Lisa D. Pearce and Melinda Denton: A Faith of Their Own: Stability and Change in the Religiosity of America’s Adolescents

Abstract

In A Faith of their Own, Lisa Pearce and Melinda Denton seek to identify and categorize changes in religiosity that occur during adolescence. They contest the often and erroneous assumption that adolescents’ religiosity decreases, when in fact ‘‘youth are overwhelmingly likely to say they have remained or gotten more religious during adolescence’’ (Pearce and Denton 2011, p. 2). Their study makes use of data from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). They present results from semi-structured interviews and surveys of American youth who were interviewed in 2002 when they were between the ages of 13 and 17 and again in 2005, when they were between the ages of 16 and 21. The objective was to identify the development of individual religiosity between middle and late adolescence. To make sense of their data, the authors begin by defining religiosity and spirituality by identifying multiple dimensions and profiles. They refer to the dimensions as the three C’s, include the context of religious belief, the conduct of religious practices and the centrality of religion in an individual’s life. They argue that the variation in the three C’s results in the five religious profiles defined as Abiders, Adapters, Assenters, Avoiders and Atheists. Pearce and Denton are quick to explain that these five profiles are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive as religion and spirituality are personal values continuously changing with the ebb and flow of life. But, they argue that unique and shared characteristics exist between the five profiles. The book dedicates itself to examining these characteristics. The first chapter explores the definition of religion and its place in adolescent life. Past social scientific theories and definitions of religiosity are examined, highlighting the difficulty of defining personal religion. To help readers understand those difficulties, Pearce and Denton create a metaphor that compares personal religion to a mosaic. Individuals possess tiles representing the different dimensions and aspects of religiosity. The color of their tiles corresponds to the intensity of that dimension in their religious profile. The example used is one of a girl who strongly believes in a personal God. If green tiles represented the belief in a personal God, she would have dark green tiles paralleling her confidence and strong belief. The number of green tiles in her mosaic would define the degree of importance of that dimension in her overall personal religious identity. She may consider belief in a personal God to be the most important dimension of her religion, more than religious service attendance, praying, or service to others, resulting in a large number of green tiles. Each facet of religion is represented by a different color and number of tiles, designing a personalized mosaic for every individual. The mosaic metaphor provides a scale to measure distinct beliefs and the intensity of those beliefs. It clarifies how different individuals can be similar in many beliefs yet fall into different religious profiles. Pearce and Denton conclude by examining the effects of social contexts on the development of religious profiles. Family background, peer influence, socio-demographics, youth temperament and life experience all play heavily into creating personal religious mosaics. Chapter two provides detailed anecdotes from five individuals, one from each religious profile. The original interviews from 2002 are discussed in conjunction with the updated interviews from 2005. These anecdotes describe youth who remained in their prospective profiles over the course of both interviews, much like the majority of adolescents surveyed. Pearce and Denton begin with the two profiles that would appear to be polar opposites, but in M. Elser (&) Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA e-mail: melser@indiana.edu