[5][6][7] Factors that have been found to affect levels of religious identity include gender, ethnicity, and generational status.
In addition to psychological studies, sociologists and anthropologists also apply the term 'religious identity' and examine its related processes in given social contexts.
For example, researchers like G. Stanley Hall and William James conducted studies on such topics as religious conversion.
Generally, females are more likely than males to attend religious services and express that religion is an important aspect of their lives.
[3][10] This was also shown in a four-year longitudinal study on religious involvement for adolescents living in rural settings.
For example in a study of Christians, Jews and Muslims in English secondary schools[21] adolescents reported negative representations of their religious traditions in the curriculum and common stereotypes held by their peers.
[22] This reduction in religious identification was strongest among individuals who identify as Black, are from low-income families, and whose parents have lower levels of education.
By and large, numerous studies have observed ethnic, gender, and generational differences in religious identity.
However, there have not been as many longitudinal studies on the influence of ethnicity, gender, and generational status on individuals' development of religious identity over time.
[3][10] Although religious affiliation, identity, and participation are closely related, longitudinal research on adolescents suggests that these constructs have different trajectories from one another.
[27] Researchers have reasoned that due to adolescents' relatively stable social environment, there is not a strong need to further explore and renegotiate their religious identity.
[28] Given that adolescents tend to still live with their parents during high school, there may not be a need to engage in deeper exploration of their religion, which may help explain the observed stable religious identity.
[5][6][7] This transitional period is marked by constant changes in romantic love, work, and worldviews[5] and is generally a time of "semiautonomy.
"[29][30] With this increased sense of autonomy, emerging adults may choose to further exert their independence by moving away from home and/or by attending college.
Through whichever ways that emerging adults choose to exercise their autonomy, they are likely to find themselves in new, diverse environments teeming with a spectrum of vast worldviews.
[24] For example, compared to emerging adults who attended Catholic or public universities, emerging adults who attended Mormon universities rated interdependence, norm compliance, biological transitions, and family capacities as extremely important criteria for adulthood.