Shifts in Spiritual and Religious Self-Perceptions in the First Year of College

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Abstract This study draws on an original national and longitudinal survey to examine patterns and predictors of change in religious and spiritual self-perceptions among over seven thousand college students in their first year on campus. The chapter identifies the personal characteristics, institutional contexts, and collegiate experiences that shaped students’ perceptions of themselves in relation to religion and spirituality. Twenty-eight percent of first-year students changed their self-perception in the first year of college; a switch to “spiritual but not religious” was the most common type of change. The study illuminates parallel reactions to religious and spiritual descriptors among certain groups. For example, both atheists and evangelical Christians were less likely than mainline Protestants to adopt the “religious but not spiritual” and “spiritual but not religious” labels. Lived experiences in the first year of college made a notable impact on students’ self-perceptions of spirituality.