Emerging adults' religiousness and spirituality : meaning-making in an age of transition

306 Pages·2014·1.44 MB·English

by  Carolyn McNamara Barry

Emerging Adults’ Religiousness
and Spirituality
EMERGING ADULTHOOD SERIES
Series Editor
Larry J. Nelson
Advisory Board
Elisabetta Crocetti
Shagufa Kapadia
Koen Luyckx
Laura Padilla-Walker
Jennifer L. Tanner
Books in the Series
Emerging Adults’ Religiousness and Spirituality: Meaning-Making
in an Age of Transition
Edited by Carolyn McNamara Barry and Mona M. Abo-Zena
Forthcoming Books in the Series
Developing Mental Health in Emerging Adulthood
Edited by Jennifer L. Tanner
Emerging Adults’
Religiousness and
Spirituality
Meaning-Making in an Age of Transition
Edited by
Carolyn McNamara Barry
Mona M. Abo-Zena
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Emerging adults’ religiousness and spirituality: meaning-making in an age of
transition / edited by Carolyn McNamara Barry, Mona M. Abo-Zena. — 1 [edition].
pages cm.—(Emerging adulthood series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–995918–1
1. Teenagers—Religious life—United States. 2. Young adults—Religious
life—United States. 3. Spiritual formation. 4. Meaning (Philosophy)
I. Barry, Carolyn McNamara, editor of compilation.
BL625.47.E44 2014
200.84´20973—dc23
2014000152
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Foreword by Christian Smith xi
Acknowledgments xiii
About the Editors xvii
Contributors xix
Part I: Introduction
1. Seeing the Forest and the Trees: How Emerging
Adults Navigate Meaning-Making 3
Carolyn McNamara Barry and Mona M. Abo-Zena
Part II: Foundational Perspectives
2. Emerging Adults’ Religious and Spiritual Development 21
Carolyn McNamara Barry and Mona M. Abo-Zena
3. Potential Benefits and Detriments of Religiousness and
Spirituality to Emerging Adults 39
Gina Magyar-Russell, Paul J. Deal, and Iain Tucker Brown
Part III: Contexts and Socializing Agents in Emerging Adults’
Religious and Spiritual Lives
4. The Role of Parents in the Religious and Spiritual
Development of Emerging Adults 59
Larry J. Nelson
5. The Role of Peer Relationships in Emerging Adults’
Religiousness and Spirituality 76
Carolyn McNamara Barry and Jennifer L. Christofferson
6. Faith in the Digital Age: Emerging Adults’ Religious
Mosaics and Media Practices 93
Piotr S. Bobkowski
7. The Law’s Promise of Religious Freedom to Support Emerging
Adults’ Religious Development and Experiences 109
Roger J. R. Levesque
8. Religious Congregations and Communities 133
William B. Whitney and Pamela Ebstyne King
9. Changing Souls: Higher Education’s Influence Upon the
Religious Lives of Emerging Adults 152
Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan Hill, and Todd C. Ream
Part IV: Variations
10. Gender, Religiousness, and Spirituality in Emerging
Adulthood 171
Jacqueline S. Mattis
11. The Roles of Religiousness and Spirituality in
the Sexual Lives of Heterosexual Emerging Adults 186
Tara M. Stoppa, Graciela Espinosa-Hernandez, and
Meghan M. Gillen
12. Sexual Minorities 204
Geoffrey L. Ream and Eric M. Rodriguez
13. Religion, Spirituality, and Emerging Adults: Processing
Meaning Through Culture, Context, and Social Position 220
Mona M. Abo-Zena and Sameera Ahmed
14. Nonreligious and Atheist Emerging Adults 237
Luke W. Galen
Part V: Conclusion
15. Reflections on the Long and Winding Road
of Meaning-Making 255
Mona M. Abo-Zena and Carolyn McNamara Barry
Index 271
vi Contents
Series Foreword
The Emerging Adulthood Series examines the period of life starting at
age 18 and continuing into and through the third decade of life, now
commonly referred to as emerging adulthood. The specific focus of the
series is on flourishing (i.e., factors that lead to positive, adaptive devel-
opment during emerging adulthood and the successful transition into
adult roles) and floundering (i.e., factors that lead to maladaptive behav-
iors and negative development during emerging adulthood as well as
delay and difficulty in transitioning into adult roles) in the diverse paths
young people take into and through the third decade of life.
There is a need to examine the successes and struggles in a vari-
ety of domains experienced by young people as they take complex
and multiple paths in leaving adolescence and moving into and
through their twenties. Too often the diversity of individual expe-
riences is forgotten in our academic attempts to categorize a time
period. For example, in proposing his theory of emerging adulthood,
Arnett (2000, 2004) identified features of the development of young
people, including feeling in-between (emerging adults do not see them-
selves as either adolescents or adults), identity exploration (especially
in the areas of work, love, and worldviews), focus on the self (not
self-centered, but simply lacking obligations to others), instability
(evidenced by changes of direction in residential status, relationships,
work, and education), and possibilities (optimism in the potential to
steer their lives in any number of desired directions). Although this
is a nice summary of characteristics of the time period, the schol-
arly examination of emerging adulthood has not always attempted
to capture and explain the within-group variation that exists among
emerging adults, often making the broad generalization that they are
a relatively homogenous group. For example, emerging adults have
been categorically referred to as “narcissistic,” “refusing to grow up,”
and “failed adults.” While there certainly are emerging adults who
fit the profile of selfish, struggling, and directionless, there are oth-
ers who are using this period of time for good. Indeed, there is great
diversity of individual experiences in emerging adulthood. Hence,
there is a need to examine better various beliefs/attitudes, attributes,
behaviors, and relationships during this period of time that appear
to reflect positive adjustment, or a sense of flourishing, or conversely
those that lead to floundering.
For example, recent research (Nelson & Padilla-Walker, 2013) shows
that young people who appear to be successfully navigating emerging
adulthood tend to engage in identity exploration, develop internal-
ization of positive values, participate in positive media use, engage
in prosocial behaviors, report healthy relationships with parents, and
engage in romantic relationships that are characterized by higher levels
of companionship, worth, affection, and emotional support. For others
who appear to be floundering, emerging adulthood appears to include
anxiety and depression, poor self-perceptions, greater participation
in risk behaviors, and poorer relationship quality with parents, best
friends, and romantic partners. Thus, while various profiles of flour-
ishing and floundering are starting to be identified, the current work
in the field has simply provided cursory overviews of findings. This
series provides a platform for an in-depth, comprehensive examination
into some of these key factors that seem to be influencing, positively or
negatively, young people as they enter into and progress through the
third decade of life and the multiple ways in which they may flourish
or flounder. Furthermore, the series attempts to examine how these fac-
tors may function differently within various populations (i.e., cultures
and religious and ethnic subcultures, students vs. non-students, men vs.
women). Finally, the series provides for a multidisciplinary (e.g., fields
ranging from developmental psychology, neurobiology, education, soci-
ology, criminology) and multimethod (i.e., information garnered from
both quantitative and qualitative methodologies) examination of issues
related to flourishing and floundering in emerging adulthood.
viii Series Foreword