5 Religious Development Through the Lifespan: Adolescence and Adulthood Religion in Adolescence Global Measures of Religiousness Doubt Secret Doubt and Hidden Observers Models of Lifespan Religious Development Development of Religious Judgment: The Double Helix Model Stages of Faith Development Sequence of Motives: Religion as Used, Lived, and a Quest ‘Are Stage Models Valid?: An Assessment Psychological Processes Prompting Adolescent Religious Develop- ment Religion and Spirituality in Adulthood and Old Age How Religious are Adults? Spirituality and Functional Religious Development Projects and Questions Further Reading 105106 Chapter 5 Now that we have seen the classical development models and research, let’s extend the argument into the realm of the religion of adolescent people. Let's explore the degree to which adolescents are religious, what form their relig- iousness may take, what psychological models have been introduced that are pertinent to this age group, and how well the existent data fit the models, Religion in Adolescence It makes sense that childhood religion would not satisfy the intellectual and emotional needs of adolescents. Various consequences could result from this: (1) the adolescent could decide that religion is nonsense, or deny its impor- tance, and reject his or her former beliefs; (2) the adolescent could blindly adhere to the religion in order to avoid having to pursue religious issues in a deeper way; (3) he or she could grapple with new questions and doubts, try to think through and evaluate alternatives, pethaps experiment with alterna- tives, and eventually arrive at a satisfactory decision or conclusion regarding religious issues, Thus, the question emerges “How religious are adolescents?” Paradoxically, the data seem to indicate that adolescents are both religious and nonreligious, More precisely, there appears to be a high degree of religious involvement, practice, dialogue, and discussion, while at the same time there is more doubt and less acceptance of traditional and/or literal religious teachings. Global Measures of Religiousness Evidence from the past that indicates a high degree of religious interest during adolescence includes the following: In a study of late adolescents and young adults, Allport, Gillespie, and Young (1948) found that 68 percent of Harvard men and 82 percent of Radcliffe women answered Yes to the question “Do you feel that you require some form of religious orientation or belief in order to achieve a fully mature philosophy of life?” Over 20 years later, an extensive analysis conducted by CBS News (Yankelovich, 1969) revealed that 71 percent of noncollege youth and 42 percent of college youth agreed with the statement that “Belonging to some organized religion is important in a person’s life.” More recently, Gallup (1979-1980) reported similar percentages among col- lege-aged youth. Taken together these results suggest that religious interest is prevalent during adolescence across generations. What about religious practice? A 1971 Harris Poll, conducted ona national sample of 15-to-21-year-old youths, revealed that 58 percent of the high school students and 43 percent of the college students attended church regularly (Change, Yes—Upheaval, No, 1971). In addition, a sizable minority were active in nontraditional or Eastern religious practices (Gallup, 1977-78; Stoner &Religious Development Through the Lifespan: Adolescence and Adulthood 107 Parke, 1977). Even though during the turbulent period of the late 1960s national polls indicated that youths were turning away from traditional religious institutions (Wuthnow & Glock, 1973), subsequent trends revealed a return to more traditional religious preferences among youths. The Suraey of College Freshmen (1974) reported that the percentage of increase for traditional Judaism was from 3.8 to 5.1 percent, for traditional Roman Catholicism from 30.1 to 34.3 percent, and for traditional forms of Protestantism it was from 38.2 to 44.9 percent. In general, religious activity of adolescents is higher than our intuitive guess would predict, based upon the stereotype of the “rebellious” teenager. The most reliable current data suggest that a similar pattern of religious interest and practice among adolescents exists today. For example, recent Gallup polls show that 95 percent of those aged 13 to 18 believe in “God or a universal spirit” (Gallup & Bezilla, 1992), about the same percent as adults, Approximately three-fourths say that they pray, and almost half report having attended church or synagogue during the past week (Gallup & Jones, 1989). Forty-four percent said it was “very important” for a teenager to learn “relig- ious faith.” Other surveys yielded similar results, with the additional finding that there tended to bea decline during the 1980s in the reports of high school seniors who attended weekly services (to 30 percent in 1990) and in those reporting that religion was “very important” or “pretty important” in their lives (to 56 percent in 1990) (Donahue & Benson, 1995). Gallup’s data from the 1987 Gallup Youth Poll indicated that 80 percent answered “Very” or “Fairly” to the question “How importantare your religious beliefs?” These percentages translate into millions of teenagers. We are fortunate today to have results from two large-scale surveys. One entitled Youth in Protestant Churches (Roehlkepartain & Benson, 1993) sampled. 2,365 youths in grades 7 to 12 from five U.S. denominations: Christian Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, United Methodist, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ. Data were collected in 1988 and 1989. The results showed that only 4 percent said that their faith was not important in their lives. Seventy-seven percent indicated a commitment to Christ. These findings suggest some level of religious interest among adolescents, but they apply best to US. Protestants. What about the rest of the population? During the 1989-90 school year, Search Institute conducted another large survey of over 46,000 youths in public schools in 111 cities in 25 states, The Troubled Journey (Benson, 1993; Donahue & Benson, 1995). The students were from grades 6 to 12. Although not a perfect microcosm of all U.S. youth, this sample is certainly a reasonable representation of youth in the medium-sized ‘communities from which the subjects came. The results show that about half of the youths indicate that religion is important to them and that they attend services. This overall result should be qualified, however, by taking into account the age span involved. Both the importance measure and the atten-