When it comes to adolescents genuinely committing to their faith, a study found that their social environment determines how strong their faith level will be.
The study, conducted by Professor David Dollahite from Brigham Young University, operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, took on a different approach from simply reporting numbers and statistics on how devout young people are. He reached each teen on a personal level by allowing them to share their views on different variables.
Dollahite took 80 teens, 10- to 20-year-olds of various faith communities, including Christian and Muslim, from northern California and New England and asked for their views on different topics.
For example, a 15-year-old Christian and Missionary Alliance girl shared on religious traditions, rituals and laws that "[Church is] a break in the week. It’s something that’s consistent, that we do every week together. We get in the car and go to church and come home. And it’s nice to sort of step back from the busyness of everything and just have something that we all do together."
According to the study, titled “Seven Anchors of Religious Commitment,” parents, religious leaders, a faith community, rituals and traditions, faith tradition or denomination, God and sacred texts are crucial to a young person's faith.
Emily Layton, who conducted the analysis as part of her M.S. thesis for the study, explained to The Christian Post, “Relationships were extremely important – relationships with parents, with church leaders and relationships with people in their faith community. That was interesting to me, the relationships with other adults in their faith community as well as other younger teens.”
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