Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Adolescence and young adulthood are periods when an individual typically encounters change in many areas of development. One of these areas is religiosity, where individuals shift in the domains of practices, beliefs, understanding and experiences. Through a qualitative, phenomenological approach, this study sought to better understand how emerging adults experience the process of shifts in religiosity and how they describe the impact. Three undergraduate students participated in in-depth interviews. Results of the analysis indicated an overarching trajectory of religious development, as well as current themes of religious identity, intellectual understanding, and struggle. The impact of this phenomenon on their processes of mental health and protection of well-being, autonomy and agency, disconnection from religious community and changing metaphors of a deity were noted. Results of the study were synthesized in the “River of Religiosity”, a diagram that demonstrates the practical understanding of shifting religiosity as a fluid and continuous process, a construct with appreciable impact on mental health and well-being. The results of this study emphasized the potentially all-encompassing nature of religiosity, highlighting the need for mainstream counsellors and therapists to engage their client’s religiosity, understanding it as a source of struggle and coping, indivisible from the rest of their self.
Source: Mspace (University of Manitoba)
Author: Angela Rajfur
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2996149164