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Abstract
Though exploration of religion has been considered an important part of identity since Erikson's original work, little research has explored the connection explicitly. This study investigated the relationship between identity and faith development in undergraduates (N = 153) from a private, Catholic university and a public college. Participants completed measures of identity style, identity distress, spiritual exploration (willingness to question beliefs, valuing doubts, openness to change), and strength of faith. Higher informational identity style scores related to stronger faith and higher scores on all measures of spiritual exploration. Higher normative style scores related to stronger faith and less value placed on religious doubts. Identity distress was related to greater questioning of beliefs and expecting future change in those beliefs.
Notes
1Potential differences between the correlations in the religious/nonreligious and faith-based/public school groups were tested with Fisher's r-to-z transformations. None of these was significant at the .0025 level.
*p < .05
**p< .01
***p < .001.
