Meaning making in emerging adults' faith narratives: identity, attachment, and religious orientation.

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

(College transition) has given me quality time to figure out who I am and what I believe and you know how to go about living ... and then deciding to go back to church after I figured it out. And now I don't always enjoy the church I go to ... but believe now that we're a part of the body of Christ and we have an obligation to the people and to keep it up and ... it just gives us a sense of purpose instead of a sense of enjoyment. So I'm starting to learn that faith isn't always about enjoying yourself but understanding all the time it's about commitment and sometimes it's a struggle but you're rewarded in certain ways for the struggle and for the commitment (Mary (1), 2008 graduate).

One of the salient features of a mature life story is the integration of one's experiences, particularly the stress and challenges of transitional experiences, into a coherent and reasoned conception of the self. With our stories, we make sense of our experiences, bring clarity to our perceptions, and provide meaning to our life situations. Maturity, measured in the current study by high levels of complexity in meaning making, is readily apparent in Mary's narrative as she reflects on her faith journey in her transition from college life to her current working life. In contrast is a narrative from Anya, another 2008 graduate, where a more limited expression of meaning, lower in complexity, is evident: Ultimately what made the big turning point, what made me question things was when I went abroad and all I had was churches of a different background and I met different people who taught me a lot and then ... when I came back I also met more influential people.... so when I came back I was already into a new idea of faith I guess.

Anya notes the influences from others that helped her begin to ask faith questions, and while highlighting this change she speaks primarily of the lessons learned from others, without elaboration on what those lessons might be. The voices of Mary and Anya illustrate different ways in which these emerging adults have found meaning during distinct turning points in their faith story during their post-college years.

In the context of our paper, meaning is best conceptualized as a story's deeper significance that expresses personal value. King, Scollon, Ramsey, and Williams (2000) found that stories of life challenges during transition were useful as they provide "evidence of a hard-won battle to make meaning of life circumstances" (p. 510). Those who create a coherent story, expressing meaningful insights and integration of life's challenges, experience a sense of well-being and perceived growth from the challenges, as well as ego development (King et al., 2000). The purpose of this study was to examine how emerging adults represent meaning in their faith narratives in a way that connects and integrates their experiences of life with the transitions they are now facing. We explored the meaning-making stories of emerging adults and compared those who reflected maturity, or high levels of complexity, in their meaning-making stories with those who reflected lower complexity or less mature meaning-making in relation to three psychosocial domains: ego identity, attachment relationships, and religious orientation. These psychosocial domains, captured by Arnett (2000; Arnett & Jensen, 2002) while describing some of the developmental challenges for the emerging adult, are relevant as resources through which emerging adults find meaning and security during a potentially stressful period. We will now turn to our discussion of the broader conceptualization of meaning and coherence and follow with brief overviews of our psychosocial resources of interest.

Meaning and Coherence

People appropriate meaning in their lives by integrating their experiences into a coherent life story. Habermas and Bluck (2000) contended that autobiographical reasoning goes beyond simple remembering by extending and integrating past and present experiences with an eye to the future. McAdams (2006) articulated criteria for coherence which require not only that the narrator reconstructs the past in such a way as to imagine the future and but also to integrate lived experiences in a meaningful way. In other words, one's construal of the past becomes transformative for the individual in anticipation of the future (McAdams, 1985; McAdams, Diamond, de St. Aubin, & Mansfield, 1997).

Coherent and meaningful narratives give valuable insights into the process of change and self-understanding experienced by emerging adults. Emerging adults have already developed the cognitive tools necessary for integrating experiences into a coherent life story (Habermas & Bluck, 2000) and are making choices that will shape and inform their future (Arnett, 2000). McLean and Pratt (2006) used a qualitative methodology to assess emerging adults' written narratives of their changing sense of self during turning points of life. Turning points were defined as events that challenge persons in their self-understanding and often require them to make particular choices about alternative directions to take in life. McLean and Pratt explained that turning point memories are examples of the process of self-development, in which the narrative construction of these turning point memories might be more important than what happened in the past event, because the construction of these narratives as major life turning points, rather than the experience itself, is what provides self-understanding (2006, p. 715).

McLean and Pratt analyzed the maturity of emerging adults' turning point narratives, particularly those that connected a turning point to some insightful or transformative understanding of oneself. They argued that focusing on self-reflective narratives about these transitional and challenging events provides a unique view for understanding conceptions of self. We expanded on McLean and Pratt's approach and extended the concept of turning point narratives to include stories of faith turning points. Emerging adults use religious turning-point events to integrate religious experience into a coherent faith story, providing thoughtful insights into their conceptions of faith.

Ego Identity of Emerging Adults

One psychosocial resource we analyzed was ego identity. The central task during the emerging adult years is the formation of a coherent and mature self-conception and distinctive religious beliefs (Arnett, 2007; Erikson, 1968). Marcia (1966), extending Erikson's (1968) work, distinguished between exploration, a process of experimenting with potential identity alternatives that provides both a freedom from commitment and also a tension that comes with tolerating ambiguity for a time, and commitment which refers to a process of deciding on and maintaining fidelity to certain goals, values, and beliefs. Neo-Eriksonians (Schwartz, 2001, 2005) beginning with Marcia (1966) utilized an identity status model that categorizes identity along four dimensions contingent upon the exploration and commitment continuums. An individual with identity achievement status, considered the most mature status, has experienced exploration and formed ideological, role, and value commitments; this status is associated with psychological well-being and relational competence. Those individuals in moratorium are engaged in exploration but without commitment and tend to experience greater anxiety and ambiguity regarding roles and relationships. Foreclosed individuals have formed commitments without experiencing exploration and individuals with diffused identity engage in no exploration or commitment and these are considered the least mature statuses. These four identity statuses have traditionally been used to describe identity (Marcia, Waterman, Matteson, Archer, & Orlofsky, 1993).

McLean and Pratt (2006) proposed that their narrative approach, which involves analyzing the sophistication of a life story, can complement the traditional identity-status approach. They contend that the status model of identity, in which maturity is marked by commitment after exploration in circumscribed domains of life, differs in important ways from maturity understood as the degree to which a life story is coherent and integrative in its articulation of the whole of life experiences. They conclude that meaning making is associated with coherence among the domains of development, with themes that are of personal relevance, and with redemption as a story structure. We were interested in employing this meaning making analysis to understand the degree to which a faith story is coherent and integrative in the emerging adults' life experience.

Quality of Attachment Relationships of Emerging Adults

Ample evidence confirms that secure attachment in childhood contributes to an ongoing secure sense of self. Because the attachment figure serves as a secure base, the child trusts that the attachment figure will be available and responsive if threat appears, thus freeing him or her to explore and learn (Bowlby, 1969/1982). When considering adolescence and emerging adulthood, movement away from parents may seem a necessary achievement. However, while adolescents demonstrate less overt reliance on parents for comfort and a sense of security, parents continue to exert a powerful influence on adolescent security and well-being (Ainsworth, 1989). Many studies have demonstrated the importance of secure attachment to parents for adolescent psychological well-being and for encouraging their commitment, autonomy, life satisfaction, and psychosocial adjustment (Benson, Harris, & Rogers, 1992; Noom, Dekovic , & Meeus, 1999; Vivona, 2000).

Research has demonstrated the importance parents play as socializing agents for religious and spiritual beliefs, and evidence strongly suggests that the quality of the parental relationship is a critical feature in this relational dynamic (Barry, Nelson, Davarya, & Urry, 2010; Leonard, Cook, Boyatzis, Kimball, & Flanagan, 2013). Granqvist and Kirkpatrick (2008) described pathways of attachment-related religious experience. One key implication of their review was that for religious parents who desire to scaffold their children's embrace of religion, religious teaching alone will be unsuccessful unless it occurs in a context of sensitive care-giving that meets the children's needs for protection and security. Recent empirical work confirms the importance of maternal support and paternal care in emerging adults' relational spirituality (Desrosiers, Kelley, & Miller, 2011). Thus, secure parental attachment appears to be a foundational resource for an emerging adult as they traverse their faith journey.

Religious Orientation and Belief Systems of Emerging Adults

Our religious sample offers a distinct window into the role of religious frameworks in the construction of meaningful faith turning point stories. Referring to adolescence, Erikson stated, "an ideological system is a coherent body of shared images, ideas, and ideals [that] provides for the participant a coherent, if systematically simplified, over-all orientation in space and time, in means and ends" (Erikson, 1968, pp. 189-90). Decades later, with formal recognition of the emerging adult developmental period, Arnett (1998) suggested that the establishment of one's personal values and beliefs--developing an ideology--plays a decisive role for emerging adults in completing this transition and becoming a self-sufficient adult. Indeed, articulating one's own beliefs and values is more important than role transitions such as marriage or completing education for emerging adults' healthy transition to adulthood (Arnett, Ramos, & Jensen, 2001).

For some emerging adults, religious beliefs and values inform this transition after college graduation. One major approach is the analysis of religious orientations (Allport & Ross, 1967). An intrinsic religious orientation describes persons who are personally religious and who find their "master motive in religion." Persons with an extrinsic orientation use "religion for their own ends" (Allport & Ross, 1967, p. 434) such as for security, community membership, improving one's status, or extending one's social circle. Allport and Ross argued that the intrinsic orientation of religious beliefs and values describes a more mature framework for faith than an extrinsic orientation.

An intrinsic religious orientation is associated with greater psychological well-being (Koenig & Larson, 2001; Koenig, McGue, & Iancono, 2008), as well as measures of psychosocial maturity such as moral reasoning (Maclean, Walker, & Matsuba, 2004) and identity commitment (Watson, Morris, Hood, Milliron, & Stutz, 1998). Moreover, emerging adults high in spirituality are more frequently able to find meaning and feel peace during times of stress and hardship (HERI, 2004). Hence, emerging adults with an internalized religious framework may find more meaning in stressful transitions because they are able to articulate their life situation in faith terms. Coherent and meaningful narratives of faith experiences may be a salient characteristic of an intrinsic religiosity.

Current Study

The emerging adults in the current study were undergoing the major transition of leaving college. A fundamental developmental task for these emerging adults is to integrate new challenges into their existing ideologies and changing views of self. The emerging adults in our study came from Christian colleges and indicated a high value for a religious standpoint as a part of their identity. We conducted interviews with emerging adults who were either currently making the transition out of college or were two years post-graduation. We gathered turning points in faith development and measured the level of complexity in each of the narratives. Asking emerging adults' to describe their faith journey by identifying faith turning points created a context for studying the emerging adult's reflection of "the explicit meaning of the past in relation to the current self" (McLean & Breen, 2009, p. 702).

We expected that emerging adults who valued their religious distinctiveness would construct coherent, integrated, and meaningful narratives of the turning points in their faith. We also attempted to discern the deeper, distinctive themes in the most mature or complex narratives. An additional objective was to discover if psychosocial resources were associated with more mature meaning-making narratives about faith turning points. Specifically, we explored the connections among ego identity, attachment relationships, and religious orientation, believing that emerging adults with more mature meaning-making faith narratives would also have a more mature identity and more secure parental attachments. Because we explored these relationships within a highly religious sample, we proposed that an intrinsic religious orientation would be associated with more complex and mature articulation of faith turning point narratives. Earlier studies have not explored gender or graduation year differences in these constructs and we made no hypotheses about these variables.

Research Questions

1. How do religious emerging adults integrate their religious turning point experiences into a coherent faith story?

2. How is identity associated with mature articulation of faith turning point narratives? Are parental attachment patterns associated with mature articulation of faith turning point narratives?

3. Is intrinsic religiosity more aligned with emerging adults' mature articulation of faith narratives?

4. What are the prevalent themes appearing in the faith turning point narratives rated as most mature?

Method

Participants

Participants were recruited through email messages sent to all members of the 2006 and 2008 graduating classes of two Christian liberal arts colleges. This paper presents data from a randomly chosen subset that agreed to complete an interview in addition to online surveys that assessed three domains of interest (ego identity, parental attachment, religiosity). There were 119 (or 25% of the larger study) interview respondents, 61 from the class of 2006 (30 males) and 58 from 2008 (30 males). When their responses to the surveys were compared to the responses of the non-interview subsample, overall multivariate analyses indicated that the interview sample (N = 119) did not significantly differ from the non-interview sample (N = 362).

Consistent with their Christian college enrollment, participants were Protestant (93% reported they were Protestant, 4% other, and 3% did not identify a denomination) and highly religious. For example, religion was "very important" to 83% of them, 84% attend church once a week, and 99% reported that they were "moderately to extremely" interested in religion.

Procedure

Interview participants were contacted by email and asked to participate. All who agreed were informed about privacy protections and gave permission for their interviews to be digitally recorded. All interviews were conducted in person or by telephone and took 30-45 minutes. Interviews were later transcribed, generally by the interviewer for maximum accuracy. six interviews could not be transcribed because of equipment failure; in five of these cases the notes taken by the interviewer at the time of the interview were used for analysis. The entire interview consisted of 10 questions soliciting broad narratives on a variety of topics relevant to the emerging adults' transition. This paper analyzes participants' responses on a single faith turning point question most relevant to our research purposes: "Can you describe the faith markers/turning points in your life?"

Measures

Rating faith turning point narratives. Transcriptions of responses to the interview question were imported into NVIVO software and analyzed based on McLean and Pratt's (2006) coding system. Lower scores indicated less sophisticated or less complex reasoning used to explain the meaning of an event; higher scores indicated coherent and explicit insights about an event that were applied to greater areas of the participant's life. The first author and a trained doctoral graduate student completed all the coding on a 0-3 scale, with a random sample (30% of the stories) double-coded for reliability. Both raters were blind to measures of the participants' parental attachment, religiosity, and ego identity status. Reliability was acceptable (exact agreement was 82%). The codes used in the final analyses were derived by coder consensus.

Meaning making. Narratives receiving a 0 demonstrated no meaning relevant to faith turning points. A score of 1 was given to the narratives with a lesson learned or meanings that were found in a particular event or behavior but that did not extend beyond the original event. The lesson could be positive or negative and usually pertained to behavior, interactional rules, or norms. For example, a score of 1 was given to the following lesson described by a participant in response to the faith turning point question: "My New Testament prof really opened my eyes to God's ways and direction for my life." A score of 2 was given for vague meanings that extended beyond the original event, or more sophisticated but not explicit meanings and descriptions of periods of growth or questioning that did not specify the growth or change; for example, "who I am and who God made me to be, and that's ok ... and I mess things up sometimes, it's ok, and I've also had many more successes, and I think I am more aware of the fact that God has given me gifts instead of focusing on the areas where I am not gifted ..." A score of 3 was given for the most mature meanings, insights, or transformation described, as in this response: "Looking back at why I do things rather than just doing things. I'm starting to take ownership of what I'm doing both in life and in faith.... When I was at [college] I was very idealistic both with what I wanted to do with my life and a romanticized view ... now I have much more realistic view, know life's not going to fall into perfect little places that I want.... I see more of the rough edges than what I saw before." These were explicit and persuasive insights applied to life more broadly in the future or beyond the self, often as an emotional, psychological, or relational transformation (see Table 1 for additional narrative examples).

Themes. We identified prevailing themes in the most mature insights (level 3, insights/transformative) in the faith turning point narratives (e.g., McAdams et al., 1997; McLean & Breen, 2009). Two researchers read the narratives that had been rated the most mature multiple times, identified the themes, and by discussion organized the themes into conceptual categories.

Standardized Survey Measures of Identity, Attachment, and Religious Orientation

Ego identity. Erikson's concept of ego identity, on which the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ; Balistreri, Busch-Rossnagel, & Geissinger, 1995) is based, is the primary theoretical paradigm of ego identity (schwartz, 2001). The EIPQ measures the dimensions of exploration and commitment in eight areas, including values, family, friendships, and religion. Those individuals experiencing active questioning or searching for beliefs and goals are characterized as being in a period of exploration ([alpha] = .71). Those individuals who have made firm decisions about their beliefs and goals and are personally invested in them are characterized as being in a period of commitment ([alpha] = .64). To permit comparisons in ego identity groups, the instructions from the original study (Balistreri et al., 1995) were used to measure status, with 66.5 as the median score for exploration and 62, for commitment. Those high in Exploration were compared to those low in Exploration, and those high in Commitment, to those low in Commitment.

Parental attachment. Participants' attachments were measured by the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), which assessed emerging adults' level of trust in, communication with, and alienation from mothers ([alpha] = .81), fathers ([alpha] = .84), and peers ([alpha] = .80). Participants were then categorized as high secure or low secure following Armsden and Greenberg's instructions (1987, p. 442). Each participant was given a rating of low, medium, or high for each IPPA subscale (Trust, Communication, and Alienation) for both mothers and fathers, using the lowest, middle, and highest third of the distribution of attachment scores on each subscale. A set of logical rules defined attachment group assignment as High (HS) or Low (LS) Security group (2) based on these ratings. Participants were then classified into one of two groups for the current study: secure attachment to at least one parent (i.e., HS for Mother and/or Father Attachment, n = 58), or no secure parental attachment (LS for both Mother and Father Attachment, n = 57).

Religiosity. Religious orientation was assessed by the Intrinsic/Extrinsic Scale--Revised (Gorsuch & MacPherson, 1989). For the larger survey participants, Cronbach's alphas were .81 for Intrinsic and .90 for Extrinsic. Participants were categorized on the basis of midpoint splits for this study: as Intrinsic (n = 36) if they scored high on intrinsic and low on extrinsic, Extrinsic (n = 33) if they scored high on extrinsic and low on intrinsic, Both Low (n = 21) if they scored below the midpoint on both, and Both High (n = 27) if they scored above the midpoint.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Results

Analyses focused on one question: "Can you describe the faith markers/turning points in your life?" (faith turning point narrative). This question elicited a narrative that was rated according to the complexity of meaning making. Scores ranged from 0 (no meaning), 1 for a less complex meaning (less complex lessons learned), to those with a 2 (vague complex growth) and 3 for high complexity (including those with an insightful or transformative level of meaning).

Standardized Scales Tests of Significance

Chi-square tests of independence examined the relationships between the level of maturity of emerging adults' narratives of faith turning points and ego identity statuses (specifically, high and low in Exploration, and high and low in Commitment), their parental attachment (presence or absence of at least one secure parental attachment), and religious orientation (i.e., Intrinsic, Extrinsic, Both Low in I & E, and Both High in I & E).

Mature meaning making faith turning points and parental attachment were not significantly related. However, ego identity and religiosity were significantly related to maturity in faith turning point narratives. Emerging adults high in exploration reflected more meaningfully on their faith turning points [[chi square] (3, N = 117) = 13.59, p < .01]. Moreover, 91% of the most mature faith turning point narratives were produced by those high in exploration (see Figure 1). Commitment was not significantly related to level of maturity in the faith narratives. Tests of significance for religious orientation found that those with Intrinsic religious orientation reflected more maturely about their faith turning points, [chi square] (3, N = 117) = 15.1, p < .001. Ninety-four percent of those high in Intrinsic and 66% of those high in both I and E provided mature levels of meaning making narratives; 60% of those high in E and 52% of those low in both I and E narrated mature levels of meanful faith turning points.

Emerging adults who scored high on Intrinsic orientation were more likely to have at least one secure parental attachment (70% or 83), [chi square] (3, N = 119) = 8.06, p < .05. Moreover, emerging adults with parental attachment security and Intrinsic orientation expressed the greatest complexity in their stories of faith, [chi square] (7, N = 117) = 18.24, p < .01. Interestingly, for the group with no parental attachment security, the Extrinsics were rated with more complex faith stories than those from other orientations, although they still offered fewer complex expressions than the intrinsics with secure parental attachment (Figure 2).

In summary, emerging adults who generated the most mature insightful (level 3) meaning-making faith stories were more often intrinsic in orientation, high in identity exploration, and just as likely to be in the secure parental attachment group as to lack a secure parental attachment (Figure 3).

Themes Identified from Most Mature Narratives

Thematic analysis. Analysis of content themes identified non-overlapping and recurring themes among the most mature narratives (coded level 3, n = 32), with three conceptual categories emerging from repeated discussions between the two coders. These themes were common in the majority of the insightful, transformative narratives.

Perspective changes (71% of the narratives) described ways in which the participant was challenged to reconsider previously held beliefs or perspectives:

... probably by the middle, maybe the end of the first semester, things started moving a little bit again ... like building on what I had up until college and instead I felt like that crumbled and I got like pushed way down into this like "I don't even know what's going on with me and God anymore," ... a new starting place ... I had to work up from there (Andrea, 2008 grad).

... every time you go through a major transition you find out more about yourself and how you deal with things. I'm finding out more about how I cope with difficult situations. Like how to do things without the community that [college] has built in. And the ways that I have responded and the ways I've coped have been really telling, like, "Wow! You thought you were ready for this when you graduated but clearly you have a lot more maturing to do." It shows you the ways in which you are still weak, the ways you still need to depend on God and the ways you have not been depending on God and it shows you in such a stark light [different from] a controlled and comforting environment in a Christian College.... grad school is much less controlled and trying to sort out how it is you're going to live as an individual and decide on a path in life. I've kind of learned that I don't deal with the uncertainty well. (Becky, 2008 grad)

Relational challenges (58%) reflected on the various ways relational patterns were challenged by the need for safety and yet honesty:

My junior year is when I moved in with my really good friends and our apartment was just such a safe haven of being able to question and talk and really delve into things. My best friend and I started having dinner once a week, and it wasn't a Bible study, it was just kind of a chance to really talk honestly ... sometimes we didn't talk about God, but actually we probably did every time, I don't know. And I think just the honesty that I encountered among my friends really empowered me to ask the questions that needed to be asked and then kind of move forward from there (Natalie, 2006).

Experiences of Grace (23%) (3) were sometimes described as finding God's direction and living that out, or experiencing God's guidance:

Every time that I have been humbled before God, which is a phrase that goes hand in hand with being aware of receiving God's grace. you go through a valley and you come out on the other side that much more confident that whatever valley you might go through next and I'm using valley... you know shadow of darkness of whatever, you have that much more confidence that the Lord will bring you through whatever period in your life you may face (Thomas, 2006 grad).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

Discussion

Our qualitative analyses utilized the coding system of McLean and Pratt (2006) to assess the complexity of meaning-making in faith narratives of Christian college alumni. The derived maturity scores were meaningful in relation to alumni sense of identity, relationships, and religiosity and they allowed us to draw conclusions that would not have been possible with solely a quantitative approach. We therefore concur with McLean and Pratt (2006) about the usefulness of their paradigm and with McAdams' (1993) perspective that narratives are the "stories that we live by." Alumni stories of faith presented us with a window into how they live out the integration of their faith experiences in meaningful ways.

Identity exploration and mature meaning-making faith narratives were correlated in our study. A possible explanation for the role of exploration in mature meaning-making may lie in the emerging adults' motivation to seek coherence and integration in the process of commitment, particularly for these emerging adults who have made religious commitments in which religious issues are often discussed and defended. Luyckx, Goossens, Soenens, and Beyers (2006), proposing a conceptual model of identity as having four structural dimensions (Commitment Making, Identification with Commitment, Exploration in Depth, and Exploration in Breadth), asserted that exploration during the emerging adult developmental period is more nuanced than the adolescent period. Developmentally, they argue, emerging adults may no longer be exploring alternative paths but instead be living with certain commitments and exploring them more deeply.

The themes that emerged from faith narratives rated as most mature support this interpretation of the importance of exploration in depth. The emerging adults who provided Perspective changes spoke about the impact of transitions on their faith journey and their subsequent move toward greater complexity. Those who spoke of Perspective change often also spoke of Relational challenges that led them to change perspective. They often talked about the valuing of honesty in relationships and safe havens from which to reassess their beliefs. As these faith reflections show, exploration has multiple layers, and analysis of the complexity of narratives gives us added information that coding commitment and exploration do not.

Our findings regarding religious orientation further our conceptual understanding of the implications of explorations in depth rather than breadth. surprisingly, faith narratives rated as mature are associated both with an intrinsic orientation (or commitment to an internalized faith) and with identity exploration. An intrinsic faith may provide a certain interiorized stability that allows greater exploration, and consequently, more opportunity to integrate lived faith experiences into a coherent narrative of insightful and transformative faith. Indeed, this was highlighted in the third thematic category found in the most mature faith reflections: Experience of Grace, where emerging adults spoke about coming to terms with emotional struggles as well as finding direction in the midst of difficulties, redemptive themes that strengthen resilience.

We were surprised to find no significant relationship between parental attachment patterns and faith narrative rated mature. However, additional analysis showed that parental attachment patterns were related to intrinsic religious orientation, which in turn was related to mature meaning-making ratings of faith narratives. Hence, the quality of the parental attachment relationships seemed to encourage the emerging adult's internalized religious framework rather than complexity in faith meaning-making. This finding is consistent with Granzvist and Kilpatrick (2008)'s conclusion that the quality of the parental relationship, rather than didactic teaching, engenders a more personal and deeper faith.

Christian College Context

Our findings suggest that Christian colleges provide a context in which commitment to faith is nurtured at the same time as exploration within faith is encouraged. This exploration in depth may scaffold identity and religious development while deepening relationships. The Christian college setting provides a unique community which may ultimately facilitate a strong valuing of close relationships and a shared belief structure (Freitas & Winner, 2008). Members of student development departments share these values and attempt to bridge life before, during and after college, encouraging exploration within commitment.

Limitations

Amidst the important conclusions, there are several limitations to this study. First, our findings cannot be generalized to the larger emerging adult population because our participants were drawn specifically from a particular religious constellation, alumni from two Christian colleges. However, this sampling strategy allowed us to explore religiosity as a valued standpoint in a Christian population that is particularly under-represented in the emerging-adult literature and that makes up about a quarter of emerging adults (Kosmin & Keysar, 2009). Second, the narratives that were studied were responses to a specific question investigating faith turning-points. Other types of questions might have captured more fully the ways in which emerging adults integrate their life experiences into coherent meaning-making narratives. Finally, the Intrinsic/Extrinsic orientation measure we used is only one way to assess religiousness, though it was chosen largely because of its dominant stature in research on religiosity. Exploration in depth might best be measured by other dimensions of religious commitment.

Conclusions

This particular sub-group of religious emerging adults has much to contribute to a deeper understanding of the association between identity exploration, commitment to a more interiorized and personal (i.e., intrinsic) integration of faith, and complexity in meaning-making in one's faith story (McLean & Pratt, 2006). Indeed, our mixed methods approach more fully captures the thoughts and feelings of emerging adults than either quantitative or qualitative methods alone. Understanding how a religious frame of reference, mature identity, and indirectly the quality of parental relationship are associated in the mature meaningful articulation of one's faith journey extends our knowledge and is an important addition to the literature on emerging adults.

Cynthia N. Kimball

Wheaton College

Chris J. Boyatzis

Bucknell University

Kaye V. Cook

Gordon College

Kathleen C. Leonard

University of Massachusetts Lowell

This research was made possible by support from a CCCU Initiative Grant. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cynthia N. Kimball, Department of Psychology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL 61087. E-mail: [email protected].

Notes

(1) Names have been changed but gender remains true to the participant's identity.

(2) Individuals were assigned to the High Security (HS) group if their Alienation scores were not high, and if their Trust or Communication scores were at least medium level. In cases in which trust scores were only medium level but Alienation scores were also medium level, HS group assignments were not made. Individuals were assigned to the Low Security (LS) group if their Trust and Communications scores were both low, and if their Alienation scores were medium or high. In cases in which the Trust or Communication score was medium level but the other was low, LS group placement was made if the Alienation score was high (Armsden & Greenberg, 1987, p. 442).

(3) Percentages do not add to 100 since several themes may be found in one participant's response.

References

Ainsworth, M.S. (1989). Attachments beyond infancy. American Psychologist, 44, 709-716.

Allport, G., & Ross, J. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-443.

Armsden, G., & Greenberg, M. (1987). The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427-454.

Arnett, JJ. (1998). Learning to stand alone: The contemporary American transition to adulthood in cultural and historical context. Human Development, 41, 295-315.

Arnett, JJ. (2000). Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55, 467-480.

Arnett, JJ. (2007). Emerging adulthood: What is it, and what is it good for? Child Development Perspectives, 1, 68-73.

Arnett, JJ., & Jensen, L.A. (2002). A congregation of one: Individualized religious beliefs among emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 17, 451-467. doi:10.1177/043558402175002

Arnett, JJ., Ramos, K., & Jensen, L. (2001). Ideological views in emerging adulthood: Balancing autonomy and community. Journal of Adult Development, 8, 69-79.

Balistreri, E., Busch-Rossnagel, N., & Geisinger, K. (1995). Development and preliminary validation of the Ego Identity Process Questionnaire. Journal of Adolescence, 18, 179-192.

Barry, C.M., Nelson, L., Davarya, S., & Urry, S. (2010). Religiosity and spirituality during the transition to adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 34, 311-324.

Benson, MJ., Harris, P.B., & Rogers, C.S. (1992). Identity consequences of attachment to mothers and fathers among late adolescents. Journal or Research on Adolescence, 2, 187-204.

Bowlby, J. (1969/1982). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Desrosiers, A., Kelley, B.S., & Miller, L. (2011). Parent and peer relationships and relational spritiuality in adolescents and young adults. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 3, 39-54.

Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. Oxford, England: Norton & Co.

Freitas, D., & Winner, L. (2008). Sex and the soul: Juggling sexuality, spirituality, romance, and religion on America's college campuses. New York, NY: Oxford university Press

Gorsuch, R., & McPherson, S. (1989). Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E-revised and single-item scales. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28, 348-354.

Granqvist, P., & Kirkpatrick, L.A. (2008). Attachment and religious representations of behavior. In J. Cassidy & P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical application (pp. 906-933). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Habermas, T., & Bluck, S. (2000). Getting a life: The emergence of the life story in adolescence. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 748-769.

Higher Education Research institute (HERi). (2004). The spiritual life of college students: A national study of students' search for meaning and purpose. Retrieved 19 June 2009 from http://www.spirituality.ucla.edu/spirituality/reports/

King, L., Scollon, C., Ramsey, C., & Williams, T. (2000). Stories of life transition: Subjective well-being and ego development in parents of children of Down Syndrome. Research in Personality, 34, 509-536.

Koenig, H., & Larson, D. (2001). Religion and mental health: Evidence for an association. international Review of Psychiatry, 13, 67-78.

Koenig, L.B., McGue, M., & Iancono, W.G. (2008). Stability and change in religiousness during emerging adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 44, 532-543.

Kosmin, B. A., & Keysar, A. (2009). American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008) Summary Report. Hartford, CT: Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture.

Leonard, K.C., Cook, K.V., Boyatzis, CJ., Kimball, C.N., & Flanagan, K.S. (2013). Parent-child dynamics and emerging adult religiosity: Attachment, parental beliefs, and faith support. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 5, 5-14.

Luyckx, K., Goossens, L., Soenens, B., & Beyers, W. (2006). unpacking commitment and exploration: Preliminary validation of an integrative model of late adolescent identity formation. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 361-378.

Maclean, A.M., Walker, L.J., & Matsuba, M.K. (2004). Transcendence and the moral self: Identity integration, religion, and moral life. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 43, 429-437.

Marcia, J. (1966). Development and validation of ego-identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 551-558.

Marcia, J.E., Waterman, A., Matteson, D., Archer, S., & Orlofsky, J. (1993). Ego identity: A handbook for psychosocial research. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag. McAdams, D.P. (1985). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

McAdams, D.P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

McAdams, D.P. (2006). The redemptive self: Generativity and the stories Americans live by. Research in Human Development, 3, 81-100.

McAdams, D.P., Diamond, A., de St. Aubin, E. & Mansfield, E. (1997). Stories of commitment: The psychosocial construction of generative lives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 678-694.

McLean, K.C., & Breen, A.V. (2009). Processes and content of narrative identity development in adolescence: Gender and well-being. Developmental Psychology, 45, 702-710.

McLean, K.C., & Pratt, M. (2006). Life's little (and big) lessons: Identity statuses and meaning-making in the turning point narratives of emerging adults. Developmental Psychology, 42, 714-722.

Noom, M., Dekovic , M., & Meeus, W. (1999). Autonomy, attachment and psychosocial adjustment during adolescence: A double-edged sword? Journal of Adolescence, 22, 771-783.

Schwartz, S. (2001). The evolution of Eriksonian and neo-Eriksonian identity theory and research: A review and integration. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 1, 7-58.

Schwartz, S. (2005). A new identity for identity research: Recommendations for expanding and refocusing the identity literature. Journal of Adolescent Research, 20, 293-308.

Vivona, J. (2000). Parental attachment styles of late adolescents: Qualities of attachment relationships and consequences for adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47, 316-329.

Watson, P.J., Morris, R.J., Hood, R.W., Milliron, J.T., & Stutz, N.L. (1998). Religious orientation, identity, and the quest for meaning in ethics within an ideological surround. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 8, 149-164.

Authors

Cynthia N. Kimball (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of New Mexico) is Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College (IL). Dr. Kimball's interests include emerging adults, attachment relationships (including attachment to God), gender issues, identity, and religiosity.

Kaye V. Cook (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, University of North Carolina) is Professor and Chair of Psychology at Gordon College (MA). Her interests include developmental theory, cross-cultural values, religiosity/spirituality, social development, and the transitions and commitments of emerging adulthood.

Chris J. Boyatzis (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Brandeis University) is Professor of Psychology at Bucknell University (PA). He is former president of Div. 36 of APA, Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality and author of many chapters on child and adolescent religious and spiritual development in major handbooks. His interests include parent-child communication about religion and spirituality.

Kathleen C. Leonard (Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology, Boston College) is Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her interests include adolescent and emerging adult romantic relationships and sexual activity, religious and spiritual development, and relationships with parents across the transition to adulthood. Table 1 Codes (from McLean & Pratt, 2006) for meaning-making values applied to faith turning points Value 1 Lessons learned: meanings that were in behavior, not extending beyond original event. "Just learning more academically about my faith and things ... even taking classes like Old and New Testament, but I didn't have ... understanding of how things fit into history." Value 2 Vague meaning: more sophisticated but not explicit meanings, description of period of growth/questioning but without specifying the growth/change. "It's been gradual. It hasn't been anything real specific. I'm talking about spiritual maturity and making that equivalent to faith. I feel like because I have seen more of life, my faith has probably gotten stronger in that sense." Value 3 Insights: explicit and persuasive insights, applied to life more broadly in future or beyond self, often as a transformation--emotional, psychological, relational. "... faith has to be realized in tangible ways and without tangible ways, to a real rule of prayer, by really reading scripture, by fasting, by acts of mercy. I've started to change I think my faith has challenged me to live in a more communal way rather than a more isolated, individualistic way [even though] I'm an introverted person and don't usually seek out new or challenging social interactions."