Tu credi? Sguardo sull'identità religiosa dei giovani

This book deals with youths’ religious identity from a psychosocial point of view. In the first part, several theoretical approaches are presented, start ing from the question of the definition of religious identity: is it possible to define religious identity? How researchers could capture its different nuances? An interesting distinction is the differentiation, proposed in the self determination theory approach (Ryan \& Deci, 2000; Ryan, Rigby \& King, 1993), between an introjected and an identified religious identity. These two ways of being religious reflect different degrees of internalization of religious values and practices, with introjection which represents a more exterior religious identity mainly based on the need for self and others’ approval, and identification which represents a more autonomous way of being religious and it responds to the need for meaning in personal life. Needs and motives at the basis of religious identity are then considered in further details, looking at the wide literature about human needs and religiosity. Subsequently, religious identity is observed in the relational context in which it develops, and relations with parents, friends and leaders are considered more specifically. Which are the adults’ behaviors that can affect youth religious identity? How do youths develop religious identity in different relational contexts? On the basis of self determination theory and its developments (Assor, 2012), some behaviors are considered. In particular, scholars highlighted the role of parents’ and leaders’ autonomy support, which predicts identification, and parents’ conditional regard, which in turn predicts introjection, and of another behavior called intrinsic value demonstration. This practice refers to a sort of modeling, but a more convincing modeling, in which people not only show a practice or value, but also show the sense of enjoyment, importance and significance associated with it. Parents, adults and also peers can be convincing models of religious behaviors when they fully identify with them, when they are coherent in how they live their faith, they invest time and efforts in religious activities and they spend time with youths dialoguing on religious matters. Finally, the outcomes of religious identity are considered. Literature explored the relationship between religiosity and prosocial behaviors, values and intergroup prejudice. Also identified and introjected religious identity are differently correlated with outcomes, in particular with different levels of wellbeing and with different levels of prejudice. The second part of the present volume presents a research conducted with Italian Christian youths in which four studies investigated the questions about religious identity that raised from the literature review. The first study is about definition and the Italian validation of a scale measuring religious internalization with the two subscales of identification and introjection; the second study is about identity motives at the basis of religious identity and at the basis of identified and introjected religious identity; the third study deals with the relational antecedents of religious identity, and in particular with autonomy support, intrinsic value demonstration and conditional regard of parents, leaders of religious groups and peers in religious groups; the fourth study investigates the relationship between religious internalization and prejudice and the mediating role of prosocial values and conformism in this relation. The third part of the book shows some concluding remarks and practical implications of the findings. In particular, a model is presented which summarizes the relationship between the different aspects of religious identity: starting from its beginning in the present society, with its multiplicity of choices and options, religious identity develops in the home, i.e. in the relational context where it is possible to encounter autonomy support and value demonstration or conditional love and pressures to conform; then, through time, silence and dialogue, youths can develop an inner compass which helps them in choosing and defining value priorities. Once the inner compass is formed, it is possible to opt for an autonomous choice and to develop an identified and not introjected religious identity. Last, the goal of religious identity can be attained: in the case of introjection, the outcome includes low religious commitment, low levels of well-being and high levels of intergroup prejudice, whereas in the case of identification, religious identity is correlated with high levels of religious commitment (e.g. frequency to religious services and religious group activities, high perceived importance of religion in one’s life, etc.), high levels of well-being (e.g.satisfaction with life, satisfaction with one’s relation with God) and low levels of intergroup prejudice (e.g. agree with according expressive rights to Muslims residents in Italy).