Three Pathways of Religious Youth through College and Into Adulthood: Exitors, Shifters, and Keepers.

• In Event: 341 - Section on Sociology of Religion Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Religion and Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

Using qualitative in-depth interviews with young adults who were raised in conservative Christian households and graduated from college, this paper addresses the transition between childhoods dominated by religious worldviews and practices and adulthoods in the secular pluralistic mainstream. Three different pathways of transition are identified: those who exit the faith of their youth, those who keep it, and those who shift to a different faith tradition. Attention is given to the specific triggers of dissonance the college experience provides, the mediating factors which shape how the triggers manifest themselves, and the strategies young adults employ to deal with these challenges.

Authors

• Alessandra Lembo, University of Chicago

• Nathan D. Wright, Bryn Mawr College