SBNR Identity: The Role of Impersonal God Representations,Individualistic Spirituality,and Dissimilarity With Religious Groups

We conducted two studies investigating the extent to which self-identification as Spiritual but not Religious (SBNR) was associated with (H1) the development of idiosyncratic religious beliefs and exposure to religious diversity and/or (H2) negative attitudes toward organized religion and being hurt by members of a religious group. In Study 1, SBNRs scored higher than religious and nonreligious participants on belief in God as an impersonal cosmic force (but not as a personal being) and individualistic spirituality. Although SBNRs had positive attitudes toward religion, they were less positive than those identifying as religious. Exposure to religious diversity and hurt by religious groups were not significant predictors of SBNR. We replicated these results in Study 2 using a multi-item measure of God representations and also found that SBNRs’ attitudes toward religion were predicted by a perceived dissimilarity with religious groups over and above individualism, secular group participation, perceptions of Christianity as too structured, and liberalism.     

Testing a SEM Model of Two Religious Concepts and Experiential Spirituality

Guided by Atchley’s Continuity Theory of the Spiritual Self as presented in Aging, spirituality, and religion, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN (1995), this study tested the validity of two dimensions of religiosity and one dimension of spirituality. It then examined the extent to which each dimension of religiosity influenced having spiritual experiences for 221 chronically ill older adults. Mean age of the sample was 80 years. Structural equation modeling was used to test a conceptual model. Substantive findings were that private religiosity (prayer and coping), but not public religiosity (participation and other church involvement) may influence reporting spiritual experiences by the older adults in the study. Findings revealed a good model fit to the data and strong factor loadings revealed sound construct validity for the latent variables (i.e., public and private religiosities, and experiential spirituality) in the model.     

Identity,Recovery, and Religious Imperialism

Cultural disintegration and the resulting loss of self-esteem have acted as precursors for rampant substance abuse in indigenous American communities. Especially at risk are Native women, who have little recognition in the dominant culture, but whose traditional roles of respect have also dwindled with forced acculturation. Just when a wave of reconversion (going "back to the blanket") is taking hold among Native women substance users/abusers, the even more prevalent commercialization of Indian religion and pseudo-religion are denigrating these recaptured sources of dignity and pride. This "religious imperialism" doesn't just parody true Native faiths; it robs Native women in recovery of the self-esteem building tool which has proven most effective. It also continues the appropriation of indigenous culture which further serves to undermine coming generations of Native American women.     

Implications of Religious Identity Salience,Religious Involvement,and Religious Commitment on Aggression

Social identity can affect perceptions of external threats and the type of response elicited to those threats. Religion is a social identity with eternal group membership and revered beliefs and values; thus, religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement may have implications for aggressive responses to perceived threats to a person’s religious identity. In a sample of 176 Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we investigated whether people respond aggressively to collective threat as a function of religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement. Religious commitment was positively related to anger only when religious identity was salient. Religious involvement was negatively related to anger and hostility only when religious identity was salient. Religious identity salience appears to act as a moderator by either enhancing perceptions of threat or by activating internal religious beliefs and values.     

Religious Orientation and Ethnic Identity as Predictors of Religious Coping Among Bereaved Individuals

Religious orientation and ethnic identity inform the religious coping process, but research on this topic is scarce. The authors collected data on these constructs from a sample (N = 319) of bereaved adults. A canonical correlation analysis showed that individuals who engage in traditional spiritual practices and strive to achieve ordinary and transcendental spiritual goals are more likely to engage in positive religious coping (Wilks's Λ = .36, R_c² = .62, p < .001). Also, a multiple regression analysis revealed that individuals with higher levels of ethnic identity development are more likely to engage in positive religious coping (β = .12, t < .05). Finally, a discriminant analysis indicated that ethnic identity and a conservative religious orientation discriminated between Whites and ethnic minority individuals, Wilks's Λ = .71, χ²(4, N = 204) = 70.10, p < .001, R_c² = .26. The authors encourage counselors to strengthen their multicultural and spiritual competencies to provide effective services to a culturally and religiously diverse clientele.     

Religious Identity and Cultural Diversity: Exploring the Relationships Between Religious Identity,Sexism, Homophobia,and Multicultural Competence

In this article, the authors present the results from a national study investigating the relationships between religious identity, sexism, homophobia, and multicultural competence. Participants were 111 randomly sampled counseling professionals and graduate students. The results indicated a relationship between religious identity and various aspects of valuing cultural diversity, including sexism, homophobia, and multicultural competence. Implications of the role of religion and religious identity in counseling are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided.     

The Integration of Personal Identity,Religious Identity,and Moral Identity in Emerging Adulthood

The present study investigated the relative roles of identity structure (i.e., personal identity) and identity contents (i.e., religious identity and moral identity) in predicting emerging adults’ prosocial and antisocial behaviors. The sample included 9,495 college students. A variable-centered analysis (path analysis) used personal identity, religious identity, and moral identity as predictors of prosocial and antisocial behavior and tested interactions of personal identity with religious identity and moral identity. Moral identity was the strongest predictor of both behaviors, and religious identity and moral identity both interacted with personal identity in predicting antisocial behavior. A person-centered analysis (latent profile analysis) found three classes: integrated, moral identity–focused, and religious identity–focused, with integrated being most adaptive on both outcomes.     

Recollections of Childhood Religious Identity and Behavior as a Function of Adult Religiousness

People have a strong motivation to maintain a self-concept that is coherent and consistent over time. Religion is an central source of social identity for many people, but its importance is prone to dramatic change across the life course. To maintain a consistent perception of self, recollections of one's own past religiousness may shift to better fit with the present. This study examined changes between early and middle adulthood in retrospective perceptions of religious behavior and identity in childhood. Data from a population-based birth cohort sample were matched with data from individuals who participated in at least two of three adult follow-up studies, at intervals of approximately 10 years. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association of final recollections of childhood behavior and identity with previous recollections and current religious characteristics. Consistent with the predictions of temporal self-appraisal theory, participants' perception of their religious identity as children tended to change over time to match their adult religious identity. Recollections of childhood religious behavior were more stable than recollections of religious identity, and change was unrelated to adult behavior. These results have implications for studying religious characteristics using retrospective measures, regarding their accuracy and their independence from contemporary measures.     

Recollections of Childhood Religious Identity and Behavior as a Function of Adult Religiousness

People have a strong motivation to maintain a self-concept that is coherent and consistent over time. Religion is a central source of social identity for many people, but its importance is prone to dramatic change across the life course. To maintain a consistent perception of self, recollections of one's own past religiousness may shift to better fit with the present. This study examined changes between early and middle adulthood in retrospective perceptions of religious behavior and identity in childhood. Data from a population-based birth cohort sample were matched with data from individuals who participated in at least 2 of 3 adult follow-up studies, at intervals of approximately 10 years. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association of final recollections of childhood behavior and identity with previous recollections and current religious characteristics. Consistent with the predictions of temporal self-appraisal theory, participants' perception of their religious identity as children tended to change over time to match their adult religious identity. Recollections of childhood religious behavior were more stable than recollections of religious identity, and change was unrelated to adult behavior. These results have implications for studying religious characteristics using retrospective measures, regarding their accuracy and their independence from contemporary measures.     

The Multidimensionality of Motivation for Jewish Religious Behavior: Content, Structure, and Relationship to Religious Identity

The present study examined the content and structure of self–reported motivation for Jewish religious behavior. Initial items were generated from comprehensive and detailed responses to a semi–structured interview and an open–ended questionnaire. Principal component factor analysis with orthogonal rotation was carried out on the responses of a sample of 323 research participants to two parallel sets of the 111 items produced by the above process. The factor structures for each of these sets of items were highly similar to each other and consisted of the following five reliable factors: belief in a divine order, ethnic identity, social activity, family activity, and upbringing. These factors appear to reflect the way religious behavior can contribute to the satisfaction of a number of general human motives. Persons with different religious identities were found to attribute their performance of religious ritual to different motives, providing a partial explanation for the apparent anomaly of the performance of religious ritual by persons who identify themselves as secular.     

The Role of Religious Coping and Resilience in Individuals With Dissociative Identity Disorder

Survivors with dissociative identity disorder (DID) often report a history of traumatic events in their lives. Past studies indicated a link between trauma, resilience, and spiritual coping in both positive and negative aspects of a survivor's life. This article includes a review of existing literature salient to these constructs in relation to i ndividuals with DID, as well as results from a study examining the relationships between these constructs and individuals with DID (N = 52). Implications are discussed based on the findings for counselors treating individuals with DID.     

Children as Religious Resources: The Role of Children in the Social Re-Formation of Class, Culture, and Religious Identity

Based on observations and interviews in two churches representing two different strands of American Protestantism, I assess the ways in which children contribute to the social construction of class, culture, and religious identity for adults. Evidence comes from observing how congregations incorporate children into adult worship services and talk about them in texts and programs, and from the ways in which newer and long-term congregation members describe valuing and understanding children's ministries. These styles and their meanings reflect the history, heritage, and theological distinctives of these two strands of American Protestantism. Religion, I suggest, is not just good for children; children themselves are a religious resource whose presence in worship, service, and discourse helps to create and maintain a sense of identity, place, and meaning in the lives of worshipping adults.     

Religious Ego Identity and Its Relationship to Faith Maturity

The relationship between religious ego identity and religious faith maturity was investigated among college students (M age % 19.8 years) using J. E. Marcia's (1966) religious ego status classification system, which is based on the presence or absence in an individual of an exploration of religious values or beliefs and commitment to them; the system also contains a measure of religious faith maturity. Results showed that individuals with a diffusion status (no exploration, no commitment) were less mature in religious faith than those with a foreclosure status (no exploration, commitment), a moratorium status (exploration, no commitment), or those classified as achieved (exploration, commitment). Compared with individuals classified as foreclosed, achieved individuals integrated more effectively the religious faith maturity dimension of service to humanity and community as well as service of self to a transcendent reality.     

Religious Parties, Religious Political Identity, and the Cold Shoulder of Liberal Democratic Thought

Elements of the relation between religion and politics are standard themes in political theory: toleration and free exercise rights; the parameters of separation of church and state; arguments for and against constraints imposed on religious discourse by philosophic norms of public reason. But religious parties and partisanship are no part of political theory, despite contemporary interest in value pluralism and in liberal democratic theory's capacity to address multicultural, religious, and ethnic group claims. This essay argues that religious parties are missing elements in discussions of identity politics. They play an important role not just in expressing but also in constructing and mobilizing religious political identity. Political activity linked to parties is a principal way of bringing diffuse, politically unorganized groups, whose leaders are self-appointed and not regularly accountable for the way they represent co-religionists in political life, into the democratic mainstream. With political organization and especially partisanship, the fact of pluralism is made concrete for democratic purposes.     

Spirituality and Severity of Menopausal Symptoms in a Sample of Religious Women

Menopause represents an important life change, particularly for religious women whose identity is significantly related to family. Two competing hypotheses are examined: one, because religious women have their identity focused on family and child rearing, spirituality will be related to increased menopausal symptoms because menopause represents a loss of identity and purpose; and two, because spirituality can provide strength and comfort during difficult times, it will, therefore, be related to decreased menopausal symptoms. To test these competing hypotheses, questionnaires were administered to 218 women (average age 55, 35% premenopausal, 26% peri-menopausal, 39% postmenopausal) who were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Regression analyses indicated that higher levels of spiritual strength were related to decreased levels of reported menopausal symptoms. Spiritual strength was also related to increased benefit finding during menopause, decreased concern with body appearance, and increased use of adaptive coping strategies. We conclude that finding strength in spirituality may help religious women cope better with the life changes associated with menopause.     

Five-Factor Model Personality Traits, Spirituality/Religiousness, and Mental Health Among People Living With HIV

ABSTRACT We examined the association between five-factor personality domains and facets and spirituality/religiousness as well as their joint association with mental health in a diverse sample of people living with HIV ( n =112, age range 18–66). Spirituality/religiousness showed stronger associations with Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness than with Neuroticism and Extraversion. Both personality traits and spirituality/religiousness were significantly linked to mental health, even after controlling for individual differences in demographic measures and disease status. Personality traits explained unique variance in mental health above spirituality and religiousness. Further, aspects of spirituality and religiousness were found to mediate some of the links between personality and mental health in this patient sample. These findings suggest that underlying personality traits contribute to the beneficial effects of spirituality/religiousness among vulnerable populations.