SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN ISRAELI RELIGIOUS MALE ADOLESCENTS: Observations and Educational Implications

Based on Herbert's (1987) theory of ego identity development and on interviews of hundreds of Israeli religious male adolescents and young adults who were raised and educated in religious society and later left the fold, this paper presents a model of development of religious identity. Three levels of religious identity development—healthy, unhealthy and dangerous—are described. In healthy development, adolescents abandon childish faith, confront and deliberate about their doubts and consolidate a mature and personal spiritual identity. Unhealthy development, which may occur if doubts are not accepted and dealt with, is seen in four forms: sloganeering, diffuse spiritual identity, moratorium, and emphasis on ritual and behavioral aspects of religion. These, in turn, may lead to dangerous developments: (a) joining a cult or enslaving oneself to a charismatic leader; (b) joining a group of formerly religious peers; (c) group delinquency (theft or vandalism) or group use of alcohol or dnigs; (d) alienation and anti‐religious attitudes; (e) inconsistency or “being religious at heart”; (f) solitary use of alcohol or drugs, possibly leading to addiction. Methods of preventing and correcting unhealthy and dangerous developments are presented and discussed.

Consolidation of ego identity is the central and most important task of adolescence (Erikson, 1968). It is affected by the previous stages of the child's development and, to a greater extent, influences later life.

According to Marcia (1980), adolescents who have consolidated their identities in a healthy manner do not guarantee themselves permanent identity contents, but are ensured an effective process of dealing with later questions of identity. Erikson (1968) also did not see the resolution of identity conflicts as final or total. In his opinion, resolution of such conflicts climax during adolescence; however, a person may return to tackle identity‐related issues at later ages.

Relying on Erikson, Marcia (1966, 1980, 1986) emphasized two major components of identity: (1) a sense of identity crisis, and (b) vocational and ideological commitment. “Identity crisis” refers to re‐thinking, sorting, experience and deliberation about a variety of social roles and future plans, especially in the areas of vocational choice and personal philosophy. In Marcia's opinion, commitment which arises from the crisis is related to individuals’ willingness to invest in their choices, and their ability to select a profession and a world‐view. In line with these two components, a typological foursome is created, as follows: identity achievement, foreclosure, moratorium and diffuse identity.     

Gender-specific outcomes for sexually abused adolescents

This study examined the gender differences in outcomes related to school performance, suicidal involvement, disordered eating behaviors, sexual risk taking, substance use, and delinquent behaviors of male (n = 370) and female teenagers (n = 2,681) who self-reported a history of sexual abuse. It was found that female adolescents, by and large, engaged in internalizing behaviors and males in externalizing behaviors. Male adolescents were found to be at higher risk than females in poor school performance, delinquent activities, and sexual risk taking. Female adolescents, on the other hand, showed higher risk for suicidal ideation and behavior as well as disordered eating. Females showed more frequent use of alcohol. However, male adolescents exhibited more extreme use of alcohol and more frequent and extreme use of marijuana. Among index female adolescents, protective factors against adverse correlates included a higher emotional attachment to family, being religious or spiritual, presence of both parents at home, and a perception of overall health. Factors that augmented adverse correlates for them included a stressful school environment due to perceived high levels of substance use in and around school, worry of sexual abuse, maternal alcohol consumption, and physical abuse. For male adolescents, maternal education and parental concern appeared to be protective factors.     

Multiple identities and religious transmission: a study among moroccan-dutch muslim adolescents and their parents

This study investigates the relation between religious group identification and ethnic and national identity among Moroccan‐Dutch Muslim adolescents (11–18 years) and their parents (n = 369). Compared to their parents, adolescents showed higher national identification and lower religious and ethnic group identification. However, for adolescents and their parents, there were similar positive relations between Muslim and ethnic identifications, and both identifications were negatively related to Dutch identification. For early adolescents, parent’s religious group identification was strongly related to their religious identification and ethnic and national identifications. These associations were not significant for middle adolescents. It is concluded that research on children from immigrant Muslim families should not only focus on ethnicity but on religious identity in particular.     

A longitudinal study of religious identity and participation during adolescence

To examine the development of religious identity during the teenage years, adolescents (N = 477) from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds completed questionnaires in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades (10th grade age: M = 15.81, SD = 0.36). Results indicated that religious identity remained stable across high school whereas religious participation declined. Even after controlling for ethnic differences in religious affiliation, socioeconomic background, and generational status, adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds reported higher levels of religious identity and adolescents from Latin American backgrounds reported higher rates of religious participation. Within individual adolescents, changes in religious identity were associated with changes in ethnic and family identities, suggesting important linkages in the development of these social identities during adolescence.     

A cross‐cultural study of pre‐adolescents’ moral,religious and spiritual questions

This study investigated differences across four countries in the amount and nature of above‐average ability and average‐ability pre‐adolescents’ everyday life, scientific, moral, spiritual and religious questions. The participants (N?=?975) of this study were fifth‐and sixth‐grade elementary school students from different schools in Finland (N?=?367), the USA (N?=?164), Hong Kong (N?=?169) and Bahrain (N?=?275). Approximately half of the students in each country came from special programmes or schools serving above‐average‐ability students. The results showed that above‐average‐ability students from each participating country asked more scientific and moral questions than their average‐ability peers. This finding was not found to be gender‐related. Furthermore, in each country the average‐ability students asked more everyday life questions than their gifted peers. The Christian influence in the Finnish and US data, and Muslim influence in the Bahrain data were seen in the spiritual and religious questions asked by pre‐adolescents. Additionally, in all the data sets girls asked more spiritual and religious questions than boys. The results point to the need for teachers to discuss moral, religious and spiritual questions influencing pre‐adolescents’ futures.     

Psychopathology in the schools: Multicultural factors that impact assessment and intervention

All cultures promote specific norms of behavior that can influence the assessment and intervention process with members of racially/ethnically diverse groups who are diagnosed with various forms of psychopathology. The purpose of this article is to highlight literature on the prevalence of psychological disorders with respect to children and adolescents from different racial/ethnic groups and present variables that may impact assessment and intervention within these diverse populations (e.g., contextual factors, racial and ethnic identity, religious/spiritual beliefs, parenting factors, student attitudes). In addition, cultural issues related to the assessment process and culturally sensitive recommendations for intervention are addressed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 429–438, 2006.     

Spiritual Development in Public and Religious Schools: A Case Study

This article addresses teachers' understanding of spiritual development in public and religious schools in Boston and Chicago. It examines how teachers define spiritual development in different educational contexts and looks at the way they relate spirituality to a number of factors including community, identity, and character. The data from the research indicates that teachers understood spiritual development within the specific environment of their school but that they all located the need for spirituality within education as part of the reaction against the perceived negative side effects of modern society.     

THE COUNTY Y. M. C. A.

Motherhood is a complex experience that can be transformative, offering women opportunities for personal enrichment and spiritual development. Because the largest incidence of births occurs to women in the Millennial or late Generation X generations, this complex, potentially transformative experience occurs at a critical time in young adult women's identity development, making it both the content and context of their quest to live a meaningful and integrated life. A richly re-imagined religious education can fashion a context in which young adult women might perceive their experiences of motherhood as an invitation to spiritual growth.     

Y. W. C. A. AND GIRLS

This design experiment in prayer education for Jewish students was motivated by a current educational concern: educating for spirituality and religious practice. Educators are tasked with formally nurturing spirituality (Wright 2001). It is known that attitude to religious observance may change during adolescence (Hyde 1963), thus attitude to prayer needs attention. The effects/consequences of prayer understanding reach beyond religious practice itself, to encompass issues of faith, identity, spiritual development and well-being (Sigel 2009). Here quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to measure the effects of a tefillah (prayer and its understanding) course on student attitudes to prayer.     

Ethnicity and Psychosocial Factors in Alcohol and Tobacco Use in Adolescence

Research on ethnic group differences has suggested that (a) adolescents from various groups differ on a number of dimensions that have been related to risk for substance use initiation, and (b) adolescents of different groups choose different substances. However, there is little consensus regarding the reasons for such differences. There is an especially high rate of alcohol use among Hispanic adolescents, and Hispanics are at high risk for alcohol abuse. In light of ethnic group differences in both substance use and the precursors of substance use in adolescence, this study examined differences among black, Anglo, Puerto Rican, and Dominican adolescents in the relation between cigarette and alcohol use and psychosocial functioning. Comparisons between the Puerto Rican and Dominican subjects were of special interest due to preexisting differences between these groups that may be attributed to acculturation. Results provided evidence of the importance of acculturation in modifying psychosocial vulnerability, especially for alcohol use, with the Dominican group at highest risk.     

Faith Development Theory as a Context for Supervision of Spiritual and Religious Issues

Although there is a growing interest in spirituality and religious issues in counseling, little has been written for the supervisor. This article addresses this need by demonstrating how J. Fowler's (1981) model of faith development stages can inform supervisory work with spiritual and religious issues. Faith Development Theory is a growth‐oriented approach to spiritual and religious development that focuses on adaptive rather than pathological qualities and fits well with developmental models of supervision. Fictitious scenarios illustrate the utility of J. Fowler's (1981) theory for working with spiritual and religious issues that surface in supervisory contexts.     

EGO IDENTITY AND SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN RELIGIOUSLY OBSERVANT ADOLESCENTS IN ISRAEL

This study examined the relationship between spiritual identity and ego identity among religiously observant adolescents in Israel. Seventy-eight religious tenth graders studying in yeshivot (boys) and ulpanot (girls) ^{1 1} Yeshivot and ulpanot are high schools for boys and girls, respectively, offering an intensive religious curriculum combined with general, secular studies. were tested. The Ego Identity Scale for Adolescents and a Questionnaire of Religious Beliefs were administered to them. Throughout the entire sample, there was a significant and positive correlation between belief and general ego identity and between belief and the identity dimensions: solidity and continuity, meaningfulness versus alienation, genuineness and truthfulness, and physical identity. Among the girls, there was a significant and positive relationship between belief, general ego identity, and the dimensions: social recognition, commitment, and purposefulness, meaningfulness versus alienation, solidity and continuity, and genuineness and truthfulness. Among the boys, there was a significant and positive relationship between belief and the meaningfulness versus alienation and genuineness and truthfulness dimensions of the ego identity.     

Integration Amidst Separation: Religion,Urban Education,and the First Amendment

In today’s urban schools, foreign-born children and children of immigrants are the fastest growing sector of the student population and as a result of this changing demographic, our schools are more ethnically, racially and religiously diverse than they have ever been (Suárez-Orozco et al. in Thriving and spirituality among youth: research perspectives and future possibilities. Wiley: Hoboken, NJ, 2012). For many students of immigrant families, their spiritual/religious identity is an important aspect of a healthy and integrated identity. While professional journals in education have focused on race, ethnicity and culture as important diversity variables, the extent to which students’ religion and spirituality influence their development and education has largely been a neglected topic (Woolley in Int J Child Spiritual 13:145–156, 2008). Thus, we highlight research in education, school counseling, and psychology that examines the legal and ethical implications of including religion and spirituality into urban educators’ work with students. We then explore the role that spirituality/religion plays in health, coping, and academic achievement for students, the importance of spirituality/religion within historically marginalized communities, students’ experiences as religious minorities, and religious discrimination in schools. Within each topic area, we outline practical considerations. Finally, we offer some guidelines for professional preparation programs and curriculum development in urban education.     

Ego development and ethnic identity formation in rural American Indian adolescents

Ethnic identity development was assessed in the context of ego development in 12- to 15-year-old students from a Southeastern American Indian community. Self-protective was the modal level and was characterized by awareness of ethnic group membership but little exploration or self-reflection. Impulsive adolescents had the least developed ethnic identities and highest levels of interpersonal vulnerability. Conformist adolescents expressed positive feelings about ethnic group affiliation, described relationships as harmonious, but demonstrated moderate social anxiety. Postconformist adolescents had the highest levels of agency, social competence, and identity achievement, but also had high levels of psychological distress and family conflict. Adolescent identity strivings may be understood in context with the level and timing of psychosocial maturity, for which ego development appears a useful marker.     

宗教认同：华人华侨和谐共生的精神依托

华人华侨对中华民族传统宗教的认同其实就是一种文化认同,这种认同来自于宗教活动中所获得的＂福报＂,集体归属感和心灵状况的改善。通过不同的宗教认同形式,中华民族的传统文化得以传承,人们疏离飘荡的心灵得到了慰籍与安宁。由此,由宗教认同所衍生出的自我认同,身份认同,价值认同成为华人华侨和谐共生的精神寄托。     

The conception,construction, and maintenance of the identity of Roman Catholic female religious teachers: a historical case study from Ireland

Over the last three decades, there has been a burgeoning of research on teacher identity. While the various bodies of work produced are very valuable, further lines of enquiry need to be pursued in order to take account of the complexities involved. This paper on the conception, construction, and maintenance of the identity of Roman Catholic female religious teachers in Ireland from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s is offered as one contribution. Being restricted to a particular time and place, it is a response to those who have emphasized the need to investigate teacher identity in different national contexts. Secondly, by focusing on female teaching religious, it highlights the importance of studying different ‘types’ of teachers other than those identified by age group, school subject, or grade level taught. Thirdly, it represents a shift in research framing away from the more usually utilized concepts of ‘personal identity,’ ‘social identity,’ ‘professional identity,’ and ‘the self.’ Documentary evidence and oral testimony indicate that the professional life of the female teaching religious was viewed by them as being integral to their religious vocation. This particular notion of vocation embodied a spiritual belief in being called by God, to work for God. Thus, it meant that the female teaching religious approached teaching, quite literally, with religious zeal. It also meant that their commitment was, first and foremost, to their religious life and that teaching, while deemed to be very important, was always in accord with and, where necessary took second place, to that life.     

Relationships between religion,risk behaviors and prosociality among secondary school students in Peru and El Salvador

How young people spend time out of school is important for their character development. In this article we explore the relationships between adolescents’ leisure time and other aspects of their lives, with a particular focus on religion. Using a data set generated by secondary school students in Peru and El Salvador (n = 6085) for a public health project, YOURLIFE, we conducted multiple logistic regression analyses of the relationships between religious identification, salience and practice; five indicators of adolescent risk behaviors; and, four indicators of prosocial attitudes and behaviors. In addition to not participating in risk behaviors such as sex, smoking, drinking alcohol and taking illicit drugs, these analyses show significant relationships between religion and prosocial activities and attitudes. These data are considered in the context of the wider debate over the role of religion in adolescent character development in Latin America and elsewhere.     

Commitment and Relatedness: How College Students Use Religious Coping to Manage Anxiety

Anxiety is a common symptom among college counseling clients. Perhaps because of the unique developmental tasks they face, many later adolescents (ages 18–24 years) use religious coping to manage anxiety. Many counselors are uncertain about how to address religious themes in therapy, if at all. However, most clients of faith do not want counselors to ignore their religious beliefs. In fact, later adolescents may use faith‐based coping mechanisms to navigate the challenges of their developmental stage.     

THE RELIGIOUS ZIONIST: TOWARD THE NEW ERA

This essay presents the problems inherent in religious Zionist education on the eve of a new era, and proposes avenues toward solutions. That the Torah is permanent and the world is relative and changing leads to many incongruities within and among components of religious Zionist identity. The cyber‐era will expose the religious Zionist to a great deal of information, some of which maybe harmful and confusing—especially to adolescents—because of the weakness of present religious Zionist educational doctrines. Therefore, religious Zionist identity is in danger of “overload,” due to incongruities among and within systems. This overload may cause some people to abandon religion and others to turn to ultraorthodoxy, impoverishing the religious Zionist community in two ways, and reducing its ability to serve as a bridge between national factions.     

Ethnic,Familial, and Religious Identity of Roma Adolescents in Bulgaria,Czech Republic,Kosovo, and Romania in Relation to Their Level of Well‐Being

This study examines ethnic, national, familial, and religious identity and well‐being of 632 Roma minority and 589 majority adolescents (age: M = 15.98 years, SD = 1.34) in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. Results indicated that Roma showed lower endorsement of national identity but stronger religious identity than their majority counterparts. Path models showed positive associations of familial and religious identities with well‐being, whereas Roma identity was negatively associated with well‐being, particularly for Roma in Bulgaria and Kosovo (countries with a less active policy toward improving conditions of Roma). In the latter countries, Roma ethnic identity is less relevant and weakly associated with psychological well‐being of youth.