RELIGIOUS
CONVERSION AND SWITCHING
Horton, Darcy Ann. 1998. “Adolescent Daughters and the Impact and Meaning of the Loss of Their Mothers to Breast Cancer.” Ph.d. Thesis, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.
Abstract: This study explored
the impact and meaning of the loss of one's mother to breast cancer as
experienced by 8 ethnically diverse women, aged 28 to 53, who were 12- to 19-
years-old when their mothers died. Multiple case study and feminist
methodologies were used to investigate the impact on various areas of the
participants' lives as well as any meaning they found in the experience.
Findings indicated that maternal death is a profound event for adolescent
daughters. Various patterns emerged in each of the areas studied. Regarding
body, breasts, and sexuality, there was anxiety about developing breast cancer
with either conscious awareness or latent presence. Regarding psychological
development and functioning, there was premature autonomy and responsibility
with either assumption of responsibility or acting out and struggle, and an
underlying vulnerability or strength. Regarding spiritual and religious beliefs
and practices, there was change in spiritual and religious orientation with
disillusionment with God and organized religion and the development of personal
spirituality. Regarding work, school, and career plans, choices in these areas
were affected by mother's absence with choices as a way of identifying or
pleasing mother and unfulfilled potential due to mother's absence. Regarding
relationships with others, there was a lack of support for grieving within the
immediate family with emotional and/or physical unavailability of the father,
father's lack of communication with daughter about mother, deterioration of
family as a unit, and grief support received from other females as well as
heightened fear of loss of additional loved ones with fear of abandonment or
intimacy and/or behavior that was overly controlling, protective or detached.
Data on meaning revealed the unpredictable and transitory nature of life with
awareness of the uncertainty and finiteness of life and the preciousness of
each moment, plus a realignment of life's priorities with a focus on
relationships and health. [Source: DA]
Hoge, Dean R., Benton Johnson, and Donald A. Luidens. 1995. “Types of Denominational Switching among Protestant Young Adults.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion vol. 34, pp. 253-258.
Abstract: Telephone survey
data from 500 US young adults ages 33-42 who grew up Presbyterian reveal four
motivations of people who switched denominations: (1) interfaith marriage; (2)
moving to a different town or neighborhood; (3) dissatisfaction with one's
church; & (4) personal ties & influences. The third motivation was
often associated with a conversion or renewal of commitment. Switches for the
first two reasons tended to be within mainline Protestant denominations, while
switches for the third reason tended to pull a person outside the mainline.
Afterward, switchers became more church-inolved than nonswitchers, especially
those citing reason 3. [Source: SA]
Sherkat, Darren E. and John Wilson. 1995. “Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in Religious Markets: An Examination of Religious Switching and Apostasy.” Social Forces vol. 73, pp. 993-1026.
Abstract: Formulates a
demand side complement to the existing supply side theories of religion to
demonstrate how choices of religious affiliation resemble other cultural
choices. The study uses data from the Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study.
The 1st wave of the study in 1965 yielded responses from 1,669 high school
seniors and 1,562 of their parents; the 2nd wave collected in 1973 retained
1,348 of the youths from the original panel and 1,179 of the parents. Building
on earlier formulations of the link between social status and religious
preference, this analysis argues that social status both influences preferences
and choices. The data indicate that religious preference is molded by prior
religious consumption, which in turn influences religious choices later in
life. Finally, normative constraints influence individual behavior in the
religious marketplace. [Source: PI]
Filius, Rens Jan. 1992. “Types of Adolescent Religious Conversion and Perception of Family Functioning.” Ph.d. Thesis, Rosemead School of Psychology Biola University.
Abstract: Developmental
factors influencing adolescent religious conversion are examined in this study.
Blos' theory of adolescent separation and individuation, Erikson's theory of
ego identity development, and a developmental model of family functioning are
discussed in relationship to adolescent religious conversion. Two typologies of
conversion, sudden versus gradual and inter- versus intra-faith, were used to
investigate the relationship with family functioning. It was hypothesized (a)
that adolescents who have experienced a sudden religious conversion perceive
their family as more extreme, and more frequently possess a foreclosed
religious identity status and indiscriminantly proreligious orientation; (b)
adolescents who have experienced a gradual religious conversion perceive their
family as more balanced, more frequently possess an achieved religious identity
status, and an intrinsic religious orientation; (c) adolescents who have
experienced an inter-faith conversion perceive their family as less cohesive
and those who had an intra-faith conversion will perceive their family as more
cohesive; (d) adolescents from families holding strong religious values more
frequently have an intra-faith conversion; (e) democratic family style
correlates positively with intrinsic and consensual religious orientations, and
achieved identity status. Undergraduate students from an evangelical and a
state university participated in this study (N = 173). Subjects who had experienced
an adolescent conversion were identified (n = 46). Three control groups were
used: (a) Christian students who had experienced a childhood conversion and a
religious recommitment in adolescence, (b) Christians who did not experience a
change in faith, and (c) non-Christians. Analyses of variance were used to test
the hypotheses; discriminant function analyses were used to explore additional
relationships. Only the hypotheses concerning the inter-/intra-faith conversion
typology were supported. The suddenness of conversion is less affected by
family functioning compared to a change from the faith in which an individual
has been socialized. Perception of religious emphasis in the family was the
most important variable for prediction of group membership. It was concluded
that antecedents of religious conversion are mostly religious variables.
Religious socialization in general merits greater attention in research
concerning religious conversion.
[Source: DA]
Kox, Willem, Wim Meeus, and Harm t Hart. 1991. “Religious Conversion of Adolescents: Testing the Lofland and Stark Model of Religious Conversion.” Sociological Analysis vol. 52, pp. 227-240.
Abstract: John Lofland's
& Rodney Stark's model of religious conversion (see SA 14:5/66C1173) was
tested using survey data from 92 Dutch adolescents. The data show that
respondents are attracted to religious groups because the group: (1) offers a
new perspective on life & so liberates them from entrapment in their own
problems; & (2) provides a satisfying personal network. It is concluded
that while the model describes the primary conditions of conversion, it is
inadequate as a model for the overall process.
[Source: SA]
Sherkat, Darren E. and John Wilson. 1991. “Religious Mobility and Religious Socialization.” Paper presented at American Sociological Association (ASA), 1991.
Abstract: Research on
religious switching has largely focused on the role of status factors, though
the importance of denominational attributes & of socialization in binding
people to their denomination of origin has been noticed more recently. Here,
this research is extended by specifying a causal model of religious
disaffiliation. Using data from the Youth-Parent Socialization Panel Study, the
usefulness of status, denominational, & socialization theories in
predicting apostasy & switching is assessed via multinominal logit
regression models. On the basis of these associational findings, causal models
of the processes of apostasy & religious switching are specified using structural
probit models estimated with LISCOMP. Results indicate that the successful
transmission of religious beliefs & practices plays a significant role in
the likelihood of changing religious preferences & of apostasy.
Specifically, adolescent religious beliefs & affective closeness to parents
predict apostasy, whereas adolescent church attendance predicts religious
switching. Parents' education & religiosity predict their adolescent
children's religious beliefs & participation, which then affect the likelihood
of apostasy & switching. Indirect effects of gender & denomination on
switching & apostasy are also examined.
[Source: SA]
Wilson, John and Sharon Sandomirsky. 1991. “Religious Affiliation and the Family.” Sociological Forum vol. 6, pp. 289-309.
Abstract: Examined the
function of the family as a mediator between the individual and the church. 539
male and 327 female high school juniors and seniors with no religious
affiliation in 1965-1966 were resurveyed in 1979 at age 28-31 yrs. Reasons many
Ss became church members by age 30 were explained in terms of a combination of
individual attributes (e.g., educational and spatial mobility) and changes in
structural location (e.g., the transition to marital and parental status).
Females' vs males' chances of affiliation were more affected by parents'
religious homogamy, getting married, and having children. [Source: PI]
Kirkpatrick, Lee A. and Phillip R. Shaver. 1990. “Attachment Theory and Religion: Childhood Attachments, Religious Beliefs, and Conversion.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion vol. 29, pp. 315-334.
Whitehead, Mark L. 1988. “The Effect of Conversion on Adolescent Identity.” Thesis, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary.
Schwartz, Lita Linzer and Natalie Isser. 1987. “Proselytizers of Jewish Youth.” Journal of Psychology and Judaism vol. 11, pp. 181-195.
Judah, J. Stillson. 1982. “From Political Activism to Religious Participation.” Update pp. 11-20.
Abstract: The paper demonstrates
that conversion to a new religion was a response to a need, however temporary,
when there was a loss of identity during a period of change. Utilizing data from surveys of and
interviews with members of the Hare Krishna movement and the Unification Church,
the author demonstrates that the models for "brainwashing" do not fit
the empirical data concerning these conversions. These were countercultural youth who, being unable to make the
change to the culture and religions of the establishment, found identity in the
sub-culture and religions of the counterculture. [Source: RI]
Ullman, Chana. 1982. “Cognitive and Emotional Antecedents of Religious Conversion.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology vol. 43, pp. 183-192.
Abstract: Evaluated the contribution
of several cognitive factors (tolerance of ambiguity, impermeability of present
belief system, and cognitive quest) and emotional factors (perception of
childhood relationship with parents, and childhood and adolescence stress and
trauma) in precipitating religious conversion. Ss were 40 religious converts
(aged 20-40 yrs) from 4 religious groups (Jewish, Catholic, Bahai, and Hare
Krishna) and 30 age-matched religiously affiliated nonconverts (Jewish and
Catholic). Converts' present belief systems were judged as more impermeable;
but contrary to the cognitive hypotheses, the groups did not differ on several
measures of tolerance of ambiguity and in degree of cognitive quest during
adolescence. Emotional factors were more closely associated with religious
conversion. Converts' perceptions of their parents were markedly more negative,
and incidence of father absence was higher in the convert sample. Converts
reported more traumatic events during childhood and described their childhood
and adolescence as unhappy. In the interview with converts, personal stress was
also reported more often than cognitive quest as characterizing the 2-yr period
preceding conversion and as involved in the immediate consequences of
conversion. [Source: PI]
Vigil, James D. 1982. “Human Revitalization: The Six Tasks of Victory Outreach.” Drew Gateway pp. 49-59.
Abstract: Certain facets of
the anthropological revitalization model are used to examine why urban street
youth are attracted to a Pentecostal program.
This Protestant, fundamentalist program is expressly formulated to
convert young people to a religious life by instilling in them the motives for
personal and (eventual) social reform.
The processual framework of conversion closely resembles the
revitalization stages which individuals and groups undergo (cargo cults,
messianic movements, nativist strivings) to reduce stress and thereby
experience cultural regeneration, especially in situations of culture
conflict. While the results are often
inconclusive, most of the people who experience the program remain positively
disposed to the process. [Source: RI]
Apprey, Maurice. 1981. “Family, Religion and Separation: The Effort to Separate in the Analysis of a Pubertal Adolescent Boy.” Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology vol. 4, pp. 137-155.
Abstract: Examines the
process whereby a 13-yr-old male used analysis to take progressive and
retrogressive steps to effect a relative separation from his infantile object
ties. The S's background, his religious conversion to the Mormon faith, the
diagnostic formulation and initial therapeutic strategy, the problem of
separation, 1st- and 2nd-yr treatment, partial resolution of conflicts with his
father, and the negotiation and emergence of the S's heterosexual ambitions are
discussed. Analysis facilitated the S's use of the religious conversion as an
adaptive transition from his earlier infantile object tie to its consequent
renunciation and strengthened his certainty of himself as a young man with
mature heterosexual ambitions. [Source:
PI]
Fichter, Joseph H. 1981. “Youth in Search of the Sacred.” Pp. 21-41 in The Social Impact of New Religious Movements, edited by B. Wilson. Barrytown, N.Y.: Unification Theological Seminary.
Whitehead, Mark L. 1981. “The Effect of Conversion on Adolescent Identity.” Ph.d. Thesis, Western Conservative Baptist Seminary.
Abstract: This study focused
on the influence of Christian conversion and recommitment on adolescent
identity, and whether conversion or recommitment could be predicted from the
identity level of adolescents. The study tested four major hypotheses: (1)
Non-Christians who convert will improve on the first five of Erikson's identity
stages more than will those who do not convert. (2) Christians who recommit
themselves to Christianity will improve on the first five of Erikson's identity
stages more than will those who do not recommit. (3) The initial identity
levels will be different for those who subsequently experience conversion as
compared to those who remain non-converted. (4) The initial identity levels
will be different for those who subsequently experience recommitment as
compared to those who remain non-recommitted. The sample included 138
adolescents. The adolescents attended one of two weekend ski camps which were
religiously oriented. Each of the camps had religious services one evening in
which an appeal was made for the campers to convert or to recommit themselves
to Christianity. Each camper was administered two questionnaires on the way to
the camp and nearly identical questionnaires on the return trip. The first
questionnaire identified an individual's religious identification as either
non-Christian, ethical Christian or born-again Christian. Those who did not
identify themselves as born-again Christians on the pre-test and did so on the
post-test were considered converts for the purpose of this study. The post-test
contained an item to identify those who recommitted themselves to Christianity.
The second questionnaire identified levels of identity on the first five of
Erikson's eight identity stages. Non-converts increased in Industry and
decreased in Inferiority, while converts changed in the opposite direction. The
non-recommitment group increased in Identity while those who recommitted
changed in the opposite direction. Age was found to be predictive of
conversion. Younger non-Christians were more likely to experience conversion.
Age was also significantly related to identity scores in support of Erikson's
developmental theory. Change on the subscale of Autonomy was significantly
related to sex. These results imply that resistance to an appeal to change
one's identity initially has an identity firming result. Conversely, the data
also imply that changing one's identity in response to an appeal to change
initially has an identity fragmenting result.
[Source: DA]
Roozen, David A. 1980. “Church Dropouts: Changing Patterns of Disengagement and Re-Entry.” Review of Religious Research suppl pp. 427-450.
Abstract: Defining a church
dropout as one who has not attended religious services for two or more
years, the study estimates that 46
percent of Americans drop out of active religious participation sometime during
their lifetime, the rate greatest among
teenagers. The teenage peak in the
dropout rate is found across all categories of control variables and appears
due primarily to lessening parental influence and a general feeling that the
church has little to offer. Once past
the teens, personal reasons for
disengagement (moving to a new community, change in work schedule, poor health)
predominate, especially for those over fifty-four. The study finds little historical variation in the dropout rate
from the 1930s through the 1950s. In the
1960s, however, there was a significant
increase in the dropout rate, with only slight abatement in the 1970s. The study suggests that church disengagement
is a temporary, rather than permanent,
stage in one's life. Up to 80 percent
of religious dropouts, depending upon age at disengagement,
re-enter active church involvement. The
re-entry rate is greatest among those 25 to 34 years old the net gain-loss rate for the population as
a whole is positive only during the 1970s.
[Source: RI]
Zaretsky, Irving I. 1980. “Youth and Religious Movements.” Adolescent Psychiatry vol. 8, pp. 281-287.
Abstract: Examines the
historical context of adolescents' attraction to religious ideas and movements,
noting that the desire for social change through personal transformation is the
main characteristic of participants in religious groups. Anthropological
aspects of religious group membership are considered, along with parallels
between psychotherapy and the processes of religious conversion. The need for
longitudinal studies of adolescent converts is emphasized. [Source: PI]
Deutsch, Alexander and Michael J. Miller. 1979. “Conflict, Character, and Conversion: Study of a "New-Religion" Member.” Adolescent Psychiatry vol. 7, pp. 257-268.
Abstract: Presents a case study
of a young woman, raised as a Catholic, who became a member of a religious cult
in her early 20's. The influences of certain psychic conflicts and character
trends on her attraction to group life and teachings are examined, and the
nature of the late adolescent turmoil that preceded her conversion is
described. [Source: PI]
Lingren, Paul G. 1979. “Personality and Self Concept Variables in Adolescent Religious Conversion Experiences.” Thesis, Rosemead Graduate School of Professional Psychology.
Parker, Mitchell S. 1978. “Dimensions of Religious Conversion During Adolescence.” Thesis, State University of New York, Buffalo.
Schwartz, Hillel. 1974. “Adolescence and Revivals in Ante-Bellum Boston.” Journal of Religious History vol. 8, pp. 144-158.
Abstract: In the early
1800s, adult images of youth encouraged the impression that religious revivals
were primarily adolescent phenomena.
Revivalists who came to Boston between 1820 and 1845 - C. G. Finney,
John Maffitt, E. N. Kirk and Jacob Knapp - equated the character of adolescence
with the qualities of true conversion.
Anti-revivalists, reluctant or unable to deal with the sexual
implications of puberty (especially in young women), divorced true conversion
from the sudden passions of youth and accused revivalists of pandering to
adolescent emotions. Whether
or not adolescents were the majority of revival converts, revivalist and
anti-revivalist alike expected converts in revivals to act in conformity with
their coherent perception of adolescence.
[Source: RI]
Allison, Joel. 1969. “Religious Conversion: Regression and Progression in an Adolescent Experience.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion vol. 8, pp. 23-38.
Abstract: Describes the sudden
and dramatic religious conversion experience of a male divinity student in
terms of its role in adolescent development. Preliminary findings were based on
a study of divinity students 7 with intense conversion experience, 7 with mild
or weak experience, and 6 with none. Particular emphasis was placed on the s's
perception of family relationships, and especially on how the conversion
experience serves to alter a perception of the actual father as weak,
ineffective, or absent by supplying instead an internal representation of a
strong and principled substitute paternal figure with clear values and firm
judgments. This representation of a positive and a powerful paternal figure is
seen as crucial in aiding the adolescent process of individuation and differentiation
by countering strong longings to retain or reestablish a sense of
undifferentiated union with the maternal figure. [Source: PI]
Christensen, Carl W. 1965. “Religious Conversion in Adolescence.” Pastoral Psychology vol. 16, pp. 17-28.