Spirituality and Religiosity Profiles among Diverse Young Adults: The Relationship with Meaning Making

ABSTRACT

This study explored how patterns of spirituality/religiosity relate to meaning-making among 199 racially diverse young adults (74.5% non-Hispanic Black, 65.1% Christian, and 49% female). Participants completed measures of demographics, spirituality/religiosity, and meaning-making. Latent profile analysis revealed four profiles: “Average Spirituality/Religiosity, Higher Negative Religious Coping Class (AHNR),” “High Religiosity, Mixed Spirituality (HRMS),” “Low Religiosity, Lower Spirituality (LRLS),” and “Highest Spirituality/Religiosity, Lower Negative Religious Coping (HLNRC).” The HLNRC class reported higher meaning-making than the AHNR and HRMS classes. The AHNR and LRLS classes reported higher meaning-making than the HRMS class. Findings highlight the heterogeneity of spirituality/religiosity and relevancy to meaning-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Structural equation modeling
• meaning-making
• person-centered analyses
• diversity
• young adult

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In accordance with the first author’s religious beliefs, the name of G-d will not be written out in this publication. The complete name was used in the survey administered to participants.

2. Race is a sociopolitical construct that serves as a proxy for the influence of racist practices and structural inequality. Race is not a biological variable and thus is examined in the paper with this premise in mind (for additional review see Roberts, 2011; Smedley & Smedley, 2005).

3. As part of a research agreement with this institution, they asked that they remain unnamed in any publications. To align with their request, the name of this institution is withheld from the current study.

4. According to the National Eligibility Requirements for this federally funded job-preparedness program, “low income” is defined as receiving or being a member of a family that receives one of the following in the past six months: supplemental nutrition assistance program under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, block grants to States for temporary assistance for needy families program under party A of Title IV of the Social Security Act, or the supplemental security income program established under Title XVI of the Social Security Act (Department of Labor, 2016a). In addition, “low income” is also defined as individually receiving or as a member of a family receiving a total income during the past six months that is not higher than the poverty level as established by the Department of Health and Human Services (Department of Labor, 2016a).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.