J Relig Health DOI 10.1007/s10943-015-0048-z ORIGINAL PAPER

Filling the Void: Spiritual Development Among Adolescents of the Affluent Samuel H. Barkin1 • Lisa Miller1 • Suniya S. Luthar2

 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Abstract Building on both the spiritual development and affluent youth literature, the current study explores spiritual development and health outcomes in a sample of uppermiddle-class youth. Exploratory analyses indicate long-term stability in religiosity and spirituality from late adolescence (mean age 18) well into emerging adulthood (mean age 24); specifically, a strong personal relationship with a Higher Power, that carries into the broader arena of life, appears to be the primary source of spiritual life in adolescence that transitions into young adulthood. Moreover, cross-sectional associations at age 24 suggest spiritual development may have important implications for increased mental health and life satisfaction, as well as decreased antisocial behaviors. Keywords Spirituality
Religiosity
Development
Adolescents
Emerging adults
Affluent youth

It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement—that they seek power, success, and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life. And yet, in making any general judgment of this sort, we are in danger of forgetting how variegated the human world and its mental life are. Opening lines to Civilization and Its Discontents, Frued (1930).

& Samuel H. Barkin [email protected] & Lisa Miller [email protected]; [email protected] 1

Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA

2

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

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Introduction Fifteen years ago, developmental researchers introduced a counterintuitive notion: that youth growing up in affluent families and communities are more likely to be troubled than their less well off counterparts (Luthar and D’Avanzo 1999). More than a decade later, a wealth of studies have supported these initial claims (for a review, see Luthar et al. 2013), and as Koplewicz and colleagues assert in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, youth in upper-middle-class, white-collar families are a ‘‘newly identified at-risk group’’ (Koplewicz et al. 2009, p. 1053). Indeed, mounting evidence has confirmed affluent adolescents’ elevated rates of substance use, depression, and anxiety, as well as various other internalizing and externalizing indices across diverse geographic areas (e.g., Botticello 2009; Patrick et al. 2012; Reboussin et al. 2010; Song et al. 2009; Luthar and Barkin 2012). In addition, the overvaluation of social status in an environment that often conflates power, success, and wealth confers special risks for antisocial behaviors: Whereas empirical research has documented affluent adolescents’ heighted delinquency (Luthar and Ansary 2005; Lund and Dearing 2012) and aggressive behavior (Becker and Luthar 2007), media, and qualitative reports have repeatedly documented widespread cheating (Pe´rez-Pen˜a and Bidgood 2012), academic dishonesty (Anderson and Applebome 2011), and manipulating others for sex (Chase 2008). Reports from a recent Texas trial (Hayes 2013) involving a drunk driving affluent teen who killed four bystanders all but galvanized the term ‘‘affluenza’’ in popular vernacular, characterizing it as ‘‘a state of immense, amoral privilege’’ (McAuley, Dec 22, 2013). Although the long-term risks facing affluent youth remain unclear, empirical efforts must uncover specific mechanisms, or ‘‘conduits’’ of risk (and resilience) over time, targeting specific areas of vulnerability within this population through emerging adulthood (a critical period, indicative of future well-being). One such area of investigation left untouched, thus far, is spirituality and religiosity—an important and understudied domain in emerging adult development (Levenson et al. 2005), as well as particularly relevant to the affluent question: How is it that so many individuals growing up with abundant material wealth show such elevated rates of maladjustment? Perhaps the answer is in the immaterial. Accordingly, in this paper, we present adolescent and emerging adulthood data from participants in the New England Study of Suburban Youth (NESSY) cohort, who have been assessed annually since grade six. This will be the first study to examine spirituality and religiosity in an affluent population. Additionally, nearly every empirical study examining spirituality and religiosity in emerging adulthood (roughly spanning the time between 18 and 25 years; Arnett 2007) is both cross-sectional and limited to college years (Yonker et al. 2012a, b), whereas the current study examines data from age 18 to 24. Moreover, the current investigation represents the only study exploring spiritual and religious development across both adolescent and emerging adult stages of development (Dew et al. 2008). As such, the current study aims to contribute to two burgeoning fields (the study of affluent youth and the study of spirituality and religiosity) and will focus on three core areas of concern: spiritual and religious development, externalizing symptoms, and internalizing symptoms (the latter two representing major domains of vulnerability in affluent populations; Luthar et al. 2013). Each is discussed in turn below, along with a discussion of the broader framework of spirituality/religiosity, emerging adulthood, and gender considerations.

Defining Spirituality and Religiosity Although it has been asserted that, ‘‘more books have been written on this topic than any other in the history of humanity’’ (p. 9, Spilka et al. 2003), there remains no consensus

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surrounding a clear definition of spirituality and religiosity (Yonker et al. 2012a, b; for a review, see Zinnbauer and Pargament 2005). Indeed, large-scale reviews of spirituality and religion research emphasize the heterogeneity of operationalizations and measurement utilized in empirical research (Dew et al. 2008). Some make the distinction that religiosity indicates a rigorous devotion to particular systems of faith or activities therein (Davis et al. 2003), while spirituality suggests perceived deeper meaning of transcendence beyond logical human discourse (Moreira-Almeda et al. 2006). Koenig et al. (2001) delineate spirituality as ‘‘an individualistic, open-ended, freeing, and subjective quest whereas the conceptualization of religion has been gradually moving toward a more narrow characterization that represents doctrinal, institutional, ritual, and authoritarian aspects of a specific creed’’ (p. 300, Yonker et al. 2012a, b). For their comprehensive review, Dew and colleagues (2008) assert that, ‘‘religion will refer to an organized system of beliefs, rituals, practices, and community, oriented toward the sacred; spirituality will refer to more personal experiences of or searches for ultimate reality or the transcendent that are not necessarily institutionally connected’’ (p. 382). Still, other scholars have argued that spirituality and religion are more similar than they are different (Emmons and Paloutzian 2003). For the purpose of setting a framework for the current study, we adopt a more encompassing conceptualization of spirituality and religiosity (S/R), wherein ‘‘S/R is an active personal devotion and passionate quest largely within the self-acknowledged framework of a sacred theological community’’ (p. 300, Yonker et al. 2012a, b). While unable to capture every discrepancy between spirituality and religiosity, such a definition serves a broader scope and allows for greater parsimony in empirical discussion. Where applicable, however, specific indices of spirituality and religiosity will be identified and discussed as such.

Spirituality and Religiosity in Emerging Adulthood: Domains of Positive Adjustment Beyond the absence of maladaptive behaviors (e.g., internalizing and externalizing symptoms), internalizing one’s beliefs and values has been considered indicative of flourishing during emerging adulthood (Barry et al. 2010). Indeed, spiritual identity may be important in constructing one’s overall identity as an adult (Kiesling et al. 2006). Whereas religiosity is not considered necessary for adaptive development in emerging adulthood, of the many ways emerging adults flourish, the internalization of religious beliefs is widely considered an indicator of adjustment during emerging adulthood (Nelson and PadillaWalker 2013). Thus, long considered important for life outcomes (McCullough and Willoughby 2009), spirituality and religiosity must be considered positive outcomes in their own right (see McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014).

Gender: S/R and Children of the affluent Research has consistently discovered that affluent girls show disturbance across a broader swath of domains than do boys, manifesting elevations in the typically female internalizing problems as well as the typically male problems of rule-breaking and substance use (Luthar and Barkin 2012; Luthar and Goldstein 2008; Yates et al. 2008). Identifying gender-specific risk and protective factors has therefore become a primary aim in the study of affluent youth (Luthar et al. 2013) and must be considered in the current study. As spirituality and religiosity research has largely documented gender differences (Loewenthal et al. 2001) or statistically controlled for gender (Lefkowitz et al. 2004a, b), rarely examining the unique

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outcomes associated with spirituality and religiosity across genders, the current study will contribute to the field by examining both overall and gender-specific outcomes. Indeed, religious beliefs vary by gender (David et al. 2007). In general, young women are more likely than young men to incorporate religion into their emerging adult lives (Barry and Nelson 2005, 2008; Loewenthal et al. 2001), and studies have shown that young women tend to benefit more from religiosity than do young men (Nkansah-Amankra et al. 2010; McCullough et al. 2000; Lewinsohn et al. 2001). Gender may differentially influence the development of religious and spiritual beliefs, the importance placed on those beliefs, and their associations with other outcomes (McNamara Barry et al. 2010). Barry and Nelson (2008) found that religiosity played a more integral role in young women’s selfdevelopment than in men’s. Similarly, after running latent class analyses with a large sample of emerging adults, Nelson and Padilla-Walker (2013) found that the well-adjusted group tended to be both female and religious.

Developmental Pathways: Spirituality and Religiosity Through Emerging Adulthood Boyatzis (2012) points out that, ‘‘if it is difficult to define ‘spirituality,’ it is even more difficult to define ‘spiritual development’’’ (p. 152). As such, there exist a number of definitions of religious and spiritual development. McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena (2014) describe it as ‘‘a process of meaning-making designed to facilitate the search for the sacred that may or may not involve connections to religious institutions’’ (p. 22). Johnson and Boyatzis (2006) proposed that, ‘‘spiritual development proceeds from intuitive understanding to increasingly reflective thought’’ (p. 153, Boyatzis 2012). To date, there is limited research examining the development of spirituality and religiosity (Oser et al. 2006), and only a small fraction of this literature is focused on emerging adulthood spiritual and religious development (McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014). As the study of emerging adulthood development expands, so will spiritual development research (see McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014); each developmental domain within emerging adulthood (e.g., cognitive, emotional, behavioral) is intertwined with spiritual development (Boyatzis 2012; Astin et al. 2011; Labouvie-Vief 2006). Research has shown unique trends in religious beliefs and practices during emerging adulthood, suggesting that religiosity apexes during late adolescence (Button et al. 2011) and then declines over the course of emerging adulthood (Uecker et al. 2007). And whereas religious practices tend to decline during emerging adulthood (Koenig et al. 2008), research suggests that religious and spiritual beliefs increase during emerging adulthood (McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014). Whereas most Millennials in the USA identify as spiritual, but not religious (Jones et al. 2012), theories of religious development are more well established than those of spiritual development (McNamara Barry et al. 2010). There are a number of developmental models (e.g., discrete stage models vs. continuous models) that fit within broader conceptual frameworks (e.g., horizontal vs. vertical models of development; Friedman et al. 2010). The most well-known stage theory of spiritual development is Fowler and Dell’s (2006) structural theory of faith development, which assumes a nearly invariant and culturally universal sequence of meaning-making across the lifespan (McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014). Non-stage models of development include cognitive cultural theories (Johnson and Boyatzis 2006), wherein spiritual development occurs across intuitive ontologies as well as counterintuitive systems reflecting cultural, religious, heritable, and other socialization factors (McNamara Barry and AboZena 2014). Trait approaches to spiritual development (Batson et al. 1993; Piedmont et al.

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2009) explain spiritual development in relation to personality development, highlighting individuals as extrinsically, intrinsically, or quest religiously oriented. Finally, personcentered approaches to spiritual development (Kwilecki 1999; Tisdell 2003) emphasize that life experiences quantitatively and qualitatively shape individual’s spiritual development. Adolescent religiosity has been found to be significantly associated with subsequent religiousness and religious involvement during emerging adulthood (Gunnoe and Moore 2002; McCullough et al. 2003). Indeed, spirituality can promote religious development and vice versa (King and Boyatzis 2004). In fact, it has been found that among college students, intrinsic religious orientations are more predictive of religious identity achievement, as compared to extrinsic religious orientations (De Haan and Schulenberg 1997). Templeton and Eccles (2006) echo such findings, noting that religious identity is one possible avenue for achieving spiritual identity. Kass et al. (1991) highlight the importance of core spiritual experiences for spiritual development, giving special attention to unique events that are interpreted as spiritual, as well as a deeply personal relationship with a Higher Power. Similarly, Levesque (2002) summarizes one such theory wherein individuals acquire an internalized religious consciousness through daily activities such as prayer and organized religious involvement. Notably, literature repeatedly emphasizes the importance of parent and peer religious socialization during childhood and adolescence as an important predictor of emerging adult religiosity and spirituality (Gunnoe and Moore 2002; Boyatzis 2012).

Externalizing: Adult Antisocial Personality Disorder To date, there is no literature examining the relationship between S/R and antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Overall, S/R appears to be protective against antisocial behaviors (Knox et al. 1998) and has positive associations with prosocial tendencies and values (Padilla-Walker et al. 2008). Research has shown positive associations between religiosity and socio-emotional capacities such as empathy, sympathy, concern for others, and other prosocial constructs (Furrow et al. 2004; Markstrom et al. 2010). Yonker and colleague’s 2012 meta-analysis showed that S/R attendance showed the largest effect sizes when predicting risk-taking behaviors, followed by S/R salience. They further showed a moderately strong effect between increased church attendance and decreased deviant behavior. Whereas studies have examined relevant constructs involved in ASPD (e.g., specific risk-taking and antisocial behaviors), findings are inconclusive (Yonker et al. 2012a, b). A number of such constructs and their relationship with S/R are discussed below. Concerning risky sexual behaviors such as promiscuity and unprotected sex, research tends to focus on measures of religiosity (Arnett 2000; Barkan 2006; Langer et al. 2001). Overall, research suggests that religious emerging adults engage in fewer risky sexual behaviors (Langer et al. 2001; Lefkowitz et al. 2004a, b; Murray-Swank et al. 2005). However, while emerging adults who endorse high levels of S/R are more likely to discuss abstinence with their peers (Lefkowitz et al. 2004a, b) and avoid premarital intercourse (Halpern et al. 2006), those who do engage in premarital intercourse are less likely to practice safe sex (Zaleski and Schiaffino 2000). Moreover, whereas religiosity may be an important factor in determining physical and sexual engagement prior to entering a committed relationship (Murray-Swank et al. 2005; Lefkowitz et al. 2004a, b), some studies suggest that religious individuals are more likely to desire committed relationships prior to sex (Taylor et al. 2013), while other studies have found few differences between

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religious and non-religious individuals (Bogle 2008). Interestingly, Taylor and colleagues (2013) found no differences across gender when examining the effects of religiosity on dating behaviors. For children of the affluent during emerging adulthood, risky sexual behaviors (e.g., promiscuity and unprotected sex) contribute to the exaggerated rates of ASPD (Barkin et al., submitted for publication); thus, religiosity may be an important direction in future research. Likewise, rule-breaking behaviors have been repeatedly cited as an area of concern for affluent youth (Luthar et al. 2013; Luthar and Barkin 2012). Religiosity has been identified as an important protective factor against delinquency (Baier and Wright 2001; Nonnemaker et al. 2003; Regnerus 2003; Smith and Faris 2002). Salas-Wright and colleagues (2012) found less reported theft in a religiously devoted group as compared to a religiously disengaged group. Whereas priming effects of religious thoughts have been found to decrease cheating behaviors and increase general prosocial concern, trait religiosity has found little support in the research as decreasing antisocial behaviors and increasing prosocial behaviors (Newton and Mcintosh 2009 in Shariff and Norenzayan 2011; Picho´n et al. 2007). Similarly, trait religiosity has been found to be unrelated to honesty (Randoplh-Seng and Nielsen 2007). Shariff and Norenzayan (2011) found that specific beliefs about G-d were predictive of antisocial behaviors; specifically, those individuals who believe in a punitive Higher Power, are less likely to cheat. They assert that, ‘‘how much you believe in G-d matters less than what kind of G-d you believe in’’ (p. 92). Increasingly, studies demonstrate that religion fosters prosocial behavior only under specific conditions (Norenzayan and Shariff 2008). Such findings highlight the important intersection of personality and S/R. Although the direction of influence is a major limitation in the literature, both conscientiousness and agreeableness have been associated with more religious individuals (Kosek 1999; McCullough et al. 2003; Saroglou and Fiasse 2003), as well as less antisocial behavior (Shiner et al. 2002) and deviance (Verona et al. 2001). Unfortunately, this intersection between prosocial personality features, S/R, and antisocial behaviors is not well understood (Yonker et al. 2012a, b). Indeed, the relationship between S/R and prosocial behavior is complex and multifaceted (Midlarsky et al. 2012); furthermore, it has been argued that prosocial behavior is not the corollary to antisocial behavior; rather, these two constructs have been found have distinct origins and correlates (Krueger et al. 2001).

Internalizing: Distress and Depression Given that the transition to adulthood is a particularly stressful developmental period, rife with the growing pains of identity formation (Levenson et al. 2005), many emerging adults have an increased need to utilize coping mechanisms such as spirituality and religiosity (Young et al. 2000; McNamara Barry et al. 2010). However, due to the paucity of literature examining emerging adulthood specifically, the relationship between S/R and internalizing symptoms during this developmental stage remains ambiguous. Overall, S/R has shown strong protective effects on depression in adolescents (Regnerus 2003; Regnerus and Uecker 2006) and adults (Braam et al. 2004). Still these effects remain inconclusive, as the complexity of measuring and differentiating both S/R domains and internalizing domains makes it difficult to establish directionality of influence (Dew et al. 2008). Thus, there is little consensus regarding the protective effects of S/R on internalizing symptomology (Dew et al. 2008). Yonker and colleagues (2012a, b) included 75 studies in their meta-analysis and found significant overall protective effects of S/R on depression (S/R salience, a largely intrinsic

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measure of S/R, having the largest effect). A similar meta-analysis of 147 studies by Smith and colleagues (2003) showed similar inverse associations between S/R and depression. Although 92 % of the 115 studies reviewed by Dew and colleagues (2008) reported at least one significant relationship between S/R and depression, the authors warn against overarching claims of S/R’s protective influences, claiming much of the literature is inconclusive, and in some cases—depending on the domain—S/R may confer more depression (Ano and Vasconcelles 2005). Indeed, religious doubt in individuals endorsing higher levels of religious belief has been found to be positively associated with increased depression (Kezdy et al. 2011). When interpreting negative associations, Dew et al. (2008) further warn against drawing firm conclusions, as both religious involvement and the ability to feel intrinsically religious may both be diminished by the symptoms of depression; similarly, positive associations between S/R and depression may be indicative of developmental processes of identity formation expected during emerging adulthood (Krause and Wulff 2004; Hunsberger et al. 2002).

Summary To date, no study has explored religion and spirituality within the affluent context, and there is little longitudinal research on religious and spiritual development through emerging adulthood; thus, the current study represents the convergence of these two little studied areas of clinical science and aims to contribute to both, focusing primarily on three major areas of concern: spiritual and religious development, externalizing symptoms, and internalizing symptoms.

The Current Study The primary aims of this study are to (1) examine the potential impact of adolescent religious and spiritual development on emerging adulthood health outcomes and (2) provide evidence for a developmental pathway of religiosity and spirituality spanning from late adolescence well into emerging adulthood. Exploratory in nature, the current study seeks to expand both the affluent youth literature, by building on previous findings showing specific risks in this population, and the spiritual development literature, for which there is little longitudinal research.

Method Sample As described in previous reports (Luthar and Latendresse 2005; Luthar and Barkin 2012), students in the NESSY cohort were from upper-middle-class families, predominantly Caucasian, with highly educated parents having median family incomes three times the national level of about $50,000 in 2000 (United States Bureau of the Census 2000). The current study is based on these students measured across two waves: the 2004–2005 and 2010–2011 academic years (mean age 18 and 24 years, respectively). By age 24, the majority of the sample—89 %—had completed college (4 % of whom completed graduate degrees), compared with 6 % having completed high school only.

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At age 24 assessments, a total of 160 (79 female) subjects participated, representing 63 % of the sample assessed 6 years earlier during their senior year of high school, when assessments had been conducted as part of the regular school day (n = 252). These retention rates compare well with other long-term follow-ups of high school students, such as the national Monitoring the Future study (reporting retention rates of 54 % for equivalent time-span; Johnston et al. 2013). To test for attrition biases, analyses of variance were conducted (using age 18 and 24 samples) comparing dimensions of maladjustment (substance use and both self-reported and teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms), as well as academic performance (GPA and SAT scores). With the exception of GPA, results showed no differences across all indicators at the twelfth grade between continuing and non-continuing subjects. Whereas GPA showed statistical differences in univariate analyses (GPA, F(1, 244) = 7.04, p = .008), actual mean differences do not represent real-world significance (returning subjects had less than a grade point difference in their GPA). Overall, these analyses suggest that the 2010–2011 sample is likely a valid representation of the NESSY sample over time; if anything, some of the less academically able youth were missing in the age 24 sample.

Procedures Subjects were informed that their participation was voluntary, and on completion of data collection, questionnaires and interview data were stored with subject numbers as identifiers. Subjects completed a structured clinical interview conducted by a trained interviewer over the telephone to assess psychiatric diagnoses (see Measures below) and completed self-report questionnaires online, on their own. Upon completion of both parts of the assessment, participants were sent $125 by mail.

Measures Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms The Adult Self-Report (ASR; Achenbach and Rescorla 2003) contains 123 items (on a 3-point scale) encompassing Internalizing and Externalizing domains. Three subscales are combined to create the Internalizing subscale: Anxious-depressed, Withdrawn-depressed, and Somatic complaints. Each subscale showed excellent alpha coefficients (averaging 0.79 and 0.79 for females and males, respectively; .92 and .91 for overall Internalizing). The Externalizing subscale from the ASR combines three subscales: Aggressive, Rulebreaking, and Intrusive behaviors. Average alpha coefficients were 0.79 and 0.76 among females and males, respectively; 0.91 and 0.87 for overall Externalizing).

Clinical Diagnoses With appropriate training and supervision, research assistants administered the Computerized Diagnostic Interview Schedule for the DSM-IV (CDIS-IV; Robins et al. 2000) to subjects via telephone. The CDIS-IV program provides a structured clinical interview, stores answers to each probe question, and scores data, making them available for data analysis. The need for training interviewers is greatly reduced because all skip and query instructions are built into the computer program. These features also increase the standardization of the administration, which reduces the effects of variation among

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interviewers. Accuracy is improved because the computer does symptom counts and checks ages of remission to be sure they fall between the occurrence of the first and last symptom and rejects answers where the date of the last symptom is not later than the date of the first symptom (Robins et al. 2000). Positive diagnoses represent 12-month diagnoses, or lifetime diagnoses where applicable (for example, in the case of personality disorders requiring occurrence of symptoms since age 15).

Satisfaction with Life The five-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985) was used to measure the degree participants are satisfied with their life choices, or whether they would choose to change their previous life choices. Alpha coefficients were .91 and .86 for women and men, respectively.

Religiosity and Spirituality Two separate measures were assessed at age 18 and 24, each encompassing multiple dimensions of religiosity and spirituality. At age 18 assessment, the five-item (five-point scale) Duke University Religion Index (DUREL; Koenig et al. 1997) was used to measure organized religious involvement (e.g., ‘‘How often do you attend church, synagogue, or other religious meetings?’’), non-organized religious involvement (e.g., ‘‘How often do you spend time in private religious activities, such as prayer, meditation, or Bible study?’’), as well as a three-item composite subscale representing ‘‘intrinsic religiosity’’ (e.g., ‘‘In my life, I experience the presence of the Divine’’ and ‘‘I try hard to carry my religion over into all other dealings in life’’; alpha coefficients were .89 and .81 for women and men, respectively). At age 24 assessment, the University of California at Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute (UCLA HERI) College Student’s Beliefs and Values Questionnaire (CSBV; Liu et al. 2008) was used to measure a wide range of religious and spiritual constructs. In total, 255 items were used to create 17 subscales per HERI’s 2007 factor loadings (Liu et al. 2008). Subscales represent various indices of religious involvement and spiritual beliefs, as well as attitudes surrounding G-d, including moral and social ethics (see Table 1 for the individual subscale domains). Items for each subscale were drawn from different sections of the questionnaire, each providing different prompts exploring unique operationalizations of religious involvement and spirituality (e.g., personal goals, beliefs, selfdescription, self-rating, reasons for prayer or involvement, frequency of engagement, and numerous yes/no prompts endorsing specific beliefs and behaviors). As such, subscales are a summation of items ranging from 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-point scales. This presents complications for reliability analyses, specifically measures of internal consistency such as Cronbach’s alpha. Multiple studies have touted the reliability of this battery, however, and the CSBV has been used in hundreds of settings across the USA over the last decade (see Astin et al. 2011).

Results Spirituality and Religiosity: Overall Rates and Exploratory Factor Analyses Table 1 shows overall mean raw scores on the individual dimensions of the CSBV in the sample of affluent youth at mean age 24 years, and mean raw scores of the DUREL at mean age 18 years. Exploratory factor analyses utilizing Varimax rotation were conducted using all

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J Relig Health Table 1 Mean scores on spirituality and religiosity measures at mean age 18 years and 24 years Measure

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

SD

CSBV—2 years post-college (24 years) Spirituality Spiritual quest Equanimity

6

41

22.23

6.25

10

32

20.67

4.07

6

15

11.46

2.12

12

47

24.52

8.73

Religious struggle

7

21

10.88

2.67

Religious engagement

7

33

11.21

4.88

Social conservatism

5

15

7.22

1.67

Religious skepticism

4.13

Religious commitment

11

32

21.32

Charitable involvement

3

9

6.07

1.26

Ethic of caring

2

8

4.58

1.28

Ecumenical worldview

14

35

27.04

4.39

Compassionate self-concept

10

20

15.73

2.42

Personal God

6

19

9.05

3.32

All powerful God

7

15

8.45

2.10

Mystical God

6

12

7.57

1.74

Conflict with God

3

10

7.58

1.58

Foreclosure

9

29

13.85

2.87

DUREL—twelfth grade Organizational religious activity

1

6

2.42

1.43

Non-organizational religious activity

1

6

1.52

1.11

Intrinsic religiosity

3

15

7.27

3.49

Intrinsic religiosity item 3

1

5

2.78

1.38

Intrinsic religiosity item 4

1

5

2.38

1.35

Intrinsic religiosity item 5

1

5

2.15

1.27

Intrinsic religiosity item 4/5

2

10

4.51

2.46

5

23

11.19

4.92

Total religiosity

CSBV College Student’s Beliefs and Values Questionnaire, DUREL Duke University Religion Index

seventeen dimensions of the CSBV. Results indicated a four-factor solution (all factors showed eigenvalues above 1.00), representing four core dimensions: Spirituality, Religiosity, Religious Struggle, and Compassion. The six subscales comprising the Spirituality dimension include: Spirituality, Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Ecumenical Worldview, and Mystical G-d. The seven subscales comprising the Religiosity dimension include: Religious Commitment, Religious Engagement, Social Conservatism, Religious Skepticism, Personal G-d, All Powerful G-d, and Foreclosure. Both the Religious Struggle and Compassion dimensions included two subscales (Religious Struggle and Conflict with G-D, and Charitable Involvement and Compassionate Self-Concept, respectively).

Spiritual Development: Adolescent Versus Emerging Adulthood S/R Table 2 shows the correlation between each dimension of the DUREL at mean age 18 years and each core CSBV S/R dimension at mean age 24 years. Overall, organized religious involvement at age 18 years is associated with sustained religiosity at age

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J Relig Health Table 2 Correlations between twelfth grade DUREL and two years post-college CSBV dimensions CSBV dimensions

Organized religious activity

Spirituality

0.07

Religiosity

0.36**

Religious struggle

0.04

Compassion

0.18*

Non-organized religious involvement

Intrinsic religiosity

DUREL TOTAL

0.04

0.22*

0.20*

0.26**

0.53**

-0.04

0.54**

-0.10

0.10

-0.07

0.23**

0.25**

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01

24 years as well as a personal sense of compassion for other people. Private religious practice at age 18 years was associated with religiosity at mean age 24 years. Intrinsic spirituality at age 18 years was associated with a personal spirituality, religiosity, and compassion at age 24 years, representing stability and broadening from late adolescence into emerging adulthood.

Health Outcomes: Correlations between S/R and Internalizing/Externalizing Domains Mean scores on internalizing and externalizing dimensions are presented across each of the four CSBV core dimensions in Table 3. Among women: (1) degree of spirituality was inversely associated with symptoms of a withdrawn depression, (2) religiosity was inversely associated with rule-breaking behavior, (3) religious struggle with inversely associated with satisfaction with life, and (4) compassion was inversely associated with aggressiveness. Among men, religious struggle was associated with overall internalizing and externalizing symptoms, anxious depression, somatic complaints, and aggression. Among men, compassion was inversely associated with a broad range of mental health variables, namely anxious depression, withdrawn depression, aggressive behavior, overall

Table 3 Correlations between two years post-college CSBV and measures of adjustment

Anxious-Depressed Withdrawn-Depressed

Spirituality

Religiosity

Religious Struggle

Compassion

Women

Women

Women

Women

-0.18 -.27*

Men 0.11

-0.14

0.06

0.05

-0.03

-0.20

0.11

-0.01

Somatic Complaints

-0.05

Intrusive Behavior

-0.10

0.09

0.05

0.22

Rule-Breaking Behavior

Men

.30*

Men .32** 0.10

-0.14

-.28*

-0.24

-.40**

-0.15

0.12

0.05

-0.09

0.05

0.00

0.11

-0.11

0.06

0.08

0.08

0.22

-0.09

-0.13

-.26*

.27*

Men

0.00

Aggressive Behavior

-0.06

0.03

-0.16

0.04

0.13

.26*

Overall Internalizing

-0.16

0.14

-0.18

0.10

0.05

.30*

-0.12

Overall Externalizing

-0.03

0.14

-0.21

0.06

.27*

-0.18

Satisfaction with Life

0.10

-0.01

0.08

-0.01

0.10 -.32*

-0.10

-0.11

-.26*

0.11

-.36** -.32** -0.22 .25*

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01

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internalizing symptoms, a motive to use alcohol, but positively associated with satisfaction with life. Lastly, Table 4 shows analyses of variance (ANOVA) comparing S/R levels across Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) diagnoses. Results indicate that emerging adults who meet criteria for ASPD report lower levels of religiosity as compared to those who do not meet ASPD diagnostic criteria.

Discussion To date, very little research has examined the stability of spiritual life from adolescence into emerging adulthood and its association with mental health. In this sample of youth raised in a highly affluent community, a strong spiritual life developed within the family by age 18 years was associated with spiritual life at age 24 years, once the vast majority of these youth were ‘‘out of the house,’’ living independently from their family of origin. More specifically, a very strong personal relationship with a Higher Power, that carries into the broader arena of life, appears to be the primary source of spiritual life in adolescence that persists into adulthood and then extends outward in its implications for health and wellness. Adolescents who at age 18 years positively endorsed statements such as ‘‘In my life, I experience the presence of the Divine’’ and ‘‘I try hard to carry my religion over into all other dealings in life’’ continued to have a strong spirituality rooted in an ongoing sense of relationship with a Higher Power and extending outward to include engagement in religious community and greater compassion. These same youth at age 24 years demonstrate a foundationally spiritual experience of life, endorsing ‘‘I gain spiritual strength by trusting in a Higher Power’’ and ‘‘I believe in the sacredness of life.’’

Spirituality, Religion, and Mental Health Overall, spirituality and religion had effects on mental health, with differential findings by gender. Spirituality, religiosity, and compassion all were positively associated with mental health, while religious struggle was inversely associated with mental health. Among young men, spiritual dimensions of compassion appear to be the greatest source of resilience against psychopathology, to include both decreased levels of internalizing Table 4 ANOVAS comparing CSBV dimensions across ASPD diagnoses

ASPD Diagnosis Positive Mean (SD) Spirituality Religiosity Religious struggle Compassion

ASPD antisocial personality disorder; * p \ .05

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Negative Mean (SD)

F (g2)

93.44

93.85

0.01

(12.41)

(15.99)

(0.00)

42.33

55.82

4.39*

(8.16)

(24.67)

(0.04)

4.31

3.16

1.20

(4.73)

(3.84)

(0.01)

21.63

21.83

0.06

(1.67)

(3.22)

(0.00)

J Relig Health

symptoms and externalizing symptoms. Compassion measured by statements such as ‘‘I try to change things that are unfair in the world’’ was also associated with overall life satisfaction for young men. In contrast, religious struggle was associated with aggressive behavior, somatic complaints and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Religious struggle in young men measured by items such as ‘‘I feel disillusioned with my religious upbringing’’ may reflect an unsupported or foreclosed process of spirituality individuation during adolescence (Fowler and Dell 2006). Among women to have been raised in this affluent community, spirituality was associated with lower levels of withdrawn depression (consistent with a broad literature; Yonker et al. 2012a, b for a meta-analytic overview), religiosity was associated with lower levels of rule-breaking, and compassion with less aggressive behavior. Religion seems to set boundaries of conduct and perhaps a clear moral code and community (see McNamara Barry and Abo-Zena 2014). Luthar and colleagues (2013) have highlighted antisocial behaviors, including dishonestly, manipulating others for sex, and theft within affluent youth populations. The authors attribute a culture overly consumed with maximizing personal status, as well as parenting styles that convey a sense of ‘‘contingent love’’ based upon child performance. These findings suggest that in emerging adults raised within a broader culture, where affection or recognition is at times based largely upon performance or ability, a spiritual and religious life may play a particularly important role in moral development. Religion, per se, prevailed in attenuating antisocial tendencies. In exploring long-term stability, religion in emerging adult was associated with adolescent religious practice and a personal relationship with a Higher Power that opens to a sense of living in a sacred world.

Limitations and Caveats Dew et al. (2008) warn against drawing firm conclusions surrounding S/R and health outcomes, as the direction of influence is unclear. Much of the present analyses linking health outcomes to S/R are cross-sectional, and therefore, causality cannot be inferred. Similarly, whereas it is common in the relatively new field of S/R studies to utilize simple correlations, such analyses must be considered exploratory in nature and therefore must call for further, more in-depth investigations utilizing multivariate analyses to be considered conclusive.

Implications Although exploratory in nature, and not without its limitations, the current study suggests spiritual development in adolescence is associated with emerging adult levels of spirituality and religiousness, which in turn shows associations with better mental health, life satisfaction, and decreased antisocial behaviors. Importantly, Luthar and colleagues (2013) assert that ‘‘thriving’’ must be defined via contextually relevant criteria, writing, ‘‘Among teens assailed by ‘do more, acquire more’ subcultural messages … a first indicator of thriving would be a balanced set of values, with behaviorally manifested commitment to intrinsic goals, integrity, and low rule breaking’’ (p. 1538). While not necessarily the case for every adolescent and emerging adult raised in upper-middle-class environments, spiritual development may represent such balanced value systems based on intrinsic goals and integrity and must therefore be considered a possible indicator ‘‘thriving’’ in itself. As such, future research should build on these initial findings, broadening our knowledge of

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risks facing affluent youth and emerging adults, as well as exploring possible solutions to the mounting problems facing communities at risk.

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