'Religious-lite': A phenomenon and its relevance to the debate on identity development and emerging adulthood

This article presents a qualitative study of Israeli Jewish youth who self-identify as 'religious-lite' - intended to uncover the reasons youth choose to define themselves using a non-institutionalized, somewhat dissonant identity label. Eighteen participants aged 22-29 were administered in-depth interviews regarding their deliberations as to preferred identity. Analysis reveals that participants rejected major aspects of the modern identity project yet paradoxically adopt an identity label they view as enabling them to benefit from aspects of relational and intra-psychic coherence that it nevertheless provides. Furthermore, 'religious-lite' was seen as a temporary identity fitting their specific life-stage of emerging adulthood, though not inferior to consonant identities they envisioned they would adopt in adulthood. We discuss this phenomenon in the context of recent debates on identity's psychological structural change during the now extended transition to adulthood, and the debate on emerging adulthood as a developmental stage.