Considering Catholics: an exploration of the literature available on religious identity development

ABSTRACT

Identity development is an important developmental task impacted by many facets of a person’s life, including ethnic background, abilities, and religion. Notwithstanding its decisive role in identity development, however, religious identity research has been rather sparse. Religious identity refers to how the person uses religion to answers the question “who am I?” or “who are we?.” Research that focuses on the religious identity development of particular groups is more scarce. This review article intends to synthesize the current state of the research in regard to religious identity development, especially as it relates to emerging adult Catholic religious identity development. A brief consideration of theories that may aid in understanding religious identity will be undertaken, followed by a review of empirical literature that suggests possible influences on religious identity. The methods, strengths and weaknesses of current research will be considered with implications for future research. It is hoped that through a better understanding of the current research on religious identity development a clearer path forward may be paved in research development.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious identity
• Erikson
• self–determination theory
• catholic emerging adults

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge funding received from Michigan State University that aided in funding this research through the School of Social Work and the College of Social Science.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.