Pulling Away from Religion 1
Pulling Away from Religion: Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Religious Disengagement among College Students
Julie Exline Case Western Reserve University
Daryl R. Van Tongeren Hope College
David F. Bradley Pittsburg State University
Joshua A. Wilt & Nick Stauner Case Western Reserve University
Kenneth I. Pargament Bowling Green State University
C. Nathan DeWall University of Kentucky
In press at Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
Author note: We are grateful for funding support from the John Templeton Foundation (60734, 36094, and 59916). Correspondence regarding this manuscript should be directed to Dr. Julie Exline, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7123. E-mail: [email protected] Pulling Away from Religion 2
Abstract
What types of religious and spiritual struggles do people experience when they disengage from religion? We examined college students (N = 3,598) who had pulled back from religion, either by no longer identifying as religious or spiritual (Dones) or by disengaging from organized religion while maintaining an identity as religious (Disengaged but Religious: DBR) or spiritual but not religious (Disengaged but Spiritual: DBS). Our aim was to examine the religious/spiritual struggles these students reported, both in comparison to each other and in comparison to those with more stable identities as religious (Religious) or nonreligious (Nevers). As predicted, DBS and DBR students reported higher levels of current r/s struggles than students in other groups.
Specifically, DBR and DBS students scored highest on ultimate meaning struggles, interpersonal struggles, doubt struggles, and emotionally-oriented divine struggles, whereas intellectual questioning about God’s existence was highest among the DBS and Dones. DBRs scored similarly to the Religious group on struggles that correlate positively with religiousness
(demonic and moral struggles), consistent with the notion of a religious residue effect.
Retrospective reports of lifetime religious/spiritual struggle confirmed that the Dones reported substantial struggle in their religious history: The DBS scored highest, followed by the Dones and DBRs. Supplemental analyses of students identifying as spiritual but not religious revealed considerable diversity in terms of religious engagement and struggle. Taken together, these findings confirm that religious disengagement, either by pulling back from organized religion or shifting toward a nonreligious identity, is often associated with a wide range of religious/spiritual struggles. (250 words)
Keywords: religious struggles, spiritual struggles, religious deidentification, religious disengagement, religious dones
Pulling Away from Religion 3
Pulling Away from Religion:
Religious/Spiritual Struggles and Religious Disengagement among College Students
Many people in the U.S. are walking away from religion. Recent national polls suggest that religious affiliation is declining, and the number of religiously unaffiliated is increasing
(Gallup, n.d.; Pew Research Center, 2019; see also Twenge, Sherman, Exline, & Grubbs, 2016).
In fact, some estimate that the religiously unaffiliated now equal the number of Evangelicals and
Catholics in the United States (CNN, 2019). The number of unaffiliated U.S. Millennials is also increasing, a phenomenon some have termed the “rise of the nones” (Newport, 2019). Some of this large-scale survey research shows trends of decreased religious engagement among younger people specifically (Twenge, Exline, Grubbs, Sastry, & Campbell, 2015; Pew Research Center,
2019). This article focuses on college students, a group who may be in a critical period for religious disengagement (e.g., Bryant, Choi, & Yasuno, 2003). Our aim was to examine how religious disengagement relates to religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles among college students.
Becoming Less Religious
Shifts away from religion take many forms. Some shifts occur at the level of identity, in which a person no longer self-identifies as religious. Along these lines, a recent research program has begun to examine religious “Dones,” those that have experienced religious de-identification.
Studies sampling from diverse countries (Hong Kong, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the U.S.) show that even following de-identification, Dones show evidence of a religious residue, or patterns of religious thinking, feeling, and behaving resembling those of currently religious individuals more than never-religious individuals (Van Tongeren, DeWall, Chen, Bulbulia, &
Sibley, 2019). This residue effect has been found for religion-relevant values (e.g., moral foundations; Van Tongeren, DeWall, Hardy, & Schwadel, 2019) and behavior (e.g., religious Pulling Away from Religion 4 consumption; DeWall & Van Tongeren, 2019), suggesting that even after people stop identifying as religious, their once-religious schemas are still evident in their social cognitive processes.
Another way to disengage would be to pull back from organized religion while still self- identifying as religious (Itzhaki, Yablon, & Itzhaky, 2018). For example, people might decrease attendance at services, reduce ritual observances, or spend less time reading sacred texts. A related alternative would be to pull back from organized religion and religious identity while still identifying as spiritual (i.e., spiritual but not religious; Fuller, 2001). We examined both of these forms of disengagement, along with decisions to abandon religion altogether (i.e., the Dones).
For this project we focused on college students. Undergraduates face a developmental transition involving increased independence and exposure to diverse worldviews (Arnett, 2004;
Smith & Snell, 2009), which could precipitate changes in religious engagement or identity
(Bryant et al., 2003; Mueller, 2012). From a developmental perspective, college students are often working through issues related to identity and intimacy (Erikson, 1950), which could include religious identity and bonds with religious communities. We were interested in students who had pulled back from religion in some way, either by no longer identifying as religious or spiritual (Dones) or by disengaging from organized religion while maintaining an identity as religious (Disengaged but Religious: DBR) or spiritual but not religious (Disengaged but
Spiritual: DBS). Our aim was to examine struggles that students in these groups reported around r/s, both in comparison to each other and in comparison to those who were more stable or consistent in their identities as religious (Religious) or nonreligious (Never Religious/Never).
Religious/Spiritual (R/S) Struggles
R/s struggles refer to experiences of conflict, tension, or distress around the r/s domain
(for reviews, see Exline, 2013; Exline & Rose, 2013; Pargament, 2007; Pargament, Murray- Pulling Away from Religion 5
Swank, Magyar, & Ano, 2005; Stauner, Exline, & Pargament, 2016). Recent work has focused on six domains of struggle (e.g., Exline, Pargament, Grubbs, & Yali, 2014): 1) divine struggles, which include experiences of anger toward God or fear of divine punishment or abandonment; 2) demonic struggles, which focus on concerns about being attacked or tempted by the devil or evil spirits; 3) interpersonal religious struggles, which refer to conflicts, offenses, or negative emotions involving religious people or communities; 4) moral struggles, which involve difficulty following r/s rules or intense guilt about moral transgressions, 5) ultimate meaning struggles, which involve concern about a lack of deep meaning in life, and 6) doubt-related struggles, in which people are troubled by questions or doubts about their r/s beliefs.
R/s struggles are linked with depression and anxiety (e.g., Abu-Raiya, Pargament,
Krause, & Ironson, 2015; for reviews, see Exline & Rose, 2013; Pargament, 2007; Pargament et al., 2005; Pargament & Lomax, 2013; Wilt, Stauner, & Exline, 2018) and poor physical health
(for reviews, see Exline, 2013; Stauner, Exline, & Pargament, 2016)—even higher mortality rates (Pargament, Koenig, Tarakeshwar, & Hahn, 2001). Longitudinal work shows that mental health challenges (e.g., anxiety) sometimes precede r/s struggles (e.g., Wilt, Grubbs, Lindberg,
Exline, & Pargament, 2017), but r/s struggles can be primary in some cases, predicting declines in mental health (e.g., Bryant & Astin, 2008; Wortmann, Park, & Edmonson, 2012; for reviews, see Bockrath et al., 2019; Exline, 2013; Pargament & Lomax, Stauner, Exline, & Pargament,
2016). In short, many studies document links between r/s struggles, health, and well-being.
R/s struggles are reported by many U.S. adults (Abu-Raiya et al., 2015; Stauner, Exline,
& Pargament, 2015), including college students (e.g., Bryant & Astin, 2008; Johnson & Hayes,
2003). Prior analyses of the dataset used for the present project have shown that r/s struggles are common not only among religious students (e.g., Wilt, Hall, Pargament, & Exline, 2017) but also Pulling Away from Religion 6 among students identifying as nonreligious (Stauner, Exline, Uzdavines, & Bradley, 2015) or atheist (Bradley, Uzdavines, Pargament, & Exline, 2016; Sedlar et al., 2018). Knowing that r/s struggles can be important for many college students, it would be valuable to understand more about how their r/s struggles relate to their decisions about r/s identity and engagement.
How Religious/Spiritual Struggles Might Relate to Disengagement from Religion
Our overarching prediction was that students who had disengaged from organized religion since starting college (DBR and DBS groups) would report more current and lifetime r/s struggles than the Religious and Never groups. We also expected the Dones to report substantial lifetime r/s struggle, although we expected their current levels of struggle to be lower than those of the DBR and DBS due to their greater level of religious disengagement.
In addition to making these broad predictions, we also sought to provide a nuanced picture by examining differences in specific r/s struggles across the five groups. In this section we will briefly examine six types of r/s struggle (based on Exline et al., 2014) and how each might relate to disengagement from religion. Note that we did not aim to test specific predictions about causal directions in these cross-sectional analyses. Instead, we based our hypotheses on the premise that r/s struggle could lead to disengagement from religion and vice versa. We will also briefly outline broad predictions about group comparisons, which Table 1 summarizes.
Divine. Divine struggles could lead to disengagement from religion in several ways.
First, people could experience negative emotions focused on God. For example, they might become angry at God (Exline, Park, Smyth, & Carey, 2011) or have fears about divine anger, punishment, or abandonment (Pargament, Smith, Koenig, & Perez, 1998), choosing to withdraw from religion as a way to cope with these negative feelings (e.g., Bradley, Exline, & Uzdavines,
2017). Intellectual questions or doubts about God’s existence could also prompt disengagement. Pulling Away from Religion 7
Pulling back from religion might lead to divine struggles as well: With less exposure to religious teachings, people could begin to see God as more distant from their daily lives, which could increase doubt about whether God exists (Exline, Grubbs, & Homolka, 2015). Also, once released from conformity pressures of religious communities, some people may be emboldened to question God and protest perceived injustices (Exline, Kaplan, & Grubbs, 2012).
We expected the DBS and DBRs to show higher levels of emotional divine struggles than the other groups, as they should hold some belief in God combined with conflicts around r/s matters. We expected the Dones and DBS to report more intellectual doubt about God’s existence than the DBRs, reflecting their lower engagement with religious belief and practice.
Demonic. Because demonic struggles show strong, consistent, positive associations with religiousness (Exline et al., 2014; Stauner et al., 2016), they constitute a special case in terms of r/s struggles. They should not be linked with tendencies to pull away from religion, because they reflect a belief system that focuses on spiritual warfare against malevolent entities. On the whole, demonic struggles should lead people to maintain religious engagement as a form of protection.
Yet some forms of demonic struggle could lead to disengagement, especially in cases of overlap with moral struggle. For example, if people believe in morally destructive agents that actively attack people and tempt them to do wrong, they might pull away from religion as a way to avoid reminders that their own behavior might be wrong. Disengagement might also prompt demonic struggles if people believe that it is wrong to pull away from religion; they may wonder if the devil has tricked them in order to separate them from their religious community or beliefs.
In the case of demonic struggle, we would expect to see a clear religious residue effect.
Specifically, we would expect the Disengaged but Religious (DBR) group to look similar to the
Religious group, with both endorsing more demonic struggle than the other groups. Pulling Away from Religion 8
Interpersonal religious struggles. When people pull away from organized religion or choose not to self-identify as religious, many are likely experiencing some social strain around religion. Interpersonal tensions within a religious community could cause people to pull away.
Some members might feel judged by others, or they might disagree about doctrine, practices, or political issues. People can also become angry with organized religion more broadly when they focus on religious intolerance, prejudice, hypocrisy, or violence. Any of these could be a major source of religious doubt (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1997) and could lead to disengagement.
Those who disengage from religious communities should, in principle, have fewer direct opportunities for conflict due to their reduced level of contact; however, their decisions to disengage may spawn new interpersonal conflicts if they pose a threat to members of the religious community, whose responses could range from gentle (expressing sadness or loss; requesting that the person return) to extreme (harsh judgment, shunning, or excommunication)
(see, e.g., Bradley et al., 2016; Engelman, Milstein, Schonfeld, & Grubbs, 2019). Even in the absence of overt conflict, those who disengage may experience a loss of social support—a major benefit provided by religious communities (Milevsky, 2017). Those moving away from religion could find themselves caught in between the religious and the never religious, struggling to find their own ingroup (Engelman et al., 2019; Van Tongeren, DeWall, & Van Cappellen, 2019).
We expected to see the highest levels of current interpersonal r/s struggle among those who had recently disengaged from religion (DBR and DBS). When looking at lifetime history, we expected the Dones and the DBS to be highest, given that interpersonal struggles may have prompted some of their reluctance to identify as religious (see Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1997).
Doubt. Doubts about the correctness of one’s religious beliefs could lead to disengagement from religion, as people may not want to continue building or investing in a Pulling Away from Religion 9 worldview that does not match their current views of reality. From the opposite perspective, pulling away from a religious community could make previously held beliefs seem distant or less relevant to daily life. As people reduce the sense of authority associated with religious teachings, they open the door for more exploration and questioning; but the associated doubts and questions may cause stress for them as well, as major parts of their worldview may be shifting (Exline et al., 2014). We expected these doubt-related struggles to be highest among the DBR and DBS.
Moral struggles. Many people experience moral struggles, which include challenges in trying to follow moral principles as well as guilty feelings about perceived misdeeds (Exline et al., 2014). Moral struggles could lead to religious disengagement as people wrestle with attempts to identify or follow their principles—and when they fail to do so. For instance, consider a case in which a student wants to engage in some behavior forbidden by their religion—perhaps involving sexuality or substance use—and fears judgment from a religious community or God.
The student might pull away from the community and engage in the forbidden behavior, which might, in turn, fuel more guilt and fear. Withdrawing from organized religion might fuel other moral struggles as well: Because religious communities often provide a common basis for shared values (Graham & Haidt, 2010), those raised with a strong religious background may fear that they have lost their moral compass by turning away from religion. They may then struggle to replace religiously-based moral beliefs with others outside a traditional religious framework.
Like demonic struggles, moral struggles are more common among the religiously devout
(Exline et al., 2014; Stauner, Exline, Grubbs, et al., 2016) and tend to increase over time in proportion to general religiousness (Stauner, Wilt, Exline, & Pargament, 2017). Due to the confluence of the religious residue effect, the decision to pull back from organized religion, and Pulling Away from Religion 10 other concurrent struggles around r/s, we expected to see the highest levels of moral struggle in the DBR and Religious groups, with strong evidence of a religious residue effect for the DBRs.
Ultimate meaning struggles. Many Americans report struggles around a lack of deep meaning or purpose in their lives (e.g., Stauner, Exline, & Pargament, 2015), although these concerns are less pronounced among people high in religiousness (Exline et al., 2014; Stauner,
Exline, Grubbs, et al., 2016). Given that many people turn to religion as a meaning-making system (Park, 2013), it seems plausible that a perceived failure or deficiency in this meaning system could lead to religious disengagement. For example, if a person finds that religion fails to provide a compelling sense of life direction or purpose, they may pull back from the belief system and associated community, seeking a sense of personal fulfillment or guidance elsewhere.
Pulling back from religion could also create ultimate meaning struggles if it entails losing an overarching meaning system (Park, 2013), a connection to the sacred (Pargament, 2013), or a sense of purpose that could come from a religious identity (Ysseldyk, Matheson, & Anisman,
2010). Attempts to find or select an alternate meaning system could require considerable effort, and the associated uncertainty around worldviews could be a substantial source of stress.
Although our predictions about ultimate meaning struggles were nuanced (see Table 1), we expected the DBS to show the highest levels of current ultimate meaning struggle, due to their recent decision to pull back from organized religion and their self-identification as spiritual but not religious. For lifetime ultimate meaning struggle, we expected the Dones to score similarly to the DBS, since both groups had pulled away from religious belief systems.
The Present Study
In this project, our aim was to examine and compare the types and levels of r/s struggle
(both lifetime and present) reported by college students who showed some disengagement from Pulling Away from Religion 11 religion. We focused on students in introductory psychology courses, with a particular emphasis on two questions: 1) whether they currently identified as religious, spiritual, both, or neither (we referred to this as r/s identity); and 2) whether they had pulled away from organized religion since starting college. We used these questions, along with information about their religious upbringing, to form our five primary groups: the Religious, the Disengaged but Religious (DBR), the Disengaged but Spiritual (DBS), the Dones, and the Nevers. (See first section of Results for details on group creation.) In supplemental analyses, we also examined students who identified as spiritual but not religious but had not pulled away from organized religion.
Broadly speaking, we expected to see the most r/s struggle in the DBR and DBS groups, with the Dones also reporting substantial levels of lifetime struggle. Table 1 summarizes our specific predictions. We also offered one demographic prediction: We expected to see a greater frequency of non-heterosexual orientation among the DBS, DBR and Dones than among the
Religious, based on prior findings of greater struggles among people identifying as homosexual or (especially) as bisexual (Exline et al., 2014; Stauner, Exline, & Pargament, 2015).
Method
Participants and Procedure
Data came from a larger study entitled “Religious and Spiritual Issues in College Life” (N
= 3,958). Participants were Introductory Psychology students at three universities: one private research university from the Great Lakes region (n = 939), one public research university from the Great Lakes region (n = 1,938), and one private Christian university from the West coast (n =
1,081). This study was approved by the Institutional Review Boards at all three universities.
Students completed an online survey and received partial course credit for participating. Due to the number and complexity of our group comparisons, we chose not to focus on differences Pulling Away from Religion 12 between universities in this case, instead combining across them. Previous analyses established measurement invariance in the RSS across these universities, though all r/s struggles related more negatively to general religiousness in the private Christian university (Stauner, Exline,
Grubbs, et al., 2016). Six participants were excluded because missing data on religious affiliation prevented us from being able to categorize them into one of our comparison groups.
Measures
We scored all multi-item measures and subscales by averaging across items. Measures were as follows:
Religious/spiritual identification. Participants read, “Which of the following categories best describes your beliefs?” and chose an option: spiritual but not religious, religious but not spiritual, both religious and spiritual, or neither religious nor spiritual.
Current and childhood religious affiliation. Participants were asked to list their current religious affiliation and the religion in which they were raised, if any.
Pulling back from organized religion since starting college. Participants read, “Since you started college, have you made any of the following changes?” followed by a checklist of six items centering on involvement with religious groups. One item read, “I pulled away from organized religion.” Other sample items included, “I joined a religious/spiritual group” and “I began exploring new religious/spiritual groups but have not joined any of them.”
R/s struggles: Current. Participants completed the 26-item Religious and Spiritual
Struggles (RSS) Scale (Exline et al., 2014), with the past several months as the timeframe (α =
.94). The RSS has 6 subscales of four to five items each: Divine (α = .90), Demonic (α = .91),
Interpersonal (α = .84), Moral (α = .88), Doubt-Related (α = .90), and Ultimate Meaning (α =
.88). All items are rated from 1 (not at all / does not apply) to 5 (a great deal) and were Pulling Away from Religion 13 administered in random order. (For hierarchical omega and other confirmatory factor analytic statistics, see Stauner, Exline, Grubbs, et al., 2016.)
R/s struggles: Lifetime history (retrospective). Participants read, “Looking back over your entire life, how often have you…” followed by a list of items in random order, 13 of which related to r/s struggle. These items were designed to assess a person’s self-assessed history of r/s struggle, drawing from ideas and items used to develop the RSS. (See Wilt, Grubbs, Pargament, and Exline, 2017, for another paper drawing on these lifetime history items.) Participants rated responses from 0 (never) to 10 (very often). Following Wilt et al. (2017), we analyzed all items as a group first (alpha = .89); but we also divided them into face-valid categories to allow comparisons with the RSS subscales. Of the 13 items, five tapped divine struggles (α = .82), which we further subdivided into emotional (felt angry at God; believed that God felt angry at you; α = .72) and intellectual questions/doubts about God’s existence (had questions or doubts about whether God exists; experienced a “drop” or decrease in your belief in God’s existence; α
= .80). (An additional divine item, “felt anger around the idea of God,” was not categorized as emotional or intellectual because it conceptually tapped elements of both and showed a weak cross-loading on both factors in a factor analysis.) Four items tapped interpersonal struggles: felt
“angry at religion,” felt mistreated, offended, or misunderstood by religious people, had negative feelings about religion, and disagreed with others (e.g., friends, family, members of a religious group) about religious/spiritual issues (α = .84). Two items tapped moral struggle: struggled to follow your personal beliefs about right and wrong; felt excessive guilt about things you’ve done that were wrong (α = .76). Single items tapped demonic struggles (thought that you were being attacked by the devil or evil spirits) and ultimate meaning struggles (had doubts about whether your life had any deeper spiritual meaning or purpose). Pulling Away from Religion 14
Religious belief salience. Participants completed a four-item adaptation of the Religious
Belief Salience Scale (Blaine & Crocker, 1994), omitting one item that assumed belief in God. A sample item is, “My religious/spiritual beliefs lie behind my whole approach to life.” Items were rated from 0 (does not apply; strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree) (α = .97).
Religious participation. Participants completed a 6-item religious participation measure adapted from Exline, Yali and Sanderson (2000). The prompt reads, “How often have you participated in each of these activities IN THE PAST WEEK?” followed by six items rated from
0 (not at all) to 5 (more than once a day): prayed or meditated, read religious/spiritual books
(including sacred texts from your faith tradition), watched/listened to programs on religious/spiritual topics, attended religious/spiritual services or meetings, thought about religious/spiritual issues, and talked to others about religious/spiritual issues. Items are averaged
(α = .91). This adapted version has been used in many studies (e.g., Exline et al., 2011, 2014).
Current belief in God and supernatural evil. Participants used a scale from 0 (not at all) to 10 (totally) in response to these prompts: “To what extent do you believe that God exists?”
And “Do you believe in supernatural evil forces (e.g., the devil; evil spirits)?”
Current doubt about God’s existence. Participants read, “Do you have doubts or questions about whether God exists?” Responses were rated from 0 (not at all) to 10 (totally).
Religious upbringing/family history. We administered the five positively-valenced items from the Family History of Religiousness subscale of the Spiritual History Scale (SHS-4; Hays,
Meador, Branch, & George, 2001). Items were rated from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). A sample item is “My family passed down their religion to me.” (α = .90). Pulling Away from Religion 15
Results
Creation of Groups
We made the five r/s groups as follows: Never: Endorsed neither religious nor spiritual on forced-choice item; not raised with a religious affiliation (n = 153); Done: Endorsed neither religious nor spiritual on forced-choice item; raised with some religious affiliation (n = 403);
Disengaged but Spiritual (DBS): Endorsed spiritual but not religious on forced-choice item; yes to item on pulling away from organized religion since starting college (n = 318); Disengaged but
Religious (DBR): Endorsed religious but not spiritual or both religious and spiritual on forced- choice item; yes to item on pulling away from organized religion since starting college (n = 351);
Religious: Endorsed religious but not spiritual or both religious and spiritual on forced-choice item; No to item on pulling away from organized religion since starting college (n = 2141).
To keep our main analyses from becoming too complex, we omitted students who identified as spiritual but not religious, but who had not pulled away from organized religion (n =
585). However, we did do supplemental analyses on this group. (See end of Results section.)
Demographics
The mean age was 19.1 years (SD = 2.1). See Table 2 for other demographic data. The left column refers to the total score, followed by the group comparisons. Table 2 percentages refer to columns, not rows; they show the percentage of each r/s group that fits into a certain demographic category (e.g., the percentage of Dones identifying as heterosexual or Asian).
Sexual orientation. Table 2 lists frequency data on sexual orientation. We compared students who identified as heterosexual (n = 3144; 94% of sample) with those who did not (n =
215; 6% of sample). We did a χ2 analysis of sexual orientation ((heterosexual vs. not) X r/s group, χ2 (4) = 115.00, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .18. We then did Bonferroni-corrected analyses of Pulling Away from Religion 16
Z scores, based on standardized residuals, to see which groups showed proportions of non- heterosexual participants that differed significantly from expected proportions based on chance.
These tests showed that a disproportionately high number of participants identified as non- heterosexual in the DBS (17%) and Done (11%) groups, as expected, with a disproportionately low percentage (3%) among the Religious. Only the DBRs deviated from predictions (8% non- heterosexual; nonsignificant difference from the 6% expected based on chance).
Gender. Table 2 reports gender data. Not enough students identified as transgender, other, or prefer not to say to allow comparisons. We thus compared the proportions of students identifying as male (n = 1242, 37% of sample) and female (n = 2111, 63%) across the groups, χ2
(4) = 59.07, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .13. Bonferroni-corrected comparisons showed that men were overrepresented among the Dones (52%) and underrepresented among the Religious (34%).
Race/ethnicity. Table 2 presents race/ethnicity data. Only three participants identified as
American Indian/Native American/Alaska Native and were omitted from the χ2 analysis, χ2 (28)
= 27.68, p < .001, Cramer’s V = .08. Bonferroni-corrected comparisons showed that White/
Caucasian/European Americans (66% of sample) were overrepresented among Dones (75%).
Latinx/Hispanic students (4% of sample) were underrepresented among Dones (2%). African
American/Black students (7% of sample) were underrepresented among Dones (4%) and Nevers
(1%). Asian/Pacific Islanders (13% of sample) were overrepresented among Nevers (30%).
Convergent Validity for Religious Group Categories
Before proceeding with our struggle analyses, we first wanted to confirm that the five groups scored as expected on measures of religious affiliation, commitment, belief, and background. Table 3 shows the breakdown of religious affiliations by group, confirming the greater proportions of affiliated students (especially Christians) in the Religious and DBR groups Pulling Away from Religion 17 and greater proportions of atheists, agnostics, and nones among the Dones and Nevers. For brevity, we will not outline cell-by-cell differences here, instead highlighting a few other points.
First, the DBS group was diverse in terms of affiliation. Just under half (46%) identified as Christians, but another 42% listed a nonreligious affiliation, with agnostics represented the most (24%). Second, 8% of Nevers and 30% of Dones listed some type of religious affiliation despite self-identifying as neither religious nor spiritual. Although a closer analysis of these groups was beyond the scope of our project, it is interesting to note that a person could identify as nonreligious and nonspiritual while still listing some type of religious affiliation--perhaps as part of a family or cultural identity without personal investment in the religion.
Next we examined other indicators of religious involvement and belief (Table 4, top). As expected, Nevers and Dones scored lower than the other groups on religiousness: belief salience and participation, along with belief in God and supernatural evil and religious upbringing. The
DBS group scored higher, followed by the DBRs, with the Religious group scoring highest.
Taken together, these analyses confirmed that the group designations accurately captured the intended categories. Next we moved onto our main analyses of the struggle-related variables.
Broad Religious/Spiritual Struggle Measures
We report means and standard deviations for all measures in the form of group comparisons (see Tables 4–5). Table 4 shows group comparisons on r/s struggle, which we will tie back to predictions (Table 1). We will start with the broad measures before considering each type of struggle.
Overall struggle: Current and lifetime. As we predicted (A1 in Table 1), the DBR and
DBS reported more current r/s struggle than the other groups. The Religious were next, followed by the Dones, who, as predicted, scored higher than the Nevers. In terms of retrospective lifetime Pulling Away from Religion 18 struggle, we expected the DBS, DBR, and Dones to score higher than the Never and Religious groups (A2). This hypothesis was also supported, although the DBS group scored highest.
Divine. As predicted (B1), the DBR and DBS scored highest on the emotional items
(RSS Divine; anger toward God, God angry at self), whereas the Dones and DBS scored highest on the items assessing intellectual questions and doubts about God’s existence (B2).
Demonic. We expected the highest levels of current and lifetime demonic struggle among the Religious and DBR groups (Prediction C). These hypotheses were supported.
Moral. In partial support of predictions (Prediction D), the DBR scored highest on both current and lifetime moral struggles, although their scores did not differ significantly from the
Religious (current moral struggle) or from the DBS (lifetime moral struggle).
Ultimate meaning. We expected the DBS to score highest on current ultimate meaning struggle (E1), but the DBS and DBR did not differ from each other. Also, the Dones and DBRs did not differ. In terms of lifetime ultimate meaning struggle, we expected the DBS and Dones to score highest (E2); however, the DBS group scored highest, with the Dones and DBR second.
Interpersonal religious struggle. As predicted (F1), current interpersonal struggles were highest for the DBR and DBS. In terms of lifetime interpersonal struggles, we expected the DBS and Dones to be highest, followed by the DBRs (F2). This hypothesis was partly supported. The
DBS scored highest, followed by the Dones and DBR, who did not differ.
Doubt struggle. As expected, the DBR and DBS scored highest on doubt struggles (G1).
Supplemental Analyses: Most Highly Endorsed Struggles for Each Group
We did exploratory analyses to see which r/s struggles were endorsed most within each group (Table 4). Numeric subscripts in each column show Bonferroni-corrected comparisons.
Nevers endorsed moral and ultimate meaning struggles the most, and Dones endorsed ultimate Pulling Away from Religion 19 meaning struggles the most. The DBS group gave high endorsement to moral, ultimate meaning, and doubt struggles. For the DBR and Religious, moral struggles topped the list.
Supplemental Analyses: Close-up on Students Identifying as Spiritual but not Religious
Our main interest was in students who had disengaged from religion in some way, in comparison with two straightforward comparison groups: the Nevers and the Religious. We thus omitted a substantial group: those who identified as spiritual but not religious but had not pulled back from organized religion since starting college (n = 585).
In considering potential meanings of “spiritual but not religious,” we reasoned that this group might be divided further. Some religiously affiliated students might not identify as religious, preferring the term spiritual. Others might have no religious affiliation but hold some spiritual beliefs. Accordingly, we divided this group into two as follows: Spiritual, No Religious
Affiliation (n = 189): Endorsed “spiritual but not religious” on forced-choice item; religious affiliation was listed as atheist, agnostic, none, or unsure; “no” to item on pulling away from organized religion since starting college; Spiritual, Some Religious Affiliation (n = 396):
Endorsed “spiritual but not religious” on forced-choice item; a specific religious affiliation was listed (e.g., Christian, Jewish, Muslim); “no” to item on pulling away from organized religion since starting college. In Table 5, we compared these two groups to the DBS group.
Table 5 (top section) provided convergent validity for our division of the three groups.
The two new groups differed markedly in their levels of religious commitment and background:
The Some Affiliation group showed much higher religiousness across all indicators than the No
Affiliation group, with the DBS scoring in the middle. The DBS and Some Affiliation groups scored similarly on religious upbringing—higher than the No Affiliation group. These findings are consistent with the idea that some students were labeling themselves “spiritual but not Pulling Away from Religion 20 religious” despite still having a religious identity; these may be students with a negative reaction to the word “religious” but were still identified with a religious group. Their profiles differed sharply from those of the No Affiliation group, who were much less religious overall.
Although our struggle-focused analyses of these groups were largely exploratory, we did expect the DBS group to report more struggle overall (current and lifetime) than the other two groups, reflecting their recent disengagement from organized religion. This hypothesis was supported, as Table 5 shows. Also, the Some Affiliation group reported less overall struggle than the No Affiliation group. Table 5 presents detailed findings on the other variables. In terms of the most endorsed struggles (see numeric subscripts in RSS columns), the No Affiliation group endorsed ultimate meaning struggles the most, whereas the Some Affiliation group endorsed moral struggles the most. Broadly speaking, these patterns were consistent with framing the No
Affiliation group as a less religious group and the Some Affiliation group as a more religious group.
Discussion
Our primary aim was to examine religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles among college students who had disengaged from religion in some way. Two of our groups included students who had pulled back from organized religion since starting college: those identifying as religious
(Disengaged but Religious; DBR) and those identifying as spiritual but not religious (Disengaged but Spiritual; DBS). Another group, the Dones, included students who had disengaged more completely from r/s, now self-identifying as neither religious nor spiritual. Broadly speaking, we expected to see evidence of a religious residue effect (DeWall & Van Tongeren, 2019; Van
Tongeren, DeWall, Chen, et al., 2019; Van Tongeren, DeWall, Hardy, et al., 2019) with each of Pulling Away from Religion 21 these groups that had disengaged from religion in some way, with the highest levels of current r/s struggle expected from the DBR and DBS groups. Table 1 lists specific predictions.
Overall R/S Struggle
In terms of current r/s struggle, the DBR and DBS scored highest, as expected (Prediction
A1). Students in these groups had pulled back from religious communities despite maintaining a r/s identity, and their disengagement could be framed as a behavioral indicator of their r/s struggles. Both of these groups reported greater r/s struggle than the Religious group, reinforcing the point that r/s struggles are not limited to people who are religiously engaged (e.g., Bradley et al., 2016; Sedlar et al., 2018; Stauner, Exline, Uzdavines, & Bradley, 2015).
On the retrospective measure of lifetime r/s struggles, the Dones joined the other two
Disengaged groups, as predicted (A2); all of these groups reported more struggle than the more stable Religious and Never groups, although the DBS scored highest. Even in terms of current r/s struggle, the Dones scored slightly higher than the Nevers, suggesting that the religious residue effect applied even to this group that had pulled away from r/s identity and practice.
Specific R/S Struggles
Because r/s struggles vary considerably in terms of their emphasis and their associations with religiousness, we made nuanced predictions about group differences on the various types of struggle. (See Table 1.) We will briefly review these findings next.
Divine struggles. For divine struggles that were emotional in tone (anger at God; fear of divine punishment or abandonment), the DBS and DBR scored highest, as predicted (B1). This finding makes sense given that these students still, for the most part, believed in God but were having many r/s struggles. In contrast, intellectual questioning about God’s existence was highest among the DBS and Dones (B2), consistent with their lower belief in God combined with a lack Pulling Away from Religion 22 of complete resolution around this belief (contrasting with the Never group, who reported even lower belief in God but less doubt about God’s existence). Divine struggles were endorsed at low levels across the groups, consistent with prior work (e.g., Exline et al., 2011).
Demonic and moral struggles. In Western, predominantly Christian samples, moral and demonic struggles correlate positively with religiousness (Exline et al., 2014; Stauner, Exline,
Grubbs et al., 2016). Within-subjects analyses (Table 4) clarified that both DBR and Religious participants endorsed moral struggles more than any other type of struggle. The DBR group showed a clear religious residue effect, endorsing moral struggles (current) and demonic struggles (current and lifetime) at levels similar to those of the Religious group while reporting more lifetime moral struggle than the Religious, as predicted (D). Demonic struggles were endorsed at low levels across the groups, as in prior work (e.g., Exline et al, 2014).
The DBS group also showed some evidence of a religious residue effect here. They reported more demonic and moral struggle than the Nevers and Dones, and their lifetime levels of moral struggle were similar to those of the DBR and Religious groups. Despite pulling back from religion and not identifying as religious, they still showed patterns consistent with a religious background and moderate levels of belief in God and supernatural evil (see Table 4).
Interpersonal. As predicted, the DBR and DBS scored higher than other groups on current interpersonal struggles around religion (F1), consistent with their recent decisions to pull back from organized religion. In terms of past interpersonal religious struggle, the DBS scored highest, in partial support of predictions (F2); we had expected the DBS and Dones to score similarly. Given that the Dones had lower levels of religious upbringing than the DBS, they may have had less opportunity for conflicts involving religious communities. Pulling Away from Religion 23
Struggles with ultimate meaning and doubt. The DBS and DBR scored higher than the others on ultimate meaning and doubt struggles, as predicted (E1, E2, G1). As they pulled back from religion, these students seemed to be questioning the religious meaning systems in which they were raised and were struggling to identify beliefs that were plausible and meaningful.
Students Identifying as Spiritual but not Religious
Although our main interest was in religious disengagement, we were also curious about students who identified as spiritual but not religious, but who had not pulled back from organized religion recently. Supplemental analyses showed this to be a very heterogeneous group. Those with no religious affiliation showed much lower religious participation, belief, and upbringing than the other two groups. They also reported less r/s struggle than the others, with ultimate meaning struggles most endorsed. Students with some affiliation were quite religious in belief and behavior but simply did not describe themselves as religious. For them, moral struggles topped the list. Finally, the DBS group (who had pulled away from organized religion) scored between the other two in religious engagement and history but scored highest on r/s struggle, moral, ultimate meaning, and doubt struggles endorsed the most. These findings highlight the diverse meanings of the term “spiritual but not religious,” and they clarify that students who self- identify in this way show substantial differences in levels and types of r/s struggle.
Limitations and Future Directions
Our cross-sectional data did not allow inferences about causation or time course (Do r/s struggles precede, follow, or accompany disengagement?). Lifetime r/s struggle ratings drew on retrospective reports, which are vulnerable to recall biases. Although longitudinal analyses were beyond the scope of this paper, a related project (Stauner et al., 2019) is using longitudinal data to examine r/s struggles as predictors of r/s identity shifts between Years 1 and 2 of college. Pulling Away from Religion 24
Another limitation centers on the use of self-report surveys. Some people find r/s struggles stigmatizing and are reluctant to disclose them (Exline et al., 2012). Along these lines, it would be useful to supplement self-reports with behavioral or physiological indicators of r/s struggle. For example, a task using Implicit Association Test (IAT) methodology might assess attitudes toward religious stimuli, or psychophysiological methods could be used to evaluate changes in physiological arousal in response to religiously-oriented words, images, or memories.
We sampled from three U.S. universities, and we cannot evaluate whether findings would generalize beyond these groups. The sample was also heavily weighted toward Christians, with a disproportionately large Religious group, in part because one site was a Christian university.
We limited our analysis to six domains of r/s struggle, based largely on the RSS (Exline et al., 2014). Although the RSS taps a reasonably wide range of struggles, it is by no means exhaustive in its coverage. For example, it does not tap burdensome religious practices, troubling afterlife beliefs, or discernment challenges, to name just a few. Qualitative research could complement this work by allowing people to reflect in an open-ended way on the types of r/s struggle that preceded, followed, or accompanied their decisions to disengage from religion.
Concluding Remarks Although prior research has investigated r/s struggles among religious and non-religious people, little of this work has examined the struggles that people experience as they disengage from religion--either by pulling back from organized religion or choosing to identify as nonreligious. This project shows that, among college students, religious disengagement is associated with elevated r/s struggle across a variety of domains. As such, it may be useful to consider disengagement from religion as a behavioral indicator of ongoing r/s struggle.
Pulling Away from Religion 25
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