Social anxiety, social comparison, self-consciousness, and deconversion in adolescents: a path analysis approach

ABSTRACT

Adolescence is a time of biological, psychological, and social changes during which youth may undergo religious/spiritual (r/s) transformations. Previous studies on adolescents’ r/s transformations have focused on factors that predict involvement in or converting to a religion. Deconversion, which is going from being religious to leaving religion, is an instance of r/s transformation just as much as turning towards religion is. The present study analysed whether social variables – social anxiety and social comparison orientation – can be related to adolescent deconversion processes. Two alternative path models were examined. The study included 550 Polish adolescents (60.7% female), with the majority declaring a Catholic religion. The age of the respondents was from 14 to 18 years (M = 16.32, SD = 1.22). The Adolescent Deconversion Scale, the Retrospective Analysis of Religiosity, the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure, and the Self-Consciousness Scale were used. The results showed that social anxiety is the main predictor of social comparison, and the relationship between social comparison and deconversion is mediated by private self-consciousness. Thus, social comparison emerging from social anxiety has the psychological potential to predict higher deconversion processes among adolescents.

KEYWORDS:

• Deconversion
• social comparison
• social anxiety
• self-consciousness
• adolescence

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The research was conducted by students as part of their master’s theses approved by the Board of the Institute of Psychology at the first author’s university.

Informed consent from participants

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Data availability statement

Dataset used in the research are publicly available on the Institutional Repository of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin at http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12153/3058

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Raymond F. Paloutzian for editorial assistance in preparation of this manuscript.

Special thanks go to Michał Grupa, Aleksandra Moskal, Agata Rynasiewicz, and Joanna Polkowska for their assistance in the research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Beata Zarzycka

Beata Zarzycka is an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology, the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. Her academic work focuses on the psychology of religion and spirituality. She currently runs research programs that focus on prayer, religious and spiritual struggle, religious ingratiation, readiness for interreligious dialogue, and experiential psychotherapy.

Wiktor Razmus

Wiktor Razmus is an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology, the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland. His academic work focuses on cross-cultural psychology, motivational psychology, self-efficacy, organizational psychology, and behavioral science.

Dariusz Krok

Dariusz Krok is an associate professor at the Institute of Psychology, Opole University, Poland. His academic work focuses on examining relationships between health and quality of life, religion and well-being, coping and illness.