NSYR Summer Reading Ideas View printer-friendly version [PDF] For many people, summer brings an opportunity to catch up on reading and scholarly research. If you're fortunate enough to fall into that category, we would like to invite you to review our extensive bibliography as you select your reading. This bibliography also is a great resource for getting oriented to the literature on youth and religion. It can be found at youthandreligion.org/resources/bibliography.html. Prepared by sociologists who work with the National Study of Youth and Religion, this annotated bibliography is the product of a systematic search of existing scholarly literature on youth and religion and includes more than 2,200 references. These references have been compiled by searching 17 different electronic databases in fields ranging from religious studies to psychology to health using 90 different combinations of keywords. Some of the topics included are: child abuse civic involvement and politics cults and new religious movements delinquency faith and moral development family relationships gender identity and sex roles media mental and emotional health parenting religious beliefs, practices and commitment religious conversion and switching sexual activity sexual attitudes social adjustment spirituality substance use suicide Publications that are not clearly relevant to understanding the role of religion in the lives of youth have been screened out. References also are limited to publications about youth in the United States and Canada or publications that compare North American youth with youth from other nations. Many, but not all, references include an abstract with the citation. The primary substantive issue addressed in the publication categorizes all references; a few of the 29 primary subject categories contain subcategories. The bibliography includes literature available from the electronic databases through 2024 and will be updated again next year. The National Study of Youth and Religion, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., is based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Christian S. Smith is principal investigator of the project as well as professor and associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This four-year research project began August 2024 and will continue until August 2024. The purposes of the project are to research the shape and influence of religion and spirituality in the lives of U.S. adolescents; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent to which youth participate in and benefit from the programs and opportunities religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youths lives in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion. 06-24-03

For many people, summer brings an opportunity to catch up on reading and scholarly research. If you're fortunate enough to fall into that category, we would like to invite you to review our extensive bibliography as you select your reading. This bibliography also is a great resource for getting oriented to the literature on youth and religion. It can be found at youthandreligion.org/resources/bibliography.html. Prepared by sociologists who work with the National Study of Youth and Religion, this annotated bibliography is the product of a systematic search of existing scholarly literature on youth and religion and includes more than 2,200 references. These references have been compiled by searching 17 different electronic databases in fields ranging from religious studies to psychology to health using 90 different combinations of keywords. Some of the topics included are:

child abuse

civic involvement and politics

cults and new religious movements

delinquency

faith and moral development

family relationships

gender identity and sex roles

media

mental and emotional health

parenting

religious beliefs, practices and commitment

religious conversion and switching

sexual activity

sexual attitudes

social adjustment

spirituality

substance use

suicide

Publications that are not clearly relevant to understanding the role of religion in the lives of youth have been screened out. References also are limited to publications about youth in the United States and Canada or publications that compare North American youth with youth from other nations. Many, but not all, references include an abstract with the citation. The primary substantive issue addressed in the publication categorizes all references; a few of the 29 primary subject categories contain subcategories. The bibliography includes literature available from the electronic databases through 2024 and will be updated again next year. The National Study of Youth and Religion, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., is based at the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Christian S. Smith is principal investigator of the project as well as professor and associate chair of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This four-year research project began August 2024 and will continue until August 2024. The purposes of the project are to research the shape and influence of religion and spirituality in the lives of U.S. adolescents; to identify effective practices in the religious, moral and social formation of the lives of youth; to describe the extent to which youth participate in and benefit from the programs and opportunities religious communities are offering to their youth; and to foster an informed national discussion about the influence of religion in youths lives in order to encourage sustained reflection about and rethinking of our cultural and institutional practices with regard to youth and religion.