Religious identity is a specific type of
identity formation
Identity formation, also called identity development or identity construction, is a complex process in which humans develop a clear and unique view of themselves and of their identity.
Self-concept, personality development, and values are all clo ...
. Particularly, it is the sense of group membership to a religion and the importance of this group membership as it pertains to one's
self-concept
In the psychology of self, one's self-concept (also called self-construction, self-identity, self-perspective or self-structure) is a collection of beliefs about oneself. Generally, self-concept embodies the answer to the question ''"Who am I? ...
. Religious identity is not necessarily the same as religiousness or
religiosity
In sociology, the concept of religiosity has proven difficult to define. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests: "Religiousness; religious feeling or belief. ..Affected or excessive religiousness". Different scholars have seen this concept as b ...
. Although these three terms share a commonality, religiousness and religiosity refer to both the value of religious group membership as well as participation in religious events (e.g. going to church).
[Arweck, E. & Nesbitt, E. (2010). Young people's identity formation in mixed-faith families: continuity or discontinuity of religious traditions? Journal of Contemporary Religion, 25, 67-87.][King, V. Elder, G.H., Whitbeck, L.B. (1997). Religious involvement among rural youth: An ecological and life-course perspective. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 7, 431-456.] Religious identity, on the other hand, refers specifically to religious group membership regardless of religious activity or participation.
Similar to other forms of identity formation, such as
ethnic
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
and
cultural identity
Cultural identity is a part of a person's identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct cultur ...
, the religious context can generally provide a perspective from which to view the world, opportunities to socialize with a spectrum of individuals from different generations, and a set of basic principles to live out.
[King, P.E. & Boyatzis, C.J. (2004). Exploring adolescent spiritual and religious development: current and future theoretical and empirical perspectives. Applied Developmental Science, 8, 2-6.] These foundations can come to shape an individual's identity.
Despite the implications that religion has on identity development, the identity formation literature has mainly focused on ethnicity and gender and has largely discounted the role of religion. Nevertheless, an increasing number of studies have begun to include religion as a factor of interest.
[Lee, J.J. (2002). Religion and college attendance: Change among students. The Review of Higher Education, 25, 369-384.] However, many of these studies use religious identity, religiosity, and religiousness interchangeably or solely focus on religious identity and solely religious participation as separate constructs.
Of these types of research studies, researchers have examined the various factors that affect the strength of one's religious identity over time.
[Arnett, J.J. (2000). A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 469-480.][Valde, G.A. (1996). Identity closure: A fifth identity status. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 157, 245-254.][Whitbourne, S.K., & Tesch, S.A. (1985). A comparison of identity and intimacy statuses in college students and adults. Developmental Psychology, 21, 1039-1044.] Factors that have been found to affect levels of religious identity include gender, ethnicity, and generational status.
[Harker, K. (2001). Immigrant generation, assimilation, and adolescent psychological well-being. Social Forces, 79(3), 969-1004.][Hirschman, C. (2004). The role of religion in the origins and adaptations of immigrant groups in the United States. IMR, 38, 1206-1233.][McCullough, M.E., Tsang, J., & Brion, S. (2003). Personality traits in adolescents as predictors of religiousness in early adulthood: Findings from the Terman longitudinal study. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 980-991.][Wallace, J.M., Forman, T.A., Caldwell, C.H., & Willis, D.S. (2003). Religion and U.S. secondary school students: Current patterns, recent trends, and sociodemographic correlates. Youth Society, 35, 98-125.]
'Identity' is one of the most used terms in the
social sciences
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...
and has different senses in different research paradigms. In addition to
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
studies,
sociologists and
anthropologist
An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...
s also apply the term 'religious identity' and examine its related processes in given social contexts. For example, one important study conducted in the United States after the events of
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, explored the
meaning-making
In psychology, meaning-making is the process of how people construe, understand, or make sense of life events, relationships, and the self.
The term is widely used in constructivist approaches to counseling psychology and psychotherapy, especia ...
among
American Muslims and how changes in identity ascription (what people think about another group of people) affected how Muslims sought to represent themselves. Other studies have applied concepts appropriated from race and gender identity theory such as disidentification which undermines essentialist accounts of religious identity - that an individual has a 'fixed' religious identity, independent of pre-existing systems of representation and individuals' positioning within them.
Individuals who share the same religious identity are called
coreligionists Religious identity is a specific type of identity formation. Particularly, it is the sense of group membership to a religion and the importance of this group membership as it pertains to one's self-concept. Religious identity is not necessarily the ...
.
History
During the early 1800s in the field of psychology, research on the topic of religion was considered important and ubiquitous. For example, researchers like
G. Stanley Hall
Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1846 – April 24, 1924) was a pioneering American psychologist and educator. His interests focused on human life span development and evolutionary theory. Hall was the first president of the American Psy ...
and
William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
conducted studies on such topics as
religious conversion
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
.
[Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence, Vol. II. New York: Appleton.][Youniss, J., McLellan, J.A., & Yates, M. (1999). Religion, community service, and identity in American youth. Journal Adolescence, 22, 243-253.] In contrast, the public perspective on religion began to shift two decades later.
Instead of religion being seen as an integral part of an individual's life and development and thus a necessary topic to research, scientists and scholars alike viewed religion as a hindrance to the progression of science and as a topic no longer applicable to the current times.
[Siegel, A.W., & White, S.H. (1982). The child study movement. In Advances in Child Development and Behavior. Reese, H. W. (Ed.). New York: Academic press, pp. 233-285.][Watson, J.B. (1928). Psychological Care of Infant and Child. New York, NY: Norton.]
Contrary to social scientists' prediction of the general decline of religion over time and increase of
secularization
In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...
leading to a complete abandonment of
religious studies, religion did not diminish and was instead acknowledged by researchers as a topic worthwhile to research. Scientists and scholars, like British sociologist
John Thompson, realized that despite the neglect of religion in studies, the presence and impact of religion on individuals' lives were undeniable and did not disappear with time.
[Thompson, J.B. (1995). The Media and Modernity: a social theory of the media. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.] Hence, a body of research on religion began to take root. Particularly, a handful of researchers were interested in examining religious identity during adolescence.
Factors that affect religious identity
Given that religious traditions can be intricately interlaced with various aspects of culture, the religious identity literature has consistently yielded ethnic, gender, and generational differences.
[Lopez, A.B., Huynh, V.W., & Fuligni, A.J. (In press). A longitudinal study of religious identity and participation during adolescence.]
Ethnic differences
According to
Social Identity Theory
Social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevance, relevant social group.
As originally formulated by social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John C. Turner, John Turner in the 1970s ...
, when individuals of ethnic minority backgrounds feel as if their identity is threatened, they may emphasize their other social identities as a means to maintain a positive self-concept.
[Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. (2001). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams (Eds.), Relations: Essential readings. Key readings in social psychology (pp. 94-109). New York, NY: Psychology Press.] This idea is supported by the various studies that have shown higher levels of religious identity among ethnic minorities, particularly those from Latino and African American backgrounds, compared to European Americans.
Gender differences
Gender may also impact one's religious identity. Generally, females are more likely than males to attend religious services and express that religion is an important aspect of their lives.
Studies have captured this gender difference through observations of females reporting greater religious attitudes.
This was also shown in a four-year longitudinal study on religious involvement for adolescents living in rural settings. Females tended to be more involved in church-related activities than males and were more likely to view themselves as religious individuals.
Immigrant generational differences
There are three categories of generational status: First, Second, and Third. An individual who is considered to be first generation is one who was born outside of the United States and immigrated. Second generation refers to an individual who was born in the United States but whose parent(s) were foreign-born and immigrated. Lastly, third generation refers to an individual and the individual's parents were born in the United States.
First and second generation individuals may tend to have particularly higher religious identity levels in comparison to third generation immigrants.
In efforts to adjust to the stressful changes associated with the immigration process, finding a community of emotional, social, and financial support, an environment typically provided by a place of worship, may be highly sought after by immigrants.
Studies have indeed revealed that adolescents from immigrant families (both first and second generation immigrants) reported higher levels of religious identity compared to adolescents whose parents are not immigrants (third generation).
Institutional factors
Studies suggest that institutional factors impact on religious identity. For example in a study of Christians, Jews and Muslims in English secondary schools
adolescents reported negative representations of their religious traditions in the curriculum and common stereotypes held by their peers. These negative ascriptions were perceived by participants to influence their strategies of representing themselves, including hiding their religious affiliations or attempting to pre-empt criticism or bullying by representing the traditions they identified with in an apologetic conciliatory manner.
Religious identity trajectories
By and large, numerous studies have observed ethnic, gender, and generational differences in religious identity. However, there have not been as many longitudinal studies on the influence of ethnicity, gender, and generational status on individuals' development of religious identity over time. Nevertheless, of the handful of such studies, researchers have focused mainly on adolescence
[King, P.E. (2003). Religion and identity: The role of ideological, social, and spiritual contexts. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 197-204.] and started to branch out to emerging adulthood.
[Barry, C.M., & Nelson, L.J. (2005). The role of religion in the transition to adulthood for young emerging adults. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 4, 245-255.][Barry, C.M., & Nelson, L.J., Davarya, S., & Urry, S. (2010). Religiosity and spirituality during the transition to adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 34, 311-324.][Uecker, J.E., Regnerus, M., & Vaaler, M.L. (2007). Losing my religion: The social sources of religious decline in early adulthood. Social Forces, 85, 1667-1692.]
Adolescence
have been particularly interested in studying identity during adolescence because it is a developmental period crucial to identity development. During this period, adolescents have opportunities to explore their ethnic, cultural, and religious traditions.
However, the freedom and flexibility of their exploration is typically within the constraints of their parents or caregiver.
It was believed that religious identity and participation would both follow the same trajectory and decrease across time; hence, the studies that examined religiousness, which combines the two constructs.
Although religious affiliation, identity, and participation are closely related, longitudinal research on adolescents suggests that these constructs have different trajectories from one another. For example, researchers have found that religious affiliation and identity for adolescents remained fairly stable across the high school years, which contradicts the expected change in religious affiliation from affiliated to unaffiliated and decrease in religious identity.
However, the stability of adolescent religious identity parallels that of other social identities such as ethnic identity.
[Fuligni, A. J., Kiang, L., Witkow, M. R., & Baldelomar, O. (2008). Stability and change in ethnic labeling among adolescents from Asian and Latin American immigrant families. Child Development, 79(4), 944-956.] Researchers have reasoned that due to adolescents' relatively stable social environment, there is not a strong need to further explore and renegotiate their religious identity.
Moreover, religious identity is mainly driven by parents during adolescence.
[Denham, S.A. et al. (2004) Paper presented at the biennial Conference on Human Development, Washington, DC.] Given that adolescents tend to still live with their parents during high school, there may not be a need to engage in deeper exploration of their religion, which may help explain the observed stable religious identity.
Whereas religious affiliation and identity remain stable, religious participation tends to decrease.
Adolescents may exercise their increased autonomy and choose not to attend religious events. Particularly, adolescents may find other activities (e.g. studying, clubs, and sports) vying for their time and resources and choose to prioritize those activities over religious events. The significant decline in religious participation at the end of high school may be a precursor to further decline during emerging adulthood.
Emerging adulthood
Adolescence has been traditionally associated with a time of identity exploration. However, that exploration process is not complete by the end of adolescence. Rather, emerging adulthood, the years between late teens and late twenties, extends the identity formation process from adolescence.
This transitional period is marked by constant changes in romantic love, work, and worldviews
and is generally a time of "semiautonomy."
[Goldscheider, F., & Goldscheider, C. (1994). Leaving and returning home in 20th century America. Population Bulletin, 48(4), 1-35.][Goldscheider, F., DaVanzo, J. (1986). Semiautonomy and leaving home in early adulthood. Social Forces, 65, 187-201.] With this increased sense of autonomy, emerging adults may choose to further exert their independence by moving away from home and/or by attending college. Through whichever ways that emerging adults choose to exercise their autonomy, they are likely to find themselves in new, diverse environments teeming with a spectrum of vast worldviews.
Despite the necessity for studies on religious identity, there has been limited work on the role of religion in identity formation in emerging adults. Compared to the research in adolescence, there is much less work on the development of religious identity and religious participation across the emerging adulthood years. The combination of immense and frequent changes, increased autonomy, and diverse environments during this period has major ramifications for the development of emerging adults' religious affiliation, religious identity, and religious participation.
Religion was believed to have little impact on emerging adults' identity, particularly for those who attend college
[Brinkerhoff, M.B., & Marlene, M.M. (1993). Casting Off the Bonds of Organized Religion: A Religious-Careers Approach to the Study of Apostasy. Review of Religious Research 34:235-58.][Hunsberger, B., & L.B., Brown. (1984). Religious socialization, apostasy, and the impact of family background. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 23, 239-51.][Pew Forum, o. R. a. P. L. (2008). U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (Report).][Willits, F.K. & Crider, D.M. (1989). Church Attendance and Traditional Religious Beliefs in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Panel Study. Review of Religious Research, 31, 68-81.] However, recent research suggests otherwise.
According to a study, while 14 percent of college students reported a decrease in religious beliefs throughout college, 48 percent reported stable religious beliefs, and 38 percent reported an increase.
Moreover, another study found that contrary to the expectations of decreased religious identity and religious participation during emerging adulthood, religious identity did not decrease, but religious participation did decline as predicted.
Researchers explained that emerging adults are more likely to decrease their involvement in religious activities than they are to completely disaffiliate from their religion or express less importance of religion in their lives.
Additionally, in a study that examined the ways in which religion influenced emerging adults, researchers found that emerging adults' standards of adulthood were dependent upon the religious affiliation of the institution they attended.
For example, compared to emerging adults who attended Catholic or public universities, emerging adults who attended Mormon universities rated interdependence, norm compliance, biological transitions, and family capacities as extremely important criteria for adulthood.
In summary, although not all studies on this topic are in agreement, religious identity generally tends to remain stable during emerging adulthood whereas religious participation decreases over time.
See also
*
Ethnic religion
In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, in which gaining converts is a pri ...
*
Religion and geography
Religion and geography is the study of the impact of geography, i.e. place and space, on religious belief.
Another aspect of the relationship between religion and geography is ''religious geography'', in which geographical ideas are influenced by ...
References
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