belief and commitment, but that

these factors actually mediated the influence

of parents on religiousness. Similarly, King

et al. ( 2002 ) found that talking with friends

about religion and participating with friends

in informal religious activities (i.e., studying

religious or sacred texts, listening to religious

music, orattending religious camp), explained

significant variance in religious commitment

over and above parental influences (King

et al.). Similarly, in a large sample of Christian

adolescents aged 16 years, Schwartz ( 2006 )

found that perceived faith support from

Christian friends was one of the most impor-

tant influences on adolescents ’ faith net of

family variables.

Mentors and Gurus

Despite the known role of adult mentors in the

lives of youth (see Rhodes & Lowe, vol. 2 of

this Handbook ), only a small body of literature

examines the roles of adult RS mentors and

teachers in adolescent RSD. Some research

has documented that the relational quality of

the mentor – mentee relationship impacts the

level of influence on spiritual development.

One study of more that 3,000 Christian ado-

lescents conducted by Schwartz ( 2006 ) found

that when a young person described their rela-

tionship with their youth pastor as including

strong religious instruction, spiritual modeling,

and being known (i.e., intimacy), these rela-

tionships contributed significantly to youths ’

perceptions of their own spiritual development.

Another study found relationships between

youth pastors and their youth that are charac-

terized by both relational intentionality and

spiritual focus, result in spiritual development,

as is indicated by outcomes such as personal

relationship with God, moral responsibility,

hopeful and positive attitudes, and engaging

in mission and service (Strommen & Hardel,

2000 ). In a rare comparison study, Cannister

( 1999 ) found modest support for mentoring

as supportive of the maturing spiritual devel-

opment of adolescents. The study compared

first - year college students who had a formal

mentoring relationship with a professor who

was intent on nurturing spiritual growth and

those who did not have such a relationship.

Those who were being intentionally mentored

reported enhanced spiritual development.

Although only a few studies exist, research

suggests that the presence of intimate and

interactive relationships with spiritual mentors

may provide a rich context for spiritual devel-

opment. These studies and others demonstrate

c13.indd 454c13.indd 454 2/17/09 10:45:04 AM2/17/09 10:45:04 AM

The Ecology of Adolescent Religious and Spiritual Development 455

the importance of non - parental roles models

in the RSD of adolescent youth. Not only are

relationships important within the develop-

mental systems of RSD, but institutions play

an important part as well.

School Influences

A few studies have examined how school-

ing may affect the religious and spiritual

development of young people. In one strand

of research, the focus has been on the direct

effects of attending a religious school on ado-

lescents ’ academic development. In a second

strand of work the focus has been on under-

standing how the religious composition of

the student body may exert indirect effects on

adolescents ’ religious lives. Oddly, rarely have

studies looked at the religious and spiritual

developmental effects of religious schooling

(Spilka et al., 2003 ). Thus, this is an area ripe

for future research.

Benson, Yeager, Wood, Guerra, and Manno

( 1986 ) found that Catholic high schools serving

large proportions of low income youth affected

the religious development of youth if they

stressed both academics and religion simul-

taneously. In a study of an African American

Muslim school, Nasir ( 2004 ) documented how

a shared religious ideology allowed teachers

and staff ideational and relational resources by

which they could offer a positive identity to

students. Specifically, teachers viewed a par-

ticular student as a spiritual being waiting to

be developed rather than as a behavioral prob-

lem worthy of diagnosis and labeling. This

social positioning based on a spiritual ideol-

ogy afforded these young people a unique set

of supports and a unique identity position from

which to move forward despite adversity.

In a case - comparative study of eleven private,

English - medium religious secondary schools in

India, Roeser ( 2005 ) found a relation between

aspects of adolescents ’ student and religious

identities and the nature of their school cul-

ture. Through examining Hindu and Christian

schools, they found that students reported views

of spirituality and self consistent with the under-

lying religious philosophy and practices in

their schools. This finding was true even when

students attended schools with a different faith

tradition than their own.

Other studies have examined the “ religious

climate ” of schools. Regnerus et al. ( 2004 ) used

National Longitudinal Data of Adolescents

Health data to examine how the mean level of

adolescents ’ schoolmates ’ inclinations toward

religion were associated with adolescents ’ own

religious service attendance and perceived

importance of religion. Findings indicated

that the level of religiosity among classmates

predicated individual religiosity, even after

accounting for family religiosity, peer religios-

ity, and a host of demographic factors. In fact,

these authors found that aggregate student

body religiosity was a more powerful predic-

tor of individual religiosity than was attending

a religious school. These effects make sense

given the power of peer influences in schools

specifically, and the more general influence of

climate variables over school sector variables

in mediating school effects generally.

Barrett, Pearson, Muller, and Frank ( 2007 )

posited that the private religiosity of school-

mates, especially popular ones, may create

a climate and discourse community in which

religious matters are normative and valued. In

addition, the authors posited that to the extent

youth are motivated to conform to such norms

due to their level of shared denominational affil-

iations with schoolmates, and due to religiosity

of high status peers in the school, student - body

religiosity may affect personal religiosity.

Culture, Diversity, and Ethnicity

There exist additional macro - level contextual

influences on RSD. Adolescence is a particu-

larly important time in which cultural influ-

ences in the shaping of the religious and spiritual

development of young people “ show through ”

in the forms of rituals and ceremonies marking

the transition from child to adult status in the

eyes of the religious community. For instance,

c13.indd 455c13.indd 455 2/17/09 10:45:05 AM2/17/09 10:45:05 AM

456 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

in some Protestant Christian communities,

voluntary baptism during this stage marks a

moment of sacred rebirth, inclusion, and adult

membership in one ’ s church. Similarly, the Bar -

and Bat - Mitzvahs are transitional ceremon-

ies in which youth move from childhood

to adult religious status within the Jewish

cultural – religious tradition. In still other con-

texts, children may go through formal rites

of transition in which physically painful ritu-

als are used to evoke courage and emphasize

the passage from one life stage to another

(Magesa, 1997 ). Such initiation rites are

important cultural opportunities to teach youth

about self - sacrifice, cooperation, and survival;

and provide an opportunity for adolescents ’ to

acknowledge to willingly participate in serv-

ing the community.

Unfortunately, biases in the field of study

concerned with religion in psychology have

limited our knowledge of religious and spiri-

tual development among diverse religious,

ethnic and culture groups within and beyond

the United States (Mattis, Ahuluwalie, Cowie,

& Kirkland - Harris, 2006 ). Leaders in the field

of the psychology of religion, for instance,

have acknowledged that the field has been

dominated by a largely Protestant Christian

orientation to date (see Hill & Pargament,

2003 ). What is less acknowledged is that this

orientation includes a tacit emphasis on dual-

ist metaphysics (spirit versus matter, sacred

versus profane, soul versus body); theistic con-

ceptions of divinity (God as a Being); singular

pathways of spiritual development (e.g., devo-

tion to God); and specific Western cultural

issues in the study of religion and spirituality

(Roeser et al., 2006 ).

Specific cultural issues that are intertwined

with Western Christian religious traditions

include a focus on the sinful nature of human

beings and the Veneer Theory of morality with

its impact on economics, law and government

(de Waals, 2007 ); concern with differentiating

between whether one is spiritual or religious

(e.g., Fuller, 2001 ); and a focus on racial dif-

ferences in religiosity (e.g., Mattis et al.,

2006 ). The fact of the matter is that religions

are deeply cultural in nature, reflecting large

scale national, historical, ethnic/racial and

geographical influences (Geertz, 1973 ). Thus,

to study religion without regard to culture is to

miss something fundamental about its origins

and manifestations.

Non - Western, Abrahamic forms of spiritual-

ity also diverge significantly from the assump-

tive frameworks and worldviews of Western

Christianity. In some cultural contexts, for

instance, spiritual development is assumed to

begin prior to birth. In some communities in

which reincarnation is accepted, adults may

believe children inherit the spirit/soul of a dead

ancestor; thus, children are born with spiritual

powers, wisdom, and even physical attributes

that can reflect their spiritual maturity. In

addition, the early stages of a child ’ s spiritual

development are usually perceived as times of

spiritual vulnerability in such cultures due to

the evil eye phenomenon (Leach & Fried, 1972 ;

Obermeyer, 2000 ). Some believe that malevo-

lent and benevolent forces exist and manifest

themselves in the child ’ s immediate family and

extended community, impacting all aspects of

the child ’ s new life. Consequently, the child ’ s

survival and healthy development depend on

others ’ protection from spiritual harm. Thus, in

cultures that believe in the existence of the evil

eye and its power, rituals are performed to pro-

tect children from malevolent forces (Ruble,

O ’ Nell, & Collando Ard á n, 1992 ).

In sum, although it is evident that adoles-

cent religious and spiritual development occurs

within the developmental – contextual systems

in which young people live, the processes by

which this development occurs have been less

explored. In the following section, we provide

an overview of the theoretical explanations for

how religious congregational and youth group

contexts may influence not only religious and

spiritual development of youth, but also wider,

aspects of development during adolescence.

Many of the processes discussed in this section

are also relevant to other social contextual influ-

ences on RSD outside religious institutions.

c13.indd 456c13.indd 456 2/17/09 10:45:05 AM2/17/09 10:45:05 AM

Religious Institutional Influences on Adolescent RSD and Positive Youth Development 457

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONAL

INFLUENCES ON ADOLESCENT

RSD AND POSITIVE YOUTH

DEVELOPMENT

Erikson ( 1950 , 1964 , 1968 ) pointed to religious

institutions as important parts of the sociohis-

torical – cultural matrix in which identity devel-

opment takes place. He argued that religion

was an important institution in the promotion

of fidelity during adolescence — defined as

commitment and loyalty to an ideology. This

may still be true today for perhaps half of all

American youths who regularly attend ser-

vices (Smith & Denton, 2005 ). In this section,

we explore the role of religious congregations

in shaping RSD and positive development

through a variety of mechanisms involving

social relationships, identity and skill devel-

opment, and opportunities for transcendence

through spiritual practices. Nonetheless, we

note at the outset that only a little is known

about how the dynamics of participation in

religious congregations and how they affect

youth spiritual development.

The term congregation refers to an orga-

nized community associated with a reli-

gion such as a church, parish, or cathedral

(Christian); synagogue (Jewish); masjid/

mosque (Muslim); temple (Buddhist, Hindu,

Jewish), ward (Latter - Day Saint); gurdwara

(Sikh); or assembly (Bahai). According to the

NYSR, 48% of American youth attend religious

services once a week or more, with another 27%

attending at least many times a year. Of these

attending youth, 89% find that their congrega-

tions usually or sometimes make them think

about important things and 94% report that their

congregation is usually or sometimes a welcom-

ing place for youth. About 38% of the sample

are currently involved in a religious youth

group, and 69% are presently or have previously

been involved (Smith & Denton, 2005 ).

Congregations have been linked to promot-

ing faith maturity (Roehlkepartain & Patel,

2006 ), which refers to the degree to which a

person exemplifies the priorities, commit-

ments, and perspectives indicative of “ vibrant

and life - transforming faith ” (Benson, Donahue,

& Erickson, 1993 , p. 3). Search Institute con-

ducted a series of studies that examined the

relationships between congregational dynam-

ics, religious education, and faith maturity in

mainline Protestant Christian churches. The

findings suggested that personalized educa-

tional practices, caring and effective leaders, a

climate of warmth and caring, a thinking cul-

ture, support for families, engagement in practi-

cal life issues, and opportunities to serve others

were important for faith development (Benson

& Elkin, 1990 ). Similar findings resulted from

replication studies in other Christian faith tra-

ditions, including Seventh - Day Adventists,

Catholics, and the Lutheran Church – Missouri

Synod (see Roehlkepartain & Patel), suggest-

ing that the multifaceted educational, rela-

tional, and emotional nature of congregations

may promote spiritual development, at least as

operationalized by faith maturity.

Secondary analysis of the Survey of Youth

and Parents yielded results substantiating the

claim that religious congregations provide rich

settings for increasing closure in networks

involving youth (Smith, 2003 a). These relational

ties may operate as extra familial resources,

reinforcing parental influence and oversight.

Similarly, in an ethnically diverse sample of

urban youth, research found that religious youth

reported higher levels of network closure and

social capital resources including social interac-

tion, trust and shared values among parents, close

friends, and a nonparental adult (King, 2004 ;

King & Furrow, 2004 ). As such, religious

institutions provide unique support systems

for youth that have the potential to influence

religious and spiritual development.

Other types of religious organizations besides

congregations such as paracongregational

youth programs and organizations, faith - based

social services, (nonreligious) youth organiza-

tions, camps, and schools can also affect RSD

in adolescents. Sometimes these organizations

intentionally promote adolescent religious and

spiritual development and sometimes these

ends are accomplished unintentionally.

c13.indd 457c13.indd 457 2/17/09 10:45:06 AM2/17/09 10:45:06 AM

458 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

Larson, Hansen, and Moneta ( 2006 ) found

that students participating in faith - based youth

groups reported significantly higher rates of

identity work. About 66% of the students in

faith - based activities endorsed the item “ This

activity got me thinking about who I am, ”

compared to 33% of youths in other types of

organized activities. Others have shown that

religious youth organizations help integrate

adolescents into a community of youths and

adults (see Regnerus, 2000 ; Smith, 2003 b).

Larson et al. ( 2006 ) also found that youth

involved in faith - based youth programs were

significantly more likely to be engaged in pos-

itive relationships and in adult networks than

youth not engaged in faith - based programs.

For example, 75% of youths in faith - based pro-

grams reported that “ We discussed morals and

values, ” compared with 24% of youths involved

in other organized activities. Furthermore, sig-

nificantly more youths in faith - based activities

stated that the activities improved their rela-

tionships with parents/guardians and helped

them form new connections with nonparental

adults in their faith community.

Theories of Religious Congregational

Influence

Smith ( 2003 b) theorized that there are three

different ways that religious institutions can

exert positive, constructive influences on youth

development:

1. By providing youths with resources in

the form of moral and religious world-

views (i.e., seeking reconciliation instead

of vengeance, treating body as temple of

Holy Spirit, respecting mother and father),

spiritual experiences (e.g., experience of

profound peace and belonging), and role

models and mentors

2. By providing opportunities for skill devel-

opment (i.e., leadership and coping skills)

and cultural knowledge development (e.g.,

Biblical events)

3. By providing social capital in the form

social ties across differently aged peers,

nonparental adults, and members of wider

communities and society.

In short, religious institutions afford adoles-

cents resources that provide moral guidance,

meaning, and purpose; learning opportunities

that provide coping and life skills; and social

relationships that provide support, social capital,

and network closure. In addition to discussing

potential ideological and contextual resources

embedded within religion and spirituality, the

spiritual practices often associated with RSD

offer unique benefits to youth.

Ideological Context

Relationships and contexts that provide youth

with ideological and moral directives provide

adolescents with a structural framework of nor-

mative beliefs and values that reinforce their

existing belief system. Young people strive

to make sense of the world and to assert their

place in it. The beliefs, worldview, and values

of religious traditions provide an ideological

context in which a young person can gener-

ate a sense of meaning, order, and place in the

world that is crucial to adolescent development

(King, 2003 , 2008 ). Religion intentionally

offers beliefs, moral codes, and values from

which a young person can build a personal

belief system (Smith, 2003 b). Benson ( 2006 )

indicated the function of spiritual development

is to make sense of one ’ s life by weaving the

self into a larger tapestry of connection and

meaning. Spirituality entails the intentional

identification and integration of beliefs, nar-

rative, and values in the process of making

meaning. Whether this process is one of per-

sonal construction or socialization, the inten-

tional act of relying on personal, religious, or

cultural ideology is central to spirituality and

crucial to the development of identity, mean-

ing, and purpose — all foundational to positive

youth development.

Relationships, organizations, and institu-

tions that intentionally provide clear ideology

c13.indd 458c13.indd 458 2/17/09 10:45:06 AM2/17/09 10:45:06 AM

Religious Institutional Influences on Adolescent RSD and Positive Youth Development 459

provide important contexts in which young

people can internalize moral directives, clarify

their beliefs, integrate a prosocial identity, and

find meaning and make sense of the world

(Lerner et al., 2006). Such environments nur-

ture religious and spiritual development as well

as other important aspects of adolescent devel-

opment. In addition to providing ideology,

such developmental systems provide social

contexts that nurture adolescent religiousness

and spirituality as well as overall positive ado-

lescent development.

Social Context

Religion not only provides a transcendent

world view and morality, but religious faith

community members more or less embody

these ideological norms in a community set-

ting and thereby act as role models for youth

(Erikson, 1968 ). Although religion and spiri-

tuality do not exclusively offer these social

resources, research documents that they may

very effectively offer social capital, helpful

networks, social support, and mentors.

Social Capital

Social capital models posit that religion ’ s

constructive influence on young people may

be accounted for by the nature and number

of relationships — and the benefits associated

with them. For instance, through religious

involvement young people have access to

intergenerational relationships that are recog-

nized as rich sources of social capital (King &

Furrow, 2004 ; Putnam, 2000 ; Smith, 2003 a).

Few other social institutions afford the oppor-

tunity to build trustworthy cross - generational

relationships and link youth to sources of help-

ful information, resources, and opportunities.

King and Furrow ( 2004 ) found that religiously

engaged youth reported significantly higher

levels of social capital resources than less

active youth. They found that relationships

characterized by social interaction, trust, and

shared values are most strongly related to posi-

tive youth outcomes. Social support available

through religion may be particularly effective

for promoting adolescent thriving. In addi-

tion, religious institutions and the relationships

that they afford may promote network closure ,

providing relatively dense networks of rela-

tionships within which youth are embedded,

providing oversight of and information about

youth to their parents (Smith, 2003 b).

Social Channeling

Religious institutional involvement also involves

social channeling, conscious process on the

part of adults to steer their children toward

particular individuals positioned to dis-

courage negative behaviors and to promote

positive life practices among young people

(Smith, 2003 b). In addition, social channel-

ing is a major way that parents socialize their

children ’ s religious development — they put

them into groups, activities, and contexts that

reinforce their own efforts at religious social-

ization (e.g., Martin, White, & Perlman, 2001 ;

Wallace & Williams, 1997 ). For youths in

urban, low - income neighborhoods, Regnerus

and Elder ( 2003 ) have shown that church

attendance is particularly important because it

channels youths into relationships with those

who support academics and who help them

build “ a transferable skill set of commitments

and routines ” (p. 646) useful for success in

school. Similarly, Schreck, Burek, and Clark -

Miller ( 2007 ) found that religious involvement

serves as a protective factor for adolescents by

encouraging less contact with deviant peers

and more contact with parents and school

officials.

Social Support and Coping

Religious institutions and the relationships they

afford also provide forms of social support

that are particularly important to adolescent

coping, resilience, and well - being. For instance,

the coping resources offered in a religious

setting may include group level shows of

support through prayer. A study of young

adolescents showed the social support of reli-

gious community members was the strongest

negative predictor of depressive symptoms

c13.indd 459c13.indd 459 2/17/09 10:45:06 AM2/17/09 10:45:06 AM

460 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

(Pearce, Little, & Perez, 2003). These find-

ings were replicated in a sample of over 3,000

16 - year - old adolescent girls at various stages

of pubertal development (Miller & Gur, 2002 ).

Specifically, findings showed that not only was

the expectation of social support from religious

congregations in times of need associated with

less depressive symptoms among youth, but

also the expectation that religious congrega-

tions were critical of teenagers generally was

associated with increased depressive symptoms

(Pearce et al.). Thus, religious communities can

be sources of social support or socioemotional

distress based on the ways adults in those com-

munities perceive and relate to youth.

Spiritual Modeling

Spiritual modeling and mentorship are two

other ways theorists have discussed how adults

socialize young people ’ s religious and spiritual

identities in the direction of the beliefs, norms,

and expectations of a particular religious group

(Cornwall, 1988 ; Oman, Flinders, & Thoresen,

2008). Spiritual modeling refers to emulating

another in order to grow spiritually. This effect

occurs through observing and imitating the life

or conduct of a spiritual example or model who

may be a living or historic example of religious or

spiritual ideology and values. Spiritual modeling

is based on social modeling and observational

learning in the acquisition and maintaining

of human behaviors (Bandura, 1986 , 2003 ).

Foundational to this approach is the notion that

the people with whom we regularly associate,

either by force or by choice, shape the behav-

ioral patterns that will be repeatedly observed

and learned most thoroughly. Acknowledging

the complexity of spiritual development involv-

ing the acquisition of beliefs, attitudes, and

skills, Bandura ( 2003 ) argues that spirituality is

difficult to teach and is better understood when

exemplified or embodied.

Mentors and Gurus Spiritual mentors

provide opportunities for young people to

experience being a part of something beyond

themselves (see Schwartz et al., 2006 ). Mentors

or gurus often occur within a religious context.

For example, within the Hindu religion, gurus

are teachers that are widely considered to be

self - realized masters and embodiments of the

divine (Martignetti, 1998 ). In such relation-

ships, followers of such teachers often treat

devotion or service to this teacher as a major

focus of their lives. In some forms of Judaism,

sages serve as important role models who illus-

trate right living and wisdom. In the Christian

tradition, young people are often discipled by

youth pastors or adult volunteers at churches.

Whether a young person perceives himself

or herself as a being a follower or by being

mentored or discipled, these individuals con-

nect the young person to a larger whole and

enables the youth to identify with a commu-

nity beyond himself or herself. Furthermore,

the worldviews provided by spiritual models

and mentors are powerful cultural resources

that can inform adolescents ’ quests for a sense

of meaning, order, and their place in the world

(King, 2003 , 2008 ). This is particularly true

during adolescence and puberty when one ’ s

body, thoughts and feelings, and social rela-

tionships are all changing and creating both

possibility and uncertainty.

Developmental Assets The developmen-

tal asset framework also provides a similar

account of the resources available to youth

through religious involvement. Through sec-

ondary analyses, Search Institute assessed the

developmental resources embedded within a

congregation that may contribute to positive

outcomes in young people. Using a subsample

of 20,020 randomly selected 6th – 12th grad-

ers of youth in the United States, Wagener,

Furrow, King, Leffert, and Benson ( 2003 )

found that the positive benefits of adolescent

religiousness was partially mediated through

developmental resources available to these

youths.

These developmental resources are based on

Search Institute ’ s framework of developmental

c13.indd 460c13.indd 460 2/17/09 10:45:07 AM2/17/09 10:45:07 AM

Religious Institutional Influences on Adolescent RSD and Positive Youth Development 461

assets, which includes eight categories consist-

ing of support, empowerment, boundaries and

expectations, constructive use of time, com-

mitment to learning, positive values, social

competencies, and positive values. Although

the study found that religious variables do have

some independent effect on risk behaviors, the

study showed that the positive benefits of reli-

gion are significantly mediated by these assets.

The authors contended that religious influence

might be better understood by the network of

relationships, opportunities, and shared values

common to religious congregations. These

findings suggest that the developmental assets

or social nutrients available through congrega-

tions promote thriving. The outcomes exam-

ined in this study were not homogenous with

religious or spiritual development, and are bet-

ter described as indicators of aspects of spiri-

tual development, such as positive values and

helping others. Nevertheless, this study sheds

light on how congregations may influence

RSD among young people not through mere

participation, but through the provision of

developmental resources such as caring adults,

boundaries and expectations, and opportuni-

ties to serve others.

Spiritual Context Congregations not only

provide important developmental resources and

social relationships that may nurture RSD

and positive development, but they also pro-

vide opportunities for spiritual experiences.

Religion and spirituality provide opportuni-

ties for transcendence when young people can

experience something greater than themselves.

Spiritual Practices Specifically, a process

that shapes RSD during adolescence involves

patterns of participation in spiritual practices.

Spiritual practices can be defined as everyday,

deliberate activities, engaged in solitude or in

the company of others, in which individuals

seek to explore and extend their relationship

with some conception of the sacred or divin-

ity. Thus, spiritual practices may enrich one ’ s

spiritual life; such practices can also have

beneficial side effects through their relation to

coping and resilience.

Prayer is one such practice. In a study of

a community - based sample of 155 men and

women aged 25 – 45 years of age, researchers

found that the use of religious coping strategies

such as trusting in God, seeking God ’ s help, pray-

ing, and taking comfort in religion in the face of

stressors, was associated with reduced ambula-

tory blood pressure among African American,

but not European American adults (Steffen,

Hinderliter, Blumenthal, & Sherwood, 2001 ).

Another practice is meditation. In a national

study of religion and spirituality, Smith and

Denton ( 2005 ) found that 10% of all youth

reported “ practicing religious or spiritual

meditation not including prayer ” during the

prior year. What is the effect of such practices

on adolescent development (Roeser & Peck,

2008 )? Barnes, Johnson, and Treiber ( 2004 ),

for instance, found the practice of meditation

was associated with reduced ambulatory blood

pressure among African American adolescents.

In sum, the various environments in which

youth live will foster positive development inso-

far as they offer clear ideology, social resources,

and transcendent, spiritual experiences. Whether

secular or faith - based, settings can promote

spiritual development by “ helping young

people along the quest for self - awareness,

meaning, purpose — shaping their core iden-

tity and their place in their families, com-

munities, and the larger world ” (Benson &

Roehlkepartain, in press). Relationships, pro-

grams, and institutions that provide clear

beliefs, moral directives, and values; peer

and adult relationships that model and rein-

force these prosocial norms; and experiences

that move young people beyond their daily

concerns and connect them with something

beyond themselves are apt to nurture youth on

such a quest. Such influences may therefore

enhance adolescent development more gener-

ally. Accordingly, we next discuss some of the

impact of adolescent RSD on overall adoles-

cent development.

c13.indd 461c13.indd 461 2/17/09 10:45:07 AM2/17/09 10:45:07 AM

462 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

DEVELOPMENTAL CORRELATES

OF RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY

DURING ADOLESCENCE

Adolescent religion and spirituality have gained

increased attention within the academy largely

due to the growing evidence suggesting that

religion serves as a protective factor, buffering

young people against health - compromising

behavior and promoting their engagement in

health - promoting behavior through many of

the mechanisms just reviewed (e.g., Benson

et al., 2003 ; Kerestes & Youniss, 2003 ; Smith,

2003 b; Spilka et al., 2003 ). Studies have gen-

erally revealed that measures of religious atten-

dance and religious importance are negatively

correlated with indicators of risk behavior such

as delinquency, substance abuse, violence, sexual

activity, and suicide. Furthermore, these reviews

reveal a positive relationship between religious-

ness and positive outcomes like life satisfaction,

wearing seat belts, and civic engagement. In the

following section, we examine studies of RSD

during adolescence and indicators of both posi-

tive and problematic development.

Health

Evidence shows a strong correlation between

denominational religious involvement and

health in adults (Koenig et al., 2001 ) and ado-

lescents (Gottlieb & Green, 1984 ; Oman &

Thoresen, 2005). Jessor, Turbin, and Costa

( 1998 ), in an ethnically and racially diverse,

longitudinal sample, found that adolescents ’

frequency of church attendance and the reported

importance of religious teachings and values

was strongly correlated with their engagement

in healthy lifestyle behaviors such as keeping

a nutritious diet, getting enough sleep, keeping

up with dental hygiene, using seatbelts, and

exercising.

Similarly, using Monitoring the Future data

from nationally probability samples of 15,000

to 19,000 high school seniors collected annually

since 1975, Wallace and Forman ( 1998 ) found

that more highly religious adolescents (as mea-

sured by reported importance, attendance, and

denominational affiliation) reported higher

levels of health - promoting behaviors such as

consuming breakfast, fruit, and green vegeta-

bles, in addition to obtaining seven hours or

more of sleep per night.

Psychological Distress and Well - Being

The relationship between religiosity and men-

tal health has also been clearly demonstrated

in adults (Hackney & Sanders, 2003 ) and ado-

lescents (Cotton, Zebracki, Rosenthal, Tsevat,

& Drotar, 2006 ). For instance, adolescent

religiosity, assessed in terms of church atten-

dance and reported importance of religion,

was inversely related with feelings of depres-

sion, hopelessness, and loneliness (Pearce

et al., 2003 b; Schapman & Inderbitzen - Nolan,

2002 ; Sinha, Cnaan, & Gelles, 2007 ; Smith &

Denton, 2005 ; Wright, Frost, & Wisecarver,

1993 ) and positively related to life satisfaction

(Varon & Riley, 1999 ).

In studies in Germany, Spain, and the United

States, adolescent religiosity, assessed in

terms of church attendance and reported

importance of religion, was positively related

to self - esteem (Donahue & Benson, 1995 ;

Smith, Weigert, & Thomas, 1979 ). In a study

of 615 ethnically and denominationally diverse

adolescents, Kelley and Miller ( 2007 ) found

that frequency of spiritual experiences in the

context of daily life (e.g., seeing the sacred in

others) was associated with life satisfaction.

In a study of 134 college students, Leake,

DeNeve, and Greteman ( 2007 ) found that youth

who reported spiritual strivings (see Emmons,

1999 ) were more likely to experience positive

emotions such as vitality and zest, in addition

to greater psychological health as operational-

ized by tendencies toward self - actualization

and achieved identity status. The one exception

to these trends are pregnant adolescent girls

who may be more likely to experience feelings

of guilt and shame due to their pregnancy and

its incongruence with religious – moral teach-

ings (Sorenson, Grindstaff, & Turner, 1995 ).

These studies documenting a relationship

between religious involvement, less psycho-

logical distress, and greater positive emotional

c13.indd 462c13.indd 462 2/17/09 10:45:08 AM2/17/09 10:45:08 AM

Developmental Correlates of Religion and Spirituality During Adolescence 463

experience, esteem, and life satisfaction also

extend to immigrant youth. In a national study

of adolescent health, Harker ( 2001 ) found that

1.5 generation immigrant adolescents experi-

ence less depression and greater positive well -

being than their native - born peers from similar

demographic and family backgrounds.

Suicide

Adolescents who experience feelings of

worthlessness and depression are at heightened

risk for suicide. Population analyses point

to a relationship between having a religious

affiliation and lower rates of suicide in both

male and female adolescents (e.g., Baker &

Gorsuch, 1982 ; Gartner, Larson, & Allen,

1991 ; Sturgeon & Hamley, 1979 ; Trovato,

1992 ). Other studies have shown indicators of

religiosity (attendance, importance) are associ-

ated with lower levels of fatalism and suicidal

ideation and fewer suicide attempts in large

representative samples of American adoles-

cents in grades 6 – 12 (Donahue & Benson,

1995 ; Jamieson & Romer, 2008 ; Nonnemaker,

McNeely, & Blum, 2003 ). In a cross - sectional

sample of 1,456 American Indian tribal mem-

bers (ages 15 – 57 years old) living in Northern

Plains reservations, orientation to traditional

spiritual practices was associated with reduced

suicide attempts (Garroutte et al., 2003).

Risk - Taking Behaviors

A solid body of evidence documents a nega-

tive relationship between adolescent RSD and

risk - taking behavior (Smith & Faris, 2003 ). It

is not that religious or spiritual youths are not

taking risks or engaging in dangerous activi-

ties; rather, research has suggested that they do

so to a lesser extent (e.g., Bridges & Moore,

2002; Donahue & Benson, 1995 ).

Substance Use

Adolescents RSD is negatively related to their

use of marijuana, tobacco, steroids, and alco-

hol (e.g., Bartkowski & Xu, 2007 ; Regnerus

& Elder, 2003 ; Sinha et al., 2007 ; Wallace &

Forman, 1998 ; Yarnold, 1998 ). Cross - sectional

research shows that religious adolescents are

significantly less likely to smoke cigarettes reg-

ularly, to drink alcohol weekly, or to get drunk,

whereas less religious adolescents are likely

to smoke marijuana (Smith & Denton, 2005 ).

In native populations of Native American

adolescents, orientation to indigenous spiri-

tual beliefs and practices has been associated

with reduced substance use among (Garouette

et al., 2003). Longitudinal research that fol-

lowed adolescents from grades 7 through 10

showed that religiosity reduced the subsequent

impact of stress on substance use initiation and

on the rate of growth in substance use over

time (Wills, Yaeger, & Sandy, 2003 ).

The inverse relationship between religion

and substance abuse is not as clear among gay,

lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered adolescent

populations. Rostosky, Danner, and Riggle

( 2007 ) cautioned against overgeneralizing the

protective effects of religion to all adolescent

populations, as their study of sexual minority

adolescents found that religiosity was not pro-

tective against substance abuse for these youth

in the way it was for heterosexual adolescents.

Sexual Activity

Evidence also documents that adolescent reli-

giosity is associated with increased age of

sexual debut and decreased number of sexual

partners. Although religious youths engage

in sexual behaviors, they tend to be less sexu-

ally active and have fewer sexual partners

than their less religious peers (Donahue &

Benson, 1995 ; Holder et al., 2000 ; McBride,

1996 ). Adolescent religiosity has also been

found to be inversely correlated with risky

sexual behaviors (Lammers, Ireland, Resnick,

& Blum, 2000 ; Murray, 1994 ; Thornton &

Camburn, 1989 ). Smith and Denton ( 2005 )

documented striking differences in teens ’ sex-

ual attitudes based on their level of religious

involvement and religious commitment that

likely are behind these behavioral differences.

Almost all religiously devoted youths believed

in sexual abstinence until marriage. Only 3%

of religiously devoted teens agreed that as long

c13.indd 463c13.indd 463 2/17/09 10:45:08 AM2/17/09 10:45:08 AM

464 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

as teenagers were emotionally ready for sex, it

was okay to engage in it. By comparison, 56%

of religiously unengaged youths endorsed this

position.

Similarly, Bridges and Moore ( 2002 ) found

that adolescents who attended church, valued

religion, and held strong religious beliefs had

lower levels of sexual experience and held con-

servative attitudes about sexual activity. These

findings have been replicated among Latin

American, African American, and European

American populations of youth (Edwards,

Fehring, Jarrett & Haglund, 2008 ). However,

females who considered themselves highly

religious were less likely to use contraception

during their initial sexual experience, which

leads to higher risk in sexually transmitted

diseases and pregnancy. Similar reports were

found among males in which those who asso-

ciated more with religiosity were less likely to

partake in sexual activity at early ages and hold

more conservative sexual attitudes and beliefs

in one 13 - to 16 - year old sample.

In a national longitudinal study of 3,691

adolescents assessed at age 15 (time 1) and age

21 (time 2), Rostosky, Regnerus, and Wright

( 2003 ) found that adolescent religiosity at age

15 predicted delayed onset of coital debut for

both males and females assessed at time 2

after accounting for adolescents ’ demographic

background and number of romantic partners.

Delinquency

The inverse relationship between religios-

ity and delinquent behavior among adoles-

cents has also been well established (Baier &

Wright, 2001 ). Adolescent religiosity has also

been linked to lower delinquent and violent

problem behavior (Donahue & Benson, 1995 ;

Johnson, Jang, Larson, & Li, 2001 ; Regnerus

& Elder, 2003) and has increasingly become a

focus of research for criminologists seeking to

explore the mediating factors of crime deter-

rence, particularly in juveniles (Evans, Cullen,

Dunaway, & Burton, 1995 ). For instance,

Sloane and Potvin ( 1986 ), in a national prob-

ability sample, found that youth ages 13 - 18

who considered religion to be of considerable

influence in their lives and attended church

frequently were 50% less likely to engage in

serious fighting than their nonreligious peers.

Johnson et al. ( 2001 ) found that adolescent

religiosity was negatively correlated with ado-

lescents ’ attitudes toward delinquent behav-

iors, their association with delinquent peers,

and their engagement in delinquent behaviors

after controlling for their sociodemographic

backgrounds. Pearce, Jones, Schwab - Stone,

and Ruchkin (2003) found that frequent

exposure to religious content (e.g., reading,

watching, or hearing religious information)

decreased the likelihood of antisocial practices,

witnessing violence, or being the victim of vio-

lence. In a nationally representative sample of

youth in grades 7 – 12, Regnerus ( 2003 ) found

evidence for a cyclical trend in the relation-

ship between adolescent religiosity and delin-

quency. In this sample, religiosity was related

to a slight decrease in delinquent behaviors in

early adolescence, disappeared as a predictor

of delinquent behaviors during middle ado-

lescence, and finally emerged as a stronger

negative predictor in late adolescence.

In sum, the current literature paints a clear

picture of the protective relationship between

adolescent religiosity and various risk behav-

iors. Participating in various forms of religion

is clearly linked to a reduction in dangerous

activities among young people. However,

this buffering effect is less explored with spe-

cifically spiritual variables. Do these salutary

impacts of religiosity and spirituality exists as

well when we turn from problem behaviors to

positive ones? In the next section, we examine

the relationship between adolescent religios-

ity and spirituality and positive developmental

outcomes.

Positive Development and Thriving

A growing body of literature has documented

associations between adolescent RSD and vari-

ous indicators of positive youth development

and thriving. A thriving young person, as

defined in this chapter, is one who is developing a

c13.indd 464c13.indd 464 2/17/09 10:45:09 AM2/17/09 10:45:09 AM

Developmental Correlates of Religion and Spirituality During Adolescence 465

positive identity and a meaningful and satisfying

life, who experiences a sense of well - being,

and who develops personal competencies. In

addition to these things, however, a key attri-

bute of thriving is an individual ’ s contribu-

tions to the well - being of his or her family,

community, and society (King et al., 2005 ;

Lerner et al., 2006; Scales, Benson, Leffert, &

Blyth, 2000 ). As such, the term thriving has

referred to positive development that is char-

acterized over time by a pattern of functioning

indicative of the individual ’ s ability to adapt

to environmental opportunities, demands, and

restrictions in a way that satisfies individual ’ s

developmental needs and the needs of others

and society. This section examines the empiri-

cal work that supports the claim that spiritual-

ity and religion are associated with indicators

of positive youth development and thriving.

Thriving

Dowling et al. ( 2004 ) found that adolescents ’

spirituality (defined as experiencing transcen-

dence and defining self in relationship to oth-

ers and having genuine concern for others) and

religiosity (defined as institutional affiliation

and participation with a religious tradition

and doctrine) had direct effects on an omni-

bus measure of thriving (defined as a concept

incorporating the absence of problem behav-

iors and the presence of healthy development).

In addition, adolescent spirituality mediated

the effects of religion on thriving. These find-

ings suggest that both spirituality and reli-

giousness may play roles in the development

of thriving. Although most existing research

has confirmed the positive role of religion, this

study demonstrated that spirituality may have

an influence on youth thriving beyond that of

religion. In another study, Benson et al. ( 2005 )

found that religious salience and importance

were positive predictors of eight thriving indi-

cators across sex and racial/ethnic subgroups

of youth.

Meaning and Identity

Adolescent RSD can contribute to thriving by

influencing psychosocial identity development

and the broader search for purpose, mean-

ing, and fidelity characteristic of adolescence

(Damon, 2008 ; Roeser et al., 2008; Templeton

& Eccles, 2006). However, research using

Marcia ’ s identity statuses paradigm has yielded

equivocal findings. For instance, Markstrom -

Adams, Hoftstra, and Dougher ( 1994 ) exam-

ined the relationship of religious participation

to Marcia ’ s ( 1966 ) identity commitments.

They found that identity commitments of

foreclosure and achievement were related to

church attendance. Subsequent studies showed

that intrinsically religiously motivated youth

were most likely to have attained Marcia ’ s

stage of identity achievement (Fulton, 1997 ;

Markstrom - Adams & Smith, 1996 ). Other

studies have shown identity diffusion has been

associated with lower levels of religious impor-

tance and participation, orthodoxy of Christian

beliefs, and intrinsic religious commitment

(Markstrom - Adams et al., 1994 ). However,

Hunsberger, Pratt, and Pancer ( 2001 ), however,

found only weak associations between reli-

gious commitment and achieved identity sta-

tus. Clearly, better conceptualization of RSD

as well as “ identity development ’ is needed

to clarify the interaction of these domains of

development. What has proven more fruitful

is the focus on how RSD affects adolescents ’

sense of meaning, hope, and purpose.

It is not surprising that religion has been

shown to have a positive impact on adolescents ’

development of a sense of personal meaning

(Chamberlain & Zika, 1992 ). For instance,

a national probability sample of U.S. adoles-

cents showed that their religious and spiritual

commitments are positively associated with

their overall sense of meaning and hope for the

future (Smith & Denton, 2005 ). Tzuriel ( 1984 )

and Francis ( 2000 ) found that religiously

involved youth reported higher levels of com-

mitment and purpose when compared to less

religiously engaged youth. Furrow et al. ( 2004 )

found that youth reporting a strong religious

identity were more likely to have a meaning

framework that added direction and purpose to

their lives than their nonreligious peers. It has

c13.indd 465c13.indd 465 2/17/09 10:45:09 AM2/17/09 10:45:09 AM

466 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

also been shown that youths participating in

religious communities are more likely to report

having a sense of purpose indicative of a com-

mitment to a personal philosophy (Markstrom,

1999 ). Also consistent with these findings,

Showalter and Wagener ( 2000 ) found among

youths attending a Christian summer camp

that religion served as a productive source of

meaning.

Contribution

Several studies have indicated a positive rela-

tionship between religion and indicators such as

community service and altruism. For instance,

Youniss and colleagues found that religious

youth were more involved in community ser-

vice compared to those adolescents reporting

little religious activity (e.g., Kerestes, Youniss,

& Metz, 2004 ; Youniss et al., 1999 ). Using

Monitoring the Future data, Youniss et al.

reported that students who believe that religion

is important in their lives were almost three

times more likely to participate in community

service than those who do not believe that reli-

gion is important. Similarly, Smith and Denton

( 2005 ) reported that religiously devoted youth

committed twice the national average of acts of

service to homeless and needy people and sig-

nificantly more acts than less religious youth.

Tracking religious development from the

sophomore year to the senior year, Kerestes

et al. ( 2004 ) found that civic integration, mea-

sured by participation in civic activities such as

working on a political campaign and demon-

strating for a cause, and willingness to perform

volunteer service, were positively associated

with stable or upward religious developmental

trajectories among a sample of predominately

white, socioeconomically middle - to upper -

class students. Religious salience (Crystal &

DeBell, 2002 ) and religious values (Serow

& Dreyden, 1990 ; Smith, 1999 ) have both

shown to be associated with various forms of

civic engagement.

Teenagers ’ religious commitment and atten-

dance has been associated with free time activ-

ity involvement and peer characteristics. Youth

who reported greater importance of religion in

their lives and who attended public religious

services more were involved in constructive

after - school activities. Furthermore, these

youth were more likely to have friends with

similar religious commitments and conven-

tional value profiles, and who were similarly

involved in formal religion and constructive

free - time activities (Jessor & Jessor, 1977 ;

Smith & Denton, 2005 ). In turn, Hart & Fegley

( 1995 ) noted the positive role of religion in the

lives of youth nominated for their commitment

to caring and contributions to others. For many,

caring values, attitudes, and behaviors were

not independent of their spirituality. Rather,

all aspects of their morality were governed by

their religious beliefs and experiences, which

informed their goals of service and care and

were closely related to their identity.

In summary, although the research just

reviewed is suggestive of how RSD in ado-

lescence is associated with other positive

developmental outcomes (Wallace & Williams,

1997 ; Frank & Kendall, 2001 ; Regnerus,

Smith, & Fritsch, 2003). Furthermore, work

with national longitudinal research designs

and samples, rather than cross - sectional, cor-

relational designs and samples of convenience

are needed to strengthen our knowledge base

in this area. Nonetheless, the reviewed find-

ings do point to potential avenues for further

research.

Negative Outcomes of Adolescent RSD

It is important to consider adolescent RSD in its

entirety, lest we identify religion and spiritual-

ity as a social panacea. Although there is ample

evidence to make the case for the beneficial

role of religion and spirituality in adolescence,

RSD may also lead to problematic social out-

comes and developmental forms of psycho-

pathology (see Oser et al., 2006; Silberman

et al., 2005; Wagener & Maloney, 2006 ). The

notions of developmental systems theory

concerning transactions, contexts, plasticity

and different forms of person – environment

fit in different sociocultural and historical

c13.indd 466c13.indd 466 2/17/09 10:45:10 AM2/17/09 10:45:10 AM

Developmental Correlates of Religion and Spirituality During Adolescence 467

environments is useful for understanding both

positive and negative forms of religion and

spirituality.

For instance, the change of Tibet from a

nation of warriors to a nation of Buddhist

contemplatives necessitates a complex, mul-

tilevel sociocultural - contextual and historical

systems analysis to understand. A similar lens

is needed to comprehend Nazi Germany and

the religion of German youth generally and the

Hitler youth (Hitler Jugend) in particular. Both

societies transformed themselves in the direc-

tion of spiritual worldviews, one becoming a

place in which the ethics of universal compas-

sion and nonviolence thrived, and the other

one where pseudospeciation and the holocaust

unfolded. Indeed, the notion of “ meaning

systems ” at the level of institutions and

communities of religion, and “ identity sys-

tems ” at the level of individuals, have proven

very fruitful for applying systems concepts

to both spiritual thriving and pathology (e.g.,

Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2005 ; Roeser et al.,

2008 a; Silberman et al., 2005 ).

We assume that optimal religion and spiritu-

ality affirms both individual development and

engenders social contribution. This balance is

important, for if one violates the other, healthy

development does not occur. For example, if

a religious tradition emphasizes the faith com-

munity, without valuing the uniqueness of its

members, youths may not have the necessary

opportunities to explore different aspects of

identity. When youths are not given the free-

dom to explore, and are either forced or pres-

sured into adopting a specific ideology, social

group, or expression of spirituality, identity

foreclosure is a risk.

Taken to the extreme, cults can be under-

stood from this perspective as spiritual expres-

sions that devalue the individuality of their

members in order to elevate the ideology and

group. This is graphically illustrated by spiri-

tual groups that demand that their members all

dress alike. In addition, recent current events

such as suicide bombings illustrate devastation

caused by religious groups that value the goals

and ends of the religion more than an individ-

ual ’ s life.

However, some traditions might not lever-

age their potential as being conducive to

promoting positive development because they

emphasize the individual, over and above pro-

moting a sense of community and belonging.

For example, some conservative traditions

within Christianity emphasize the individual

believer ’ s relationship with God to the extent

that they do not expend time or resources on

promoting a sense of community or contri-

bution to larger society. When this occurs,

although youths are reinforced about their per-

sonal worth, they lose out on both the support

and accountability of a faith community and

the value of learning what it means to belong

and to contribute to a greater good. In addition,

individual forms of spirituality that are not

connected with a group of followers also have

the potential to leave youths without the web

of support present in spiritual traditions asso-

ciated with a intentional group of followers.

These manifestations of spirituality are not

necessarily deleterious for youth development

or for society. Rather, they lack the rich social

context that is so effective for optimal develop-

ment. Forms of spirituality that do not connect

youth with a social group or a transcendent

experience of other may not promote a self -

concept that fully integrates a moral, civic,

and spiritual identity. However, taken to the

extreme, forms of religion and spirituality that

exalt the individual over a greater good can

promote a sense of narcissism, entitlement,

and lack of connectedness and contribution to

society.

A developmental systems perspective high-

lights not only the goodness of fit between

an individual and a religious/spiritual tradi-

tion, but also between a religious/spiritual

tradition and the greater society. If such a

spiritual tradition causes detriment to others,

such as the case with prejudice (Hunsberger,

1995 ) and terrorism, then spirituality has

gone awry. Numerous research studies have

linked religious fundamentalism to right - wing

c13.indd 467c13.indd 467 2/17/09 10:45:10 AM2/17/09 10:45:10 AM

468 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

authoritarianism, which in turn is related to

ethnocentrism and many forms of prejudice

(Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005 ). Understanding

the developmental antecedents to such delete-

rious religious commitments is an important

aspect of development science.

It is important to note that although a spe-

cific religious group might point to certain

behaviors as indicators of thriving from within

that group ’ s perspective, these behaviors do

not always represent “ constructive develop-

ment ” from the perspective of developmental

science. For example, as Silberman ( 2003 )

points out, the September 11, 2001, attacks on

the United States can be viewed from very dif-

ferent perspectives, which engender different

assumptions about desirable kinds of world

change and violence or peace as legitimate

means of achieving world change. According

to one meaning perspective, the attacks were

religiously legitimated. From another mean-

ing perspective, these attacks were seen as

violent assaults on innocent civilians that are

prohibited by religion. How to tip the “ double -

edged sword ” of religion away from its violent

world change ideological forms and toward

its peaceful world change ideological forms

is the challenge facing the faith communities

of the world today (Silberman et al., 2005 ).

Such change may also be a force of future the-

ory and research in developmental science.

DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE

THEORY AND RESEARCH

The role of religion and spirituality in inform-

ing and shaping the development of ado-

lescents is only beginning to be explored in

the developmental sciences with respect to a

systems views of development in which biol-

ogy, psychology, and social ecology play

equally important, transacting roles. Research

now shows that religion and spirituality are

important for the course of youth develop-

ment (Smith & Denton, 2005 ). However, more

nuanced knowledge is required to better elu-

cidate the precise individual and contextual

relations that account for youth RSD and its

positive outcomes. In this section, we high-

light what we see as a few key areas for future

research that would strengthen this emerging

area of scholarship.

The scientific study of religion and spiritu-

ality in human health and development neces-

sitates definitional clarity of key concepts of

religion, religiousness, spirituality, and spiri-

tual. In the wake of stage - structural theories

falling out of favor in the developmental sci-

ences, there is a need for renewed theory in the

area of what constitutes religious and spiritual

development during adolescence. Innovative

new approaches that incorporate and expand

on these previous works exist (e.g., Wilbur,

2006 ), but have yet to be examined during

adolescence.

Why are individuals religious or spiritual

in the first place (e.g., Bloom, 2005 )? Does

adolescence represent a sensitive period in

religious and spiritual formation (e.g., Good

& Willoughby, 2008 )? What processes mark

“ authentic ” and “ inauthentic ” forms of devel-

opment in these domains and what are the

best candidate mechanisms for explaining

the relation of religiosity or spirituality to

various aspects of human development? How

should we study religion and spirituality at the

individual level – as domains of development

generally, as domains of identity development

in particular, etc. (Roeser et al., 2008)? In sum,

it is with respect to issues of theory, construct

definition, and the elucidation of mechanisms

of influence where we see the most room for

innovation and creativity in this emerging area

of study.

There is also a great need for longitudinal

research in this area. Understanding the devel-

opmental precursors and sequelae of various

religious/spiritual identities and behaviors will

be critical for untangling patterns of influence

and pathways of continuity and change in this

aspect of human development. Some of the

most comprehensive studies to date remain

cross - sectional in design (e.g., Benson et al.,

2005 ; Lerner et al., 2008; Smith & Denton,

2005 ). A focus on particular subgroups of

c13.indd 468c13.indd 468 2/17/09 10:45:11 AM2/17/09 10:45:11 AM

Directions for Future Theory and Research 469

interest such as those who are particularly spir-

itually precocious, those who undergo conver-

sion experiences, or those who leave religion

and decide they are atheists, may be one way

that such studies may advance understanding

of not only normative but diverse patterns of

religious and spiritual development across ado-

lescence (e.g., King, Ramos, & Clardy, 2008).

The employment of non - self - report measures

of behavior and behavioral sequelae will also be

important in this work. For instance, little work

on the development of prejudicial attitudes

with respect to religion during adolescence,

using implicit measures of attitudes has been

conducted (e.g., Greenwald & Banaji, 1995 ).

In addition, in order to understand the effect of

religious attendance on positive behaviors dur-

ing adolescence, such as service to others, it is

necessary to gain multiple informants ’ perspec-

tives and to use observational methods. Recent

work on the neural underpinnings of spiritual

experience, as well as on basic self - regulatory

functions associated with particular practices

like meditation, provide other new kinds of

measures that move from first person to second

person to third person in nature (e.g., Newberg

& Newberg, 2006 ; Urry & Poey, 2008 ).

In addition, understanding the role of

social factors in religious and spiritual devel-

opment in a world plagued by religious vio-

lence, as it is today, seems essential. Thus,

one key direction for future research on

religious and spiritual development during

adolescence involves a more thorough exami-

nation of the kinds of people, opportunities,

and social settings that nurture healthy and

authentic forms of spirituality (see King &

Furrow, 2004 ; King et al., 2008 ). As in any

other domain of development, we believe reli-

gious and spiritual development is scaffolded

and linked to the kinds of social worlds and

people with whom adolescents “ come of age ”

(e.g., Rogoff, 2003 ). It is the developmen-

tally instigative role of these social contexts

in religious and spiritual development that

require more research in this field of study

(Regnerus, 2003 ).

Adolescence, with its characteristic changes

in thinking and feeling, is a prime time for

young people to be exposed to, and engaged in,

dialogue about ideas and philosophies bearing

on ultimate existential questions of identity,

purpose, and meaning. Spiritual mentors, in

such a context, can take on considerable impor-

tance in the lives of youth (e.g., Issac, Roeser,

Abo - Zena, & Lerner, 2007 ). Unfortunately,

recent work on youth purpose highlights the

relative absence of such conversations about

meaning in the lives of young people at least in

the U.S. today (Damon, 2008 ). What happens

to youths when they experience a significant

absence of discussions of purpose and mean-

ing? What is the net effect of this absence on

the quality and richness of the inner spiritual

lives of youths? Do violence, risk behavior,

and anomie provide channels for frustrated or

misdirected spiritual longings?

In summary, the preceding conceptual ques-

tions are important, general issues that should

be addressed in further research. In addition to

these more general issues, there are more spe-

cific contextual and individual variables that

require greater empirical attention.

Race, Culture, and Ethnicity

Given that religion and spirituality are key fac-

ets of ethnicity, race, and culture (Mattis et al.,

2006 ; Slonim, 1991 ), a key direction for future

research concerns the intersectionality among,

young people ’ s developing ethnic/racial, cul-

tural, and religious and spiritual identities in

shaping patterns of positive or problematic

youth development. Virtually no research has

examined the intersectionality among such

identities with adolescents (e.g., Abo - Zena,

Roeser, Issac, & Lerner, 2007 ; Abo - Zena

et al., 2008 ; Juang & Syed 2008 ). New research

in this area would enhance our understanding

of the roles that religion and spirituality can

play in the positive development of ethnically,

racially, and culturally diverse youth (e.g.,

Nicolas & DeSilva, 2008 ).

For instance, despite the centrality of the

church in African American history, “ almost

c13.indd 469c13.indd 469 2/17/09 10:45:11 AM2/17/09 10:45:11 AM

470 Religion and Spirituality in Adolescent Development

no research focuses specifically on Black

adolescents ” with respect to religion and

development today (Taylor, Chatters, & Levin,

2004 , p. 46). What is known is that African

American youths place more importance on

religion than their European American peers

(Donahue & Benson, 1995 ; Wallace et al.,

2003 ) and that religion deters deviant behav-

ior among African American youths. But what

about its role in enhancing positive develop-

ment? In addition, most existing research on

adolescent religion and spirituality is based

on North American samples; little research

takes into consideration the role of spirituality

in developing nations (King et al., 2008 ).

Immigrants

Similarly, we believe that religion and spiri-

tuality play a key role in the development of

immigrants and their families (Abo - Zena et al.,

2007 ; Jensen, 2008 ; Juang & Syed, 2008 ;

Roeser, Lerner, Jensen, & Alberts, 2008). How

might religious institutions provide a “ context

of reception ” for newcomers to the United

States? How might spiritual beliefs support

immigrants in their efforts to assimilate and

bridge to the mainstream of American cultural

and economic life? How might being an eth-

nic – minority immigrant who is also a member

of the religious majority of the country affect

youth development? Future studies examining

such issues would increase our understanding

of the development of immigrant youths in the

United States as well.

Sexual and Religious Minorities

The role of religion and spirituality in the

development of youths who are sexual or

religious minorities is also important. For

instance, research has documented the impor-

tant influence social environments can have on

the sexual identity development of gay and les-

bian youths (Ream & Savin - Williams, 2004 ).

As the research on proscribed and nonpro-

scribed sources of prejudice in religious tradi-

tions illustrates (Hunsberger & Jackson, 2005 ),

sexual minorities remain targets for religious -

based discrimination. Examining the effect of

such discrimination on the identity formation

of gay and lesbian youths during adolescence

is important.

Similarly, what is the role of religion in

ameliorating or even exacerbating the risks

associated with being a religious minority

in the United States today (Abo - Zena et al.,

2008 )? How can religious practices such as

wearing a headscarf differentially expose cer-

tain youths to risk factors like discrimination,

while engagement in such practices provides

a buffer against such experiences at the same

time?

Worldviews and Violence

Another area for future research concerns

the development of religious and spiritual

worldviews during adolescence and early

adulthood and their functional significance

for well - being and life choices (e.g., Arnett,

2008 ). How do young people ’ s knowledge

and understanding (or lack of knowledge and

understanding) of the world ’ s religions shape

their own worldviews? How can we help all

young people achieve a deep appreciation for

the plurality of religions and wisdom traditions

that characterize different facets of humanity

today and, in doing so, promote greater mutual

understanding and civil society (Roeser &

Lerner, 2008)? Which religious and spiritual

worldviews are differentially associated with

positive and problematic forms of human

development (e.g., Feldman, 2008 ). Why are

young males so vulnerable to the influence

of violent worldviews and attendant forms of

actual violence in nations all around the world

(Wagener & Maloney, 2006 )? What social eco-

logical conditions foster such vulnerability?

How can worldview beliefs be used to differ-

entiate religious terrorism from positive forms

of development (Silberman, 2005 )?

Life Event Catalysts of RSD

More research on the life event catalysts of reli-

gious and spiritual development is also needed.

At the time of writing, King et al. ( 2008 ) were

in the process of analyzing in depth interviews

c13.indd 470c13.indd 470 2/17/09 10:45:11 AM2/17/09 10:45:11 AM

References 471

of 32 adolescent spiritual exemplars from

spiritually and culturally diverse backgrounds

around the globe. An emerging finding as a

key factor thought to affect the emergence of

a reflective and intentional approach to life, in

which happiness and a more satisfying life are

sought, is the experience of suffering and an

inability to address it sufficiently through pre-

vailing identity commitments and worldviews

(Corbett, 2000 ). From this perspective, spiri-

tual development is said to be triggered when

“ traditional religious beliefs and images from

childhood no longer offer comfort from suf-

fering or provide adequate reasons for injus-

tices in the world ” (Templeton & Eccles 2006,

p. 255). The resultant loss of meaning and

desire for livable solutions to questions of ulti-

mate meaning (e.g., the existence of suffering)

catalyze new existential questioning, explo-

ration, and seeking. More generally, under-

standing how life events may trigger spiritual

doubts, identity explorations, and ongoing

commitments is an important topic of inquiry.

Mediating Factors

Although the relationship between religion/

spirituality and positive outcomes for youth is

well documented at this writing, the mecha-

nisms behind this association have not been

well explored. Although there is evidence

that social support, such as social capital or

developmental assets may mediate the effect

of religious participation or religious salience

on positive development in young people, fur-

ther research is needed to clarify how social

support might work for different youths in dif-

ferent settings. For instance, do adolescents

with varying amounts of parental support ben-

efit differently from religious social support?

Research demonstrates that young people in

diverse contexts benefit from social capital dif-

ferently (King, 2004 ).

PSYC 631 Liberty University Psychology Adolescence Development Paper assignments.pdf

Students also viewed