The Relationship between Identity Development and Religiousness in Swedish Emerging Adults

Identity research has focused on processes that are believed to help in forming one’s identity, namely exploration and commitment. These two processes are thought to be important to emerging adulthood as this is aperiod that usually involves both of these processes. Previous research has also showed that religiousness could have a relationship with identity development, but it seems to be unclear as to what that relationship is. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to get a wider perspective on religiousness and identity among emerging adults. Two surveys were conducted with one measuring religiousness (SCSORF) and the other measuring identity development (EIPQ). Participants were 103 emerging adults. Results showed a significant positive relationship between religiousness and identity commitment. No significant results were found between religiousness and exploration. Due to poor reliability for some scales, future work on the religious identity domain was discussed in connection to conducting future research with Swedish emerging adults