Religious and spiritual identities: evaluating change over time, identity salience, and the influence of aging

ABSTRACT

This study has three objectives. First, to assess change in four religious/spiritual identities: religious only, spiritual only, both religious and spiritual, and neither religious nor spiritual. Second, to evaluate whether respondents believe the identities they assumed are salient. Third, to estimate whether the probability of identity change is associated with age. The findings indicate that roughly a quarter of the sample changed their religious/spiritual identity over time. The data further suggest that the spiritual component of the religious and spiritual identity is valued the most highly. Finally, the results reveal that the probability of exiting a role decreases with age.

KEYWORDS:

• Identity salience
• religious identities
• spiritual identities

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that are used in this study are available from the first-listed author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was support by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (40077).