Religion and Identity: The Role of Ideological, Social, and Spiritual Contexts

By Pamela Ebstyne King. Beyond the Self, 2003

188 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Existing research demonstrates a positive relation between religion and identity among adolescents. A conceptual framework is presented suggesting that religion provides a distinct setting for identity exploration and commitment through offering ideological, social, and spiritual contexts. It is then suggested that the religious context promotes a sense of identity that transcends the self and promotes a concern for the social good and that religious institutions provide unique settings for adolescent identity formation. In addition to the potential developmental benefits of religion, negative consequences on identity development are considered. Finally, recommendations for empirical study are suggested.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/68d8f630b6c79d400c401cdc1516b5edd9ecbf9d