The Varieties of Religious Significance: An Idiographic Approach to Study Religion's Role in Adolescent Development

Elli Schachter, Avital Ben Hur

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a rationale and method for taking an idiographic approach to study the role religion plays in adolescent development. We theorize that adolescents harness qualitatively different aspects of religion to address idiosyncratic developmental needs. Therefore, analyzing religion's role in adolescent development necessitates a case-by-case holistic analysis. We introduce a systematic method using narratives to identify the personal ways that individuals attribute meaning in general and regarding religion in particular. We present three detailed case studies from a sample of 20 religious Israeli Jewish Orthodox emerging-adult women who provided retrospective narrative accounts of their general and religious development through adolescence. Systematic analysis reveals that religion was significant to these women in diverse and personal ways, addressing markedly different adolescent developmental needs.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)291-307
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Research on Adolescence
Volume29
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Society for Research on Adolescence

Funding

Elli Schachter’s work on the development of the framework of indicators for personal significance was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation (#1541/11).

FundersFunder number
Israel Science Foundation1541/11

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