Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

This chapter reviews literature on adolescent and emerging adult religiosity from the past decade to summarize what is currently known about religion in these developmental stages. Specifically, this chapter provides a portrait of adolescent and emerging adult religiosity, as well as a discussion of how religiosity changes during the transition from adolescence to emerging adulthood and how religiosity differs by gender, race and ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation. This chapter also summarizes work on key sources of religious socialization for adolescents and emerging adults (family, peers, education, congregations, media, and religious traditions) and the influence of religion on various adolescent and emerging adult developmental outcomes. The chapter concludes by summarizing areas in which additional work is needed to more fully understand adolescent and emerging adult religiosity.