Digital Commons @ SPU

Religious commitment and behaviors of SPU students ​

The SPU Experience Project focuses on multiple aspects of identity development of students at a private religious institution. We developed the Adaptive Measure of Identity Statuses: Religion (AMIS-R) to assess the process of religious identity formation, which allows for change between identity statuses. We examined the convergent validity of the AMIS-R with the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) which measures religious behaviors, public, and private involvement. We added to the DUREL the factor "Experience of the Divine" to measure internal feelings of divine presence. By combining these measures, we can assess the relationship between the process of religious identity formation in relation to religious behaviors and experiences. Data was collected via Qualtrics with a sample of SPU undergraduates from a variety of majors (N = 232) with the following Demographic characteristics: age 18-38 (M = 19.2), cis female = 77.7%, cis male = 14.9%, other genders = 7.4%, POC = 47.8%, White = 52.2%, religious = 55.4%, spiritual = 29.7%, none = 14.9%. We found that the items we developed for both scales were reliable and had strong convergent validity. The AMIS-R Future Change subscale and all DUREL subscales had the strongest correlations, suggesting that SPU students are very active in the process of changing their beliefs and behaviors concerning religion. Additionally, high religious commitment scores were associated with more openness to change and critical thinking, suggesting that students may consider these kinds of explorations necessary in order to make religious commitments.