Pamela Ebstyne King

Religion as a Resource for Positive Youth Development: Religion, Social Capital, and Moral Outcomes.

Although existing literature demonstrates that developmental benefits are associated with religion for adolescents, little is understood about the dynamics of this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, this study tested a conceptual model exploring socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes. A three-dimensional model of social capital demonstrated how social interaction, trust, and shared vision enable social ties associated with religiousness to influence moral behavior. Structural equation modeling was used with data gathered from 735 urban youths to test a proposed model of the effects of religiousness on moral outcomes. Results suggested that religiously active youths report higher levels of social capital resources and that the influence of adolescent religiousness on moral outcomes was mediated through social capital resources. Suggestions for further research and implications for faithbased youth development organizations are considered.

Religion and Positive Youth Development: Identity, Meaning, and Prosocial Concerns.

The role of religious identity in positive youth development was examined in this study of personal meaning and prosocial concerns in adolescence. A structural equation model was tested on a sample of 801 urban public high school students. Participants responded to questionnaires assessing religious identity, personal meaning, and prosocial personality. Prototypical descriptors derived from Walker and Pittss (1998) highly religious person concept were examined as a measure of religious identity. Findings demonstrate a positive relationship between religious self-understanding, personal meaning, and prosocial personality. Differences were noted in the relationship of personal meaning to prosocial personality across age and gender cohorts. The findings provide further support for considering religion as a developmental resource associated with personal meaning and a concern for others among youth.

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

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.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.

Exploring Adolescent Spiritual and Religious Development: Current and Future Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Spirituality and religion are central dimensions of human experience. Youth and adults alike report high levels of religiosity. A Gallup International Association (1999) poll of 50,000 adults in 60 countries found that 87% of respondents report being a part of a religious denomination, 63% indicate that God is highly important in their lives, and 75% believe in either a personal God or “some sort of spirit or life force.” Other data (Gallup & Bezilla, 1992) show that 95% of American youth aged 13–17 believe in God, and 75% “very much” or “somewhat” agree with the statement “I try to follow the teachings of my religion.” In addition, 42% of American youth claim that they frequently pray alone, and 36% report participating in a church youth group and 23% in faith-based service projects. Adolescence may be a particularly important time period in which to study spiritual and religious development (Donelson, 1999; Gorsuch, 1988). In adolescence, many youth turn toward religion and greater civic involvement, and yet many others who turn away from religion join either gangs or hate groups, or become antisocial in other ways. Thus, adolescents’spirituality and religiosity can be articulated and engaged, stifled and thwarted,ormisdirected.This is anageperiodof intense ideological hunger, a striving for meaning and purpose, and desire for relationships and connectedness (e.g., Erikson, 1968). Adolescents “move beyond concrete childhood impressions of religion to reflect on issues and concepts that are embedded in existential and transcendental realms” (Markstrom, 1999, p. 205). From one theoretical perspective (Fowler, 1981), most young people in adolescence progress from having a tacit commitment to the views of important reference groups around them to possessing a more “owned” and personalized faith, one that arises from critical introspection of one’s own beliefs and values. Despite its importance, adolescents’ spirituality and religion have been relatively neglected in the developmental sciences.Recentanalysesofsocial-sciencedatabases found that less than 1% of the articles on children andadolescentsaddressedspiritualityorspiritualdevelopment (Benson, Roehlkepartain, & Rude, 2003) or religion and religious development (Boyatzis, 2003). However, a new field of spiritual and religious development is emerging. For example, evidence is confirming positive links between adolescents’ involvement in religion and many desirable developmental correlates (e.g., Donahue & Benson, 1995; Wagener, Furrow, King, Leffert, & Benson, 2003). The purpose of this special issue is to add to the growing empirical base on adolescent spirituality and religiosity. We hope to shed light on definitional and methodological challenges in this field and reveal new topics, research designs, and statistical procedures that will expand our understanding of spirituality and religion in adolescence. Our goal is that the issue is relevant for researchers and practitioners.

Thriving in Adolescence The Voices of Youth-Serving Practitioners, Parents, and Early and Late Adolescents

This study assesses if correspondence existed between concepts scholars use to discuss positive youth development (PYD) and terms used by practitioners, parents, and youth to discuss exemplary PYD, or thriving. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of 173 interviews about the meaning of thriving found no significant commonality between the terms used in the scholarly literature and the specific words or phrases used by the adult and youth participants. However, the terms generated by the adults and youthwere able to be grouped into categories that reflect the general concepts used in the PYD literature (e.g., the five Cs ofcompetence, confidence, connection, character, caring, and the sixth C, contribution). Applications to public education youth programs are discussed.

Religious Involvement and Developmental Resources in Youth

Religious involvement is associated with a variety of positive developmental outcomes including restraint from risk, increased coping, and prasocial values and behavior. This study examines a model that explains religious influence on these positive outcomes through the mediating effects of developmental resources important in adolescence. Tests of the model, on questionnaire responses derived from a sample of 20,020 youthin grades 6-12 suggest that religious factors are associated with increased developmental assets that in turn predict positive behaviors and values among youth. Findings support the hypothesis that religious influences upon positive outcomes are mediated primarily through their effect on developmental assets. While differences in outcomes were noted across gender and grade cohorts, little variation in the proposed model was noted in cohort comparisons. Results of the study question the unique influence of religion on adolescent risk and prosocial behavior. Instead religious influence may be better understood as giving youth increased access to a variety of social and personal resources.

Positive Youth Development: Is There a Nomological Network of Concepts Used in the Adolescent Developmental Literature?

To gauge the status of connections between the research literature about adolescent development and current theoretical and applied work pertinent to the concept of positive youth development (PYD), we assessed whether the adolescent development literature from 1991 to 2003 reflected a network of terms associated with PYD. A list of 16 terms potentially linked to PYD was generated by integrating conceptualizations of PYD presented in key scholarly publications and found among the ideas of scholars who are expert in the PYD perspective. The presence of these terms was then assessed in a set of nine leading development journals. The analysis of more than 5,500 article titles and abstracts indicated that a nomological network of concepts pertinent to PYD has not yet emerged in the research literature. We discuss possible reasons for the disparity between this sample of publications in developmental science and the growing theoretical and applied interest in PYD.

Religion as a resource for positive youth development: Religion, social capital, and moral outcomes.

Although existing literature demonstrates that developmental benefits are associated with religion for adolescents, little is understood about the dynamics of this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, this study tested a conceptual model exploring socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes. A three-dimensional model of social capital demonstrated how social interaction, trust, and shared vision enable social ties associated with religiousness to influence moral behavior. Structural equation modeling was used with data gathered from 735 urban youths to test a proposed model of the effects of religiousness on moral outcomes. Results suggested that religiously active youths report higher levels of social capital resources and that the influence of adolescent religiousness on moral outcomes was mediated through social capital resources. Suggestions for further research and implications for faith-based youth development organizations are considered.

An Introduction to Exemplar Research: A Definition, Rationale, and Conceptual Issues

The exemplar methodology represents a useful yet underutilized approach to studying developmental constructs. It features an approach to research whereby individuals, entities, or programs that exemplify the construct of interest in a particularly intense or highly developed manner compose the study sample. Accordingly, it reveals what the upper ends of development look like in practice. Utilizing the exemplar methodology allows researchers to glimpse not only what is but also what is possible with regard to the development of a particular characteristic. The present chapter includes a definition of the exemplar methodology, a discussion of some of key conceptual issues to consider when employing it in empirical studies, and a brief overview of the other chapters featured in this volume.

Preliminary exploration of the Measurement of Diverse Adolescent Spirituality (MDAS) among Mexican youth

ABSTRACT In the current article we propose and offer a preliminary test of an ecologically sensitive theoretical and methodological framework for understanding diverse adolescent spiritual development. The study summarizes the initial stages of development of the Measurement of Diverse Adolescent Spirituality (MDAS) that assesses three dimensions of spirituality: transcendence, fidelity, and contribution. We report our procedures and findings from an initial effort to contextualize the measure and validate the resulting scales with youth in Tijuana, Mexico. In the current study, 391 (211 females, M age = 13.78 years old) Mexican youth completed a self-report survey including the MDAS and measures of prosocial tendencies, daily spiritual experiences, and intrinsic religious motivation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor models, reliability, and structural analysis affirm the MDAS as a valid and reliable multidimensional measure of adolescent spirituality within the tested sample. Implications for further study of adolescent spiritual development and culturally valid research methods are discussed.