Religiousness and spirituality among highly religious emerging adults.

Cook, Kaye V. ; Boyatzis, Chris J. ; Kimball, Cynthia 等

Emerging adulthood, a distinctive period of transition occurring between the ages of 18 and 29, allows individuals to "examine the life possibilities open to them and gradually arrive at more enduring choices in love, work, and worldviews" (Arnett, 2000, p. XX). As part of this general stage of exploration, individuals often question their religious beliefs, transform and develop new ones, and arrive at a new configuration that reflects their personally owned commitments to religious institutions and faith (Fowler, 1981; Parks, 2011). Our current research explores changes in religiousness and spirituality among samples of highly religious emerging adults, examining their spiritual formation while in or soon after graduation from a Christian college.

College has become a normative experience for emerging adults (U. S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, 2014). Recent research indicates significant, often positive changes in spirituality during the undergraduate years (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2010; Freitas, 2008; Glanzer, Hill, & Ream, 2014; Lindholm, 2007). However, less is known about spiritual change after college. The time between college graduation and adulthood is a stressful one for many (Hettich, 2010), although most emerging adults do well and settle down soon after college, generally by their mid-20s (Arnett, 2000; Murphy, Blustein, Bohlig, & Platt, 2010). The current studies first explore whether religious commitment is stable during the post-college years, which have earlier been documented as particularly stressful and marked by transition. At the same time, we explore the undergraduate years, asking whether Christian colleges support the spiritual formation of their students. In the third study, we revisit the undergraduate years, seeking more information about religion and spirituality.

Research on adolescents suggests that a majority (60%) regularly participate in religious activities and most hold positive attitudes toward organized religion (Smith, Faris, Denton, & Regnerus, 2003). Approximately one quarter of the late adolescent population self-identify as evangelical Christian (Smith et al., 2003). Religious beliefs appear to be less common in emerging adulthood, and as many as two-thirds of emerging adults may be moral relativists, agnostics, or skeptics (Smith, Christoffersen, Davidson, & Herzog, 2011). Exploring their ethics indicates that about 20% of emerging adults live by an ethic of Divinity, which defines the individual as a "spiritual entity, subject to the prescriptions of a spiritual or natural order" (Arnett, Ramos, & Jensen, 2001, p. 70). In contrast, in an ethic of Autonomy the individual is the primary moral authority, or in an ethic of Community individuals are defined as members of groups to which they have commitments and obligations (Arnett et al., 2001; Shweder, Much, Mahapatra, & Park, 1997). Nevertheless, among emerging adults, 8 of 10 reported on a national survey that religion is somewhat to very important in their life (Harvard Institute of Politics 2014) and, among those in higher education, 75% reported "searching for meaning/purpose in life" and 80% reported believing in God or a higher power (Higher Education Research Institute, 2004). Religious participation does appear to drop off significantly during emerging adulthood (Barry & Abo-Zena, 2014; Lefkowitz, 2005), and as few as 5-10% of emerging adults enter college and practice their faith (Smith & Snell, 2009).

Much of the literature indicates that emerging adults move away from their earlier faith that they had learned from their parents and faith communities to a more individualized faith, with their own beliefs (Arnett & Jensen, 2002). For many young people, according to Smith and Denton (2005) a "parasitic, watered-down faith" (p. 62) has emerged in which God is viewed as "something like a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he's always on call, takes care of any problems, professionally helps people feel better about themselves, and does not become too involved in the process" (p 165). Smith and Denton describe this faith as Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) and view it as a personally convenient faith that does not demand much of its adherents and whose primary function is to make young people feel good. Smith and Snell (2009, pp. 154-156) suggested that within an MTD faith, historically central religious constructs are less likely to be embraced or mentioned than ever before. Examples of these classic descriptors of faith include honoring God in everyday life, thinking about the Trinity, obeying the church or God, and feeling God's grace.

Though MTD may characterize the faith of many emerging adults, Smith (Smith & Snell, 2009) and Arnett (2014) both acknowledge that there is a significant minority of emerging adults whose faith cannot be described in this way and who deserve further attention in the research literature. For this relatively small group of Christians--called "traditionalists" by Smith and "conservative believers" by Arnett--"religion is still about traditional ideas of sin, grace, and redemption" (Arnett, 2014, p. 218). For these individuals, college may lead to small but significant growth in their faith (Schwadel, 2011), in part because these students, particularly those in an evangelical Christian college context, engage in a community that nurtures the formation of religious identity (Freitas, 2008; Schwadel, 2011).

Our work here attempted to learn more about this population by studying alumni and undergraduates from Christian colleges. We presumed that emerging adults who attend and graduate from Christian colleges would likely represent this group of traditionalist conservative believers. Our work will explore whether the Christian college experience is a spiritually formative one that maintains students' religious and spiritual understandings and practices within traditional theological categories.

The self-description of "spiritual but not religious" has become increasingly popular recently (Astin, Astin, & Lindholm, 2010; Chaves, 2011), perhaps, as Wuthnow (2001) proposed, because spirituality is viewed as "more authentic" than organized religion since emerging adults can individually create or tailor their spirituality but not religion. Research attempting to differentiate between these two concepts indicates that both are multi-dimensional, with religion generally being used to refer to institutionalized or formally structured institutions whereas spirituality is favored as a description of individual experience with personally transcendent and meaningful events (Hill et al., 2000).

This paper presents a series of three studies using mixed methods to examine views of religion, spirituality, and God among highly religious emerging adults. Our studies are unique in that we have collected surveys and interviews from more than one cohort of emerging adults at each of two Christian colleges. In Study 1 we sampled recent alumni, two-year alumni, and four-year alumni from two Christian colleges. Study 2 was carried out at the same time as Study 1 and with first-year and senior undergraduates from one of the two institutions. In Study 3, we again sampled first-year and senior students from the same institution, two years after Study 2, with a particular focus on differentiating religiosity and spirituality.

In these studies, we hoped to carefully describe the religiousness and spirituality of highly religious emerging adults and to explore changes while in college and in the first few years after graduation. In describing our sample, we note that one possible outcome of our studies is that our participants could display beliefs consistent with the MTD faith held by (as demonstrated by Smith & Snell, 2009) the majority of emerging adults. However, another scenario, more consistent with the Christian college literature (Glanzer et al., 2014), is that these participants--who are ostensibly highly committed and religious Christians serious enough about their faith to have attended Christian colleges--would not embrace MTD but would instead continue to espouse a more traditional or conservative faith.

We therefore predicted that our participants would maintain a traditional faith that becomes less conservative with time. Specifically, we hypothesized that:

1.) These highly religious emerging adults would move away from organized religion and denominational commitments. This movement would be evident when comparing participant's current denominational commitments to their self-reported earlier commitments, and when comparing the denominational commitments of older participants to younger. Further, when asked about their interest in and the importance of religion and their church attendance, older participants would consider religion less interesting and important than younger participants and would be less likely to attend church.

2.) These highly religious emerging adults would develop an individualized faith that among older participants would be marked by more instances of a moralistic therapeutic dualism (MTD) and fewer instances of using classic descriptors of faith and historically central religious constructs (as identified by Smith).

3.) Highly religious emerging adults would increasingly value spirituality more than religiousness. This would be shown by seniors who, when compared to first-year students, report that they find spirituality more interesting and think spirituality is more important than religion, and by first-year and senior students who report that they are more spiritual and less religious since entering college.

Study 1: Alumni

Method

Participants. All recent, two-year, and four-year alumni at two Christian colleges, one in the Midwest and one in the Northeast, were contacted and asked to complete an on-line, hour-long survey (hosted by SurveyMonkey[TM]). A total of 765 (28%) responded. A random subsample of 120 alumni--made up of 40 alumni (20 males and 20 females) from each group (i.e., recent, two-year, and four-year alumni)--was subsequently interviewed. Seventeen were unable to be scheduled for interviews (e.g., they were out of the country or their contact information did not work).

The interview sample (M age = 24, range 20-28) was evenly balanced by gender (60 males, 60 females), and was largely Caucasian (94%) and Protestant (91%). Most participants self-identified as "nondenominational," Anglican/Episcopal, or American Baptist; 3% reported no affiliation. Multivariate analyses indicated that the interview and non-interview participants did not differ on survey responses.

On several basic measures of religiousness, participants indicated they were highly religious. For example, religion was "very important" to 80% of the participants, 98% reported that they were "moderately to extremely" interested in religion, and 71% reported attending church at least once a week.

Procedure. Alumni offices at the two colleges provided the names and email addresses of graduates, designated by number and not name. Alumni from May in a particular year included graduates from the prior December and subsequent August. Alumni were sent an email with a distinctive link to the survey and, if they accessed the survey and agreed to participate, were given information about confidentiality. A random subset of those who completed the survey was asked by email to participate in an interview and, if they were willing, how they would prefer to be contacted.

Interviews were conducted in person whenever possible. At the beginning of every survey and interview, informed consent was obtained, and no names were used during the interviews. Interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed by the interviewer for maximum accuracy. The study received IRB approval from both institutions.

Measures. Hypothesis 1 was explored by assessing participants' current denominational commitment and changes since entering college and their religious attitudes and behaviors in comparison to other graduates. Participants were asked to identify their denominational affiliation currently and when they entered college. Participant responses were categorized into conservative, mainline, and other denominations (Schwadel & Smith, 2005), as described below, and were used to examine their commitment to conservative and more mainline denominations, their shifts between conservative and more mainline denominations, and their rejection of denominational commitments.

Then, all participants were asked to respond to three questions. The first question, "How interested are you in religion?" was rated on a 9-point scale (1 = not at all, 9 = extremely interested). To allow chi-square analysis between groups, those responding with a rating of 1-3 were grouped into a category of low interest; 2-4, moderate interest; and 7-9, high interest. The second question, "How important is religion to you?" was rated on a 4-point scale (1 = not important at all, 4 = very important), with responses grouped into low (a rating of 1-2) or high (a rating of 3-4), again for chi-square analysis. The third question, "How often do you attend church?" was also rated on a 4-point scale (1 = never, 2 = less than once a month, 3 = once a month or more but less than once a week, 4 = once a week or more), grouped into low (a rating of 1-2) or high (a rating of 3-4), also for chi-square analysis.

To explore Hypothesis 2, we asked participants to describe three turning points in their faith. Responses were coded (as explained below) for instances of moralistic therapeutic deism (MTD) and historically central religious constructs, allowing us to examine Smith's hypotheses about MTD as a common contemporary form of faith.

Analysis. Among alumni, differences by years since graduation (i.e., recent, two years, four years), and among all participants, the numbers of individuals who reported changing religious commitments to conservative and mainline denominations since entering college were analyzed by chi-square tests. If participants changed their traditional theological commitments, then more participants should report moving away from conservative denominations since coming to college, and participants who graduated more recently should report more conservative denominational commitments in comparison to those who graduated longer ago.

Further, participants who graduated more recently should report high interest in religion, rate religion as moderately to very important (responding with a rating of 3 or 4), and participate more frequently in organized religion (responding with a frequency rating of 3 or 4), in comparison to those who graduated earlier. Differences by years since graduation in the number of participants who rated their interest in religion as low, medium, or high were analyzed by chi-square test, as were differences in the number who rated religion as of low or high importance, and those who attended infrequently or frequently. Finally (Hypothesis 2), if these individuals move toward MTD, older participants should produce more instances of MTD and fewer instances of historically central religious constructs. These differences were also analyzed by chi-square.

Results

This study examined three sets of measures: denominational commitment, religious attitudes and behaviors, and turning points in faith. Results from each of these measures will be described in turn.

Denominational Affiliation. These questions required minimal interpretation to code, because most denominational names could be readily coded using Schwadel and Smith's (2005) categorization of denominations into conservative Protestant, mainline Protestant, and Black Protestant. Two coders separately identified which of three categories was represented by each participant's self-report of the denomination that he or she attended before coming to college and of the denomination attended since college, if there was one, and any disagreements were resolved by consensus. Coders recorded how many participants stayed in the same denomination, stayed in a denomination in the same category, and switched from a denomination in one category to a denomination in another category. Of those who shifted from a denomination in one category to a denomination in a different category, we identified whether they moved from a more conservative (conservative Protestant) to a more liberal (mainline Protestant) category or vice versa.

At the time of the study, 94% described themselves as Christian. Of the 120 participants, 95 (79%) affiliated with a denomination in the conservative category, and 16 (13%) attended mainstream denominations. In addition, two were Catholic, one was Jewish, and only six reported no faith.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Hypothesis 1 proposed that highly religious emerging adults would move away from organized religion, a movement that would increase with time since entering college. This hypothesis was not supported. Instead, alumni from two Christian colleges maintained their religious commitments.

Most participants reported that they had either stayed within the denomination they attended when they started college (47 or 40%), or if they moved, they shifted to another denomination within the same category (45 or 38%) (see Figure 1). Of those who changed, 14% (17) shifted to a new denomination in a different category. Of these 17 who changed, six shifted to a more conservative denomination and 11 toward mainline Protestantism. An additional 11 shifted into or out of other denominations. Five of these 11 shifted from conservative to no religion. Thus, 92 showed no change, 16 shifted toward a more liberal denomination or no religious commitment, and seven shifted toward a more conservative denomination. These shifts between denominations or out of denominational affiliation were not significant when tested by chi-square test, nor were differences by time since graduation, suggesting that these individuals maintained a more conservative faith.

Religious Attitudes and Behaviors. Analysis of religious attitudes and behavior similarly suggested that these alumni maintained a strong traditional faith. Mean ratings in response to each of the three questions are shown in Figure 2. Although mean ratings are graphed for ease in visualizing the data, data are more appropriately analyzed by the number of participants giving each response. For all groups of alumni, most participants rated themselves as having high interest in religion (a response of 7 to 9 on the 9-point scale): 73% of recent graduates, 87% of two-year graduates, and 91% of four-year graduates. Most participants also rated religion as moderately to very important (66% of recent graduates, 75% of two-year graduates, and 88% of four-year graduates). Church attendance was also high among these alumni, with 69% of recent graduates, 55% of two-year graduates, and 80% of four-year graduates attending church at least weekly. Differences in self-ratings and attendance by time since graduation were not significant.

Turning Points in Faith. Hypothesis 2 proposed that emerging adults would develop an individualized faith that increasingly bears the characteristics of MTD and is less likely to be described using classic descriptors of faith and historically central religious constructs (as identified by Smith and colleagues). This hypothesis was not supported and the faith of our participants appears traditional.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Participant responses when asked to describe three turning points in faith were categorized by open coding. Two coders first studied the definition of MTD (Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 62, 165; Smith & Snell, 2009, p. 154-156) and separately identified words and phrases that might be used by participants to express those concepts. Each coder then separately read through the first 20 interviews several times to develop a sense of their content and sharpen their definitions independently. The two coders then shared their constructs and developed a joint coding guide. Using the coding guide, each coder then independently coded each interview. Disagreements were resolved by consensus or, failing that, by a third coder (the first author).

In addition to the constructs "moralistic," "therapeutic," and "deist," coders also noted the occurrence of "historically central religious and theological constructs" (Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 165) that reflect traditional faith. Examples of classic descriptors of faith include concepts such as: honoring God in everyday life, believing in the Trinity, supporting social justice, obeying the church, and recognizing the grace of God. We coded only terms that were specifically named by Smith and his colleagues.

Finally, during the iterative coding process, two additional concepts were identified by the coders who felt that these occurred relatively frequently and appeared important for a longitudinal understanding of views of God: trust (or belief that God will provide for one's needs), and ownership (or claiming faith as one's own). Trust was coded if participants mentioned having an assurance that God would care for them in the future or in times of trouble. Ownership was coded by identifying comments about possessing one's own faith rather than its being the faith of someone else. In a multi-step process that paralleled their coding of MTD, coders discussed these concepts, then separately coded a subset of the interviews and then together developed a coding manual. They then separately coded each interview and together resolved any disagreements.

As shown in Figure 3, differences in MTD and in classic descriptors of faith by years since graduation were not significant. However, among these alumni, classic descriptors of faith were more common than MTD, [chi square] (1, N = 119) = 52.30, p < .001. Recent graduates produced 32 expressions of MTD; two-year graduates, 33 instances; and four-year graduates, 20 instances. In comparison, recent graduates produced a total of 94 descriptors of traditional faith, including instances of ownership and trust; two-year graduates, 80 instances; and four-year graduates, 35 instances. Four-year graduates made fewer comments overall than earlier graduates, %2 (2, N = 120) = 23.84, p < .001, but their comments were no more likely to reflect MTD comments than comments made by the recent graduates. Among the types of MTD, when all comments by graduates were combined, therapeutic (or describing God as a personal problem-solver; N = 56) comments were more common than comments that described God as moralistic (or source of rules; N = 19) or deist (or distant; N = 10), X2 (2, N = 85) = 41.95, p < .001. Thus, these alumni did not move toward an MTD faith but instead appear to be maintaining a traditional faith. Further, there were more statements of ownership (112 statements) than trust (64 statements) and classic faith (33 statements), [chi square] (2, N = 209) = 23.84, p < .001.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Study 2: Undergraduates

Although alumni appear to maintain a traditional faith, they may not have maintained their faith during the college years. Some research indicates that faith may be challenged by the undergraduate years or, alternatively, that it may be supported and deepened by college experiences (Glanzer et al., 2014). Hypotheses 1 and 2 were therefore also examined within an undergraduate sample.

Method

Participants. First-year and senior undergraduates from the Northeast Christian college were contacted by email and asked to complete the same survey as in the previous study, as well as a similar follow-up interview, with minor changes to make the survey and interview appropriate for undergraduates. Sixty undergraduates participated in the study: 30 males and 30 females, 30 first-years and 30 seniors, with a mean age of 20.4 years (range 18-23).

As in Study 1, the large majority of the sample was Caucasian (84%) and highly religious. Most (93%) identified as Protestant, three Catholic, and one did not identify with a denomination. All but two described themselves as Christian and those two said they were "not sure." Almost all (90%) attended church at least once a week or more before coming to college, and 50% continued to attend church while in college. Most (72%) declared religion was "very important" to them.

Procedure/Measures. The registrar provided the names of first year and senior students. An email containing a link to the SurveyMonkey[TM] survey was sent to 123 first-year and 86 senior students. The final question in the survey asked if they were willing to participate in a follow-up interview. If they had given permission to be interviewed, after completing the survey the respondent was contacted for the interview. The survey was closed once completed surveys and interviews were received for 30 respondents in each category (first-year and senior). Interviews were audio recorded and then transcribed by the interviewer for maximum accuracy. This study received IRB approval from the college review board.

Responses to interview questions were coded as described in Study 1: What is the denomination of your current church? What is the denomination of the church that you attended most recently before going to college? Since coming to college, what are three turning points/markers in your faith? In addition, responses to survey questions about their interest in religion, their perceived importance of religion, and their church attendance were analyzed as in Study 1.

Results

Hypothesis 1 was again not supported, and these undergraduate participants reported maintaining their denominational commitments in college. At the time of the study, 50 (87%) were in conservative denominations and four were in mainline denominations (Schwadel & Smith, 2005). In addition, two were Catholic, two were searching, one did not attend church regularly, and one did not reply to the question.

By self-report, 20 (33%) of participants stayed with the same denomination that they attended when they entered college and 33 (55%) stayed within the same denominational category. Students who changed from conservative or mainline denominations were no more likely to switch to mainline than to conservative denominations. Denominational choices and changes in denominational commitments did not differ between first-year and senior students, suggesting that during their undergraduate years these participants did not move away from a traditional faith.

Similarly, seniors continued to believe that religion is important and to attend church, contrary to the predictions of increasing movement away from organized religion. First-year students were more interested in religion than seniors, with 93% of first-year students rating themselves as having high interest in religion (i.e., responding 7-9 on the 9-point scale) in comparison to 64% of seniors, a difference that approached significance, [chi square] (6, N = 58) = 12.03, p = .06. More seniors (100%), however, considered religion to be moderately to very important compared to only 43% of first-year students, [chi square] (2, N = 60) = 23.72, p < .001. There were no significant differences in church attendance.

Hypothesis 2, that seniors would show the characteristics of MTD faith more than first-year students would, was not supported. Cross-sectional data indicated that emerging adults did not develop an individualized faith that, over time, increasingly reflected an MTD faith. All participants described their faith in classic and traditional terms and by describing their trust in God and ownership of their own faith, rather than as MTD faith, [chi square] (1, N = 62) = 6.73, p < .01. (Figure 4 graphs the number of each kind of statement by class, although differences by class were not significant.) Among MTD comments, therapeutic comments were more common than moralistic or deistic comments, [chi square] (2, N = 28) = 15.51, p < .001.

Study 3: Undergraduates

Two years after the first study was completed, a follow-up study was carried out to examine whether the participants in this undergraduate sample also maintained a traditional faith and whether instances of MTD were rare. Further, this study allowed comparison of attitudes toward religiosity and spirituality, a comparison that coders in Study 2 noticed that participants sometimes introduced into the interviews. Participants sometimes reframed questions about religious interest and commitment, answering them in terms of spirituality. In addition, several participants commented, for example, that "religion, I don't know, ... but I'm growing spiritually" and "I'm wouldn't say that I'm less spiritual but definitely less religious." In an effort to better understand these comments, questions were added that compared participant ratings of their religiousness to ratings of their spirituality.

Method

Participants. All first-year and senior students at the same Northeast Christian liberal arts college were contacted and asked to participate in a larger study that included a half-hour, online Survey-Monkey[C] survey similar to the survey in the first two studies. A total of 218 completed the survey, with 24 first-year males, 87 first-year females, 29 senior males, and 78 senior females (with 29% response rate). Most were Caucasian (82%) and highly religious, with 86% being moderately to extremely interested in religion and 84% reporting that religion is moderately to extremely important.

A randomly selected subsample (n = 60) of these participants, evenly divided by year and class, also participated in an interview. Their surveys and interviews were similar to those in the second study but with additional questions about spirituality. The mean age of the participants was 21 (range 18-26). All but three interview participants (95%) self-identified as Christian.

Procedure/Measures. An email containing a link to the survey on SurveyMonkey[TM] was sent to first-year and senior students, and recipients were asked to respond by clicking on a link and completing the half-hour survey. Interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed, generally by the interviewers, for maximum accuracy. The study received college IRB approval.

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

Responses to the same questions as in the earlier studies were coded. In addition, we explored Hypothesis 3 by asking four additional questions: How interested are you in spirituality? How important do you think spirituality is? Are you more or less religious than when you came to college (or the same), and are you more or less spiritual (or the same)? Participants responded to the first question on a 9-point scale (1 = not at all, 9 = extremely interested) and to the second on a 4-point scale (1 = not important at all, 4 = very important). Based on their numerical ratings of religiousness and spirituality, participants were categorized into those who rated themselves as having a higher personal interest in religiousness than spirituality, the same interest in religion and spirituality, or a higher interest in spirituality. Participants were categorized into one of three categories based on their ratings of importance: those who think religiousness is more important, religiousness and spirituality are equally important, and spirituality is more important. These numbers were tested by 2 (interest, importance) x 3 (religiousness more important, equally important, spirituality more important) chi-square. For the third and fourth questions, when participants were asked about their perceptions of change in their own religiousness and spirituality, the number of participants who responded "yes," "no," and "same" were tallied and differences analyzed by 2 (religiousness, spirituality) x 3 (yes, no, same) chi-square. These four questions allowed exploration of whether highly religious participants thought an individualized faith is more important (i.e., do they perceive themselves as more spiritual) or an institutionalized faith (i.e., do they perceive themselves as more religious).

Results

Consistent with findings in Studies 1 and 2, and contrary to Hypothesis 1 that emerging adults would move away from denominations, we found that these undergraduates at a Christian college continue to be strongly committed to religious denominations, even though they experience changes in their specific denominational commitments.

The majority of the interview participants represented conservative religious traditions (39 or 65%) at the time of the study, with 15 (25%) representing mainline traditions, 3 (5%) representing other traditions, and 3 (5%) no denominational commitment. Of the 54 (90%) that reported a denominational commitment, 22 (41%) reported being less committed to a denomination than when they entered college, 19 (35%) reported about the same commitment, and 13 (24%) reported being more committed to a denomination. Thus, 32 (59%) of those who entered college with a strong denominational commitment retained the same or developed even stronger commitments to their denomination. Three other participants (5%, the same who reported no denominational commitment) reported that they didn't believe in God, and three responses could not be coded by these categories (i.e., they are looking for a denomination or it is unclear whether they retain the same, less, or more of a commitment).

Analysis of their interest in religion, rated importance of religion, and church attendance indicated no significant change or move away from organized religion. First year and senior students did not differ in their ratings of their interest in religion, importance of religion, and church attendance, when analyzed by chi-square as in the earlier studies.

Consistent with the first two studies, our Hypothesis 2--that participants would move toward MTD--was not supported, as participants described possessing a more traditional faith. Among these 60 participants, there were only 29 mentions of moralistic, therapeutic, or deistic qualities of God, and 82 classic descriptors of God, of which 16 were historically central religious and theological concepts, 35 referred to trust in God, and 31 referred to ownership of one's faith, [chi square] (1, N = 110) = 25.31, p < .001. When these were further classified and we compared numbers of moralistic, therapeutic, and deistic statements by chi-square analysis, the problem-solving (or therapeutic) abilities of God were most often mentioned (in 23 of 29 expressions of MTD), [chi square] (2, N = 28) = 23.84, p < .001. Of the remaining statements, two were moralistic and four were deistic.

Hypothesis 3--that participants would value spirituality more than religion--was supported by two sources of data: 1) participant survey ratings of personal interest in and the importance of religiousness in comparison to parallel participant ratings of spirituality, and 2) participant interview responses to whether they experience more, less, or the same level of religiousness and of spirituality since entering college.

When their ratings of religiousness were compared to their ratings of spirituality, more participants rated their personal interest in spirituality higher, and rated spirituality as more important than religion, [chi square] (2, N = 54) = 36.1, p < .001, and X2 (2, N = 58) = 17.34, p < .001. Whereas one person reported themselves more interested in religion and two rated religiousness as more important, 18 people reported themselves to be more interested in spirituality, and 21 rated spirituality to be more important than religiousness. In this analysis, 38 people rated religiousness and spirituality as of equal personal interest and 35 rated them equally important. Interestingly, several participants reported being puzzled by questions that attempted to separate religiousness from spirituality, suggesting that for some highly religious emerging adults these are indistinguishable concepts.

On the final two questions, first-year and senior students did not significantly differ from one another in responses to whether they were more or less religious and more or less spiritual, and their data were therefore combined for analysis. The difference between their ratings of their religiousness and spirituality indicated that they see themselves as more spiritual, [chi square] (2, N = 58) = 19 27, p < .001, but not more religious (see Figure 5). In comparison to when they entered college 35 of the 60 participants reported being more spiritual, 13 being as spiritual, and 10 being less spiritual. In comparison, 13 reported being more religious, 19 as equally religious, and 22 as less religious. One participant, commenting about his own experience, may have captured a nuance for others by saying, "I am more spiritual but less religious" (i.e., less committed to the institution of religion).

Discussion

We conducted three studies using mixed methods on different samples of emerging adults from Christian colleges, and all three studies converged on the same conclusion: The Christian college experience is a spiritually formative experience that supports and maintains a theologically traditional faith among its students. Emerging adults from Christian colleges retain strong denominational and faith commitments. These findings are consistent with Smith's (Smith & Snell, 2009) description of "traditionalists" and Arnett's (2014) description of "committed conservatives," groups they had described as worthy of more study. Their faith is in striking contrast to the watered-down faith of Moral Therapeutic Deism that, according to Smith, characterizes the faith of most contemporary emerging adults. Our findings are perhaps not surprising given that they are based on undergraduates and alumni from Christian colleges, but they do challenge any simple generalizations about contemporary emerging adults. For these Christian emerging adults, the importance of denominational commitments remains strong, even for alumni as long as four years past their graduation. These commitments express a traditional faith characterized more by classic expressions of faith and concern about trust in God and making faith one's own than by a "parasitic, watered down faith" (Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 162) that reduces God to a distant, moralizing problem-solver.

Three separate studies, with different subjects but similar methodologies, confirmed these findings. Perhaps most surprising was the consistently high level with which the Christian college alumni in Study 1--whether they were recent, two year, or four-year graduates--reported conservative denominational commitments, interest in religion, and church attendance. Study 2 explored the same measures with undergraduates because it was possible that religiousness would have been higher for first-year students and less high for seniors, but this was not the case. Instead, Study 2 showed that seniors retained as high levels of denominational commitment and, particularly surprisingly, church attendance as did first-year students. First-year students were more interested in religion than seniors; seniors, perhaps having spent four years thinking about their faith and its implications for all of life, considered religion to be less interesting but more important than first-year students.

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

The alumni in Study 1 not only reported that religion is important to them but, when asked to describe their turning points in faith, highlighted experiences which led them to take greater ownership for their own faith rather than depending on the faith of others. Thus, as alumni, religious emerging adults appear to be engaged in the psychosocial process of "recentering" (Tanner, 2006, p. 22), a process of replacing "other-regulated behavior ... with self-regulated behavior toward the goal of adult sufficiency," which Tanner describes as the primary psychosocial task of emerging adulthood. Their increased use of the term "ownership" in reference to faith suggests that they were recentering their beliefs while recentering other arenas of life.

At the same time, Study 3 showed that senior undergraduates are engaged in individuation in their faith, also a psychosocial task of emerging adulthood (Arnett & Jensen, 2002). Seniors in Study 3 retained strong denominational commitments, as strong as the commitments of first-year students. Nevertheless, when asked about religiousness (defined as denominational commitments) or spirituality, defined as faith, they reported that they were as interested in spirituality and considered it as important as when they entered college, although they were less interested in religion and considered it less important. Consistent with Wuthnow's (2001) sense that spirituality may feel more authentic than religiousness because it is individually created, we interpret this to provide some support to the prediction that participants were interested in and moving toward an individualized faith. Nevertheless, the widespread assumption that an individualized faith takes place in the context of separation from organized religion is not supported here. In the case of highly religious emerging adults, religiousness and spirituality coexist, with spirituality perhaps best described as an owned faith (Fowler, 1981; Westerhoff, 2000) rather than one "borrowed" from others.

As Smith (2005, 2009) predicted, MTD concepts do occur among undergraduates, but moralism and deism in particular were infrequent and none of the three concepts increased with age. In comparison, expressions of trust in God and ownership of one's faith were common, more common than MTD, occurring on the average twice in every interview. The most common element of MTD that was mentioned, almost the only element, was God's therapeutic nature. We question whether, in the context of a close relationship to God, the therapeutic component of MTD is a negative. Instead, we wonder if it is one component in a mature relationship with God and underlies the significance of religious faith in coping (Pargament, Falb, Ano, & Wachholtz, 2013). Viewing God as a key component of how one deals with problems in life is consistent with a robust faith in which one has a personal relationship with a God whom one trusts and chooses to serve, and a faith that one has come to personally own. In this context, the believer's asking God to help problem-solve has less the flavor of God as "combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist" (Smith & Denton, 2005, p. 165), available on call but disengaged, and more the flavor of one element in a complex, dynamic, engaged, personal relationship. For a clearer understanding of emerging adults' faith, global statements about emerging adult religiousness should attempt to capture the nuances and individual differences in the content and uses of the components of MTD.

In summary, although we found movement toward an individualized faith, in contrast to Arnett and Jensen (2002) and Smith (2005, 2009), we found that these highly religious participants simultaneously maintained a strong, traditional faith. They described God in terms of historically central religious concepts and highlighted their own trust in God and ownership of their faith. These characteristics are unexpected in the literature and, validated by three independent studies, give support to the subgroups of traditional, conservative believers referred to by Smith (Smith & Snell, 2009) and Arnett (2014). Our work provides data from a rich variety of designs and methods to capture the faith of these more traditional groups.

Our categories of analysis allowed us to make sense of the changes in the faith of three groups of participants but our research has its own limitations. Each study took place in a Christian college context, and interviews were carried out by individuals known to be associated with that context. Sample sizes were relatively small, and the coding manual was developed during the first two studies. Before the studies began, we were unable to specify what we expected to find in these interviews if our participants were traditionalists (Smith) and conservatives (Arnett). As a result, even though we chose this context because we wanted to better understand this subgroup, we were forced by statistical constraints to write null hypotheses which, if rejected, would have meant that we were not studying the subgroup that we hoped to better understand. In consequence, Studies 1 and 2 failed to reject our first two hypotheses, which paradoxically was to be expected from our selection process.

More broadly, we hope that further studies continue to explore this subgroup of faith conservatives in comparison with those who hold an MTD faith, both in college and non-college settings. We question in which church and cultural contexts MTD faith is likely to appear, and whether an MTD faith, which potentially characterizes two-thirds of emerging adults (Smith, Christoffersen, Davidson, & Herzog, 2011), nurtures well-being as does a more robust faith (Pargament et al., 2013). Finally, we would like to have explored the role of spirituality more carefully in relationship to the religious commitments of conservatives and to an MTD faith.

We have found in this research that many undergraduates and alumni who are no longer in their home communities of faith nevertheless maintain a sense of connection with that community. Many seek a close Christian community while at college, receiving benefits to their identity as well as religiousness (Schwadel, 2011). Even more than their religious commitment, they care about their spirituality and are committed to developing greater trust in God and taking ownership for their faith. These findings suggest that, rather than jettisoning their faith, these students remain highly religious and develop a stronger faith while in a Christian college. In a literature in which emerging adults are often described as possessing a weak, disengaged faith that makes them feel good and does not ask much of them, the contributions of Christian colleges to spiritual formation deserve further attention.

Kaye V Cook

Gordon College

Chris J. Boyatzis

Bucknell University

Cynthia Kimball

Wheaton College

Kathleen C. Leonard

University of Massachusettes Lowell

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This research was funded by a CCCU Initiative Grant. Special thanks to Adam Vogel and Si-Hua Chang for their work on this project. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Kaye Cook, Department of Psychology, Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham MA 01984; [email protected]

Kaye V. Cook (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina) is Professor of Psychology at Gordon College (MA) where she teaches courses in developmental psychology, spiritual formation, and faith-learning integration. She directs the Center for Evangelicalism & Culture and is Project Leader for a John Templeton Foundation Grant on evangelicalism in modernizing cultures (Brazil and China). Her research interests are in the areas of cross-cultural and developmental research on religiousness.

Chris Boyatzis (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Brandeis University) is Professor of Psychology at Bucknell University (PA) where he teaches courses in developmental psychology, culture and child development and is the director of the Bucknell in Denmark summer program. He is former president of Div. 36 of APA (Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality), and conducts research on parenting, children's religious development, and women's body image and religion.

Cynthia Kimball (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of New Mexico) is Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL) where she teaches the senior capstone course in Personality psychology as well as Psychology of Human Sexuality. Dr. Kimball directs the Collaborative Research labs for undergraduates and the internship program. Her primary research approach is qualitative (narrative analyses, grounded theory, participatory action research). She explores emerging adulthood, relational spirituality, and sexuality with a focus on women experiencing gender-based violence in the Congo.

Kathleen Leonard, (Ph.D., Boston College) is adjunct professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She teaches courses in developmental psychology, developmental disabilities, and research methods. Her research explores adolescent and emerging adult religious and spiritual development, as well as sexuality and romantic relationships.