Young Adult Research Studies: Reports & Books
Reports
Are Emerging Adults "Spiritual but Not Religious"
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The “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) category has been an interesting group for congregations to study despite its not being a statistical majority. Sociologically, however, it is far more intriguing to concentrate on the entire range and consider the membership implications of each of the four types of emerging adults.
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Countering Commodification: A Review of Recent Research and Writings On Youth, Young Adults and Religion
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In her survey of recent research on youth and youth ministry, Profitt notes that many of the works arising from this study "name rampant consumerism and the attendant commodification of everything and everyone as an insidious problem in American Christianity.” Consequently, they “point to the need for congregations to reassess both the way they understand and how they present their faith, not only to young people, but to all people, since all, young and old, are subject to the market forces that are encroaching on every aspect of human life.”
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5 Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts
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The Barna Group team explores the lives of young people who drop out of church. The research provides many insights into the spiritual journeys of teens and young adults. The findings are revealed extensively in a new book called, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith. The research uncovered five myths and realities about today's young dropouts.
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5 Reasons Millennials Stay Connected to Church
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About one-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds are practicing Christians, meaning they attend church at least once a month and strongly affirm that their religious faith is very important in their life. A majority of Millennials claim to pray each week, one-quarter say they’ve read the Bible or attended a religious small group this week, and one in seven have volunteered at a church in the past seven days. Research points to five ways faith communities can build deeper, more lasting connections with Millennials.
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6 Reasons Young Christians Leave Church
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A five-year project headed by Barna Group president David Kinnaman explores the opportunities and challenges of faith development among teens and young adults within a rapidly shifting culture. The findings of the research are included in a new book by Kinnaman titled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Church. No single reason dominated the break-up between church and young adults. Instead, a variety of reasons emerged. Overall, the research uncovered six significant themes why nearly three out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15.
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American Millennials: Generations Apart Religion
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The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion conducted a survey of Americans, and specifically American Millennials, young adults ages 18 to 29. The research report presents a profile and comparison of the spirituality of Americans and Millennials. The study examines the moral values, world views, religious experiences, and social issues that are important to each of them.
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Emerging Adults: Churches Emerging Adults Like
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What kinds of churches do emerging adults attend? Why do they go? How involved are they? How do churches engage emerging adults in meaningful ways? In October 2009, six Research Fellows began studying churches in various regions of the country that were clearly reaching the emerging adult population, and have written essays identifying the best practices they observed.
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A Generation in Transition: Religion, Values, and Politics among College-Age Millennials
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This 2012 new national survey of college-age Millennials (Americans ages 18-24) provides an in-depth portrait of younger Millennials on faith, values, and the 2012 election. (Public Religion Research Institute & Georgetown University’ Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affair)
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Hemorrhaging Faith: Why and When Canadian Young Adults are Leaving, Staying and Returning to Church
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This research project focuses on Canadian “raised Christian” who are 18- to 34-year-olds. For every five Catholic and Mainline Protestant kids who attended church at least weekly in the 1980s and ’90s only one still attends at least weekly now as an adult; for those raised in Evangelical traditions it is one in two. The study has new insights on when they are leaving and why; and why some have stayed and others have returned, and which groups do a good job of keeping them.
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Increasing Young Adult Participation in Churches and Other Faith Communities: Profiles & Case Studies
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The emerging consensus of research shows a growing percentage of young adults are not connected with any religion, although many younger Americans express an interest in spirituality. This reality raises concern about young adult participation in religious communities. What is the involvement of young adults in local congregations of all faiths across the United States? And how are faith communities with significant proportion of young adults distinctive? For these resources, a congregation is considered to have significant young adult participation if 21% or more of its participants were 18 to 34 years of age. Across all faiths, a total of only 16% of all congregations were in this category. The resources below explore patterns and practices of churches and other congregations with significant young adult involvement.
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Millennials: Confident, Connected, Open to Change
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This report profiles the roughly 50 million Millennials, ages 18 to 29. The report examines their demographics; their political and social values; their lifestyles and life priorities; their digital technology and social media habits; and their economic and educational aspirations. The report also compares and contrasts Millennials with the nation's three other living generations.
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Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next
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This article by Tom Ferrick presents the story and key findings in the Pew Research Center’s in-depth survey of a new generation of 18- to 29-year-olds, which found them confident, self-expressive, upbeat and open to change.
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Millennials in Adulthood: Detached from Institutions, Networked with Friends
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The Millennial generation is forging a distinctive path into adulthood. Now ranging in age from 18 to 331, they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and optimistic about the future. They are also America’s most racially diverse generation. In all of these dimensions, they are different from today’s older generations. And in many, they are also different from older adults back when they were the age Millennials are now.
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Myths and Realities of Emerging Adults
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Many myths about adolescence have been refuted by research, but similar myths have grown up in recent years around emerging adulthood. This essay addresses three of those myths: the claim that they suffer from a normative “crisis”; the accusations that they are “selfish”; and their alleged reluctance to “grow up” and become adults. For each issue, evidence is presented showing that the myths exaggerate or falsify the true experience of emerging adults.
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Nones on the Rise: One in Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation
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The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling. In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults.
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Poll of Emerging Adults: Thriving, Struggling & Hopeful
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Surprising results from this 2012 survey include emerging adults’ “actually quite traditional” beliefs about sex and their increasing ambivalence about social media as the cohort ages. This report provides a rich overview of emerging adulthood.
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Religion among the Millennials
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By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular faith than older people do today. They also are less likely to be affiliated than their parents' and grandparents' generations were when they were young. Fully one-in-four members of the Millennial generation are unaffiliated with any particular faith. This research report explores the degree to which the religious characteristics and social views of young adults differ from those of older people today, as well as how Millennials compare with previous generations when they were young.
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The Rise of the Exiles
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You Lost Me, describes three ways people get “lost” on the journey of faith: 1) Prodigals disavow their faith entirely,; 2) Nomads wander from the institutional church and put all of their church connections and relationships on ice; and 3) Exiles feel that their faith does not fit in the world they inhabit. They feel stuck between the comfortable, predictable world of faith and the culture that they hope to influence. The exiles’ spiritual journeys only happen in the midst of profound cultural change. Because of the profound social, technological, and spiritual conditions in our culture today, modern-day exiles will be the ones who significantly shape the future and experience of Christianity.
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Spiritual and Religious: What Can Religious Traditions Learn from Spiritual Seekers?
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Organized religion faces a critical challenge: Americans increasingly identify as seekers who are not bound to a single tradition but are open to insights from multiple religious and spiritual sources. Some call themselves spiritual but not religious, others multi religious. Still others are grounded in one faith tradition, but embrace spiritual practices from another.
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Theory of Emerging Adulthood
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Emerging adulthood is proposed as a new conception of development for the period from the late teens through the twenties, with a focus on ages 18-25. A theoretical background is presented, Then evidence is provided to support the idea that emerging adulthood is a distinct period demographically, subjectively, and in terms of identity explorations. How emerging adulthood differs from adolescence and young adulthood is explained. Finally, a cultural context for the idea of emerging adulthood is outlined, and it is specified that emerging adulthood exists only in cultures that allow young people a prolonged period of independent role exploration during the late teens and twenties.
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Transition to Adulthood
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The issue of the Future of Children journal explores the sharply revised schedule for coming of age in the United States and more broadly throughout the industrialized world. Over the past decade there has been a growing body of research showing that young people are taking longer to leave home, attain economic independence, and form families of their own than did their peers half a century ago. This issue explores the issues and forces behind the transition to adulthood.
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Three Spiritual Journeys of Millennials
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Recent surveys by the Barna Group have shed light on 18- to 29-year-olds who used to identify themselves closely with faith and the church, but who have since begun to wrestle with that identity. In fact, between high school and turning 30, 43% of these once-active Millennials drop out of regular church attendance—that amounts to eight million twenty-somethings who have, for various reasons, given up on church or Christianity.
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Young, Emerging, Lost or Arrested? A Review of Recent Research on Young Adults and Religion
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The Church’s ministry with young adults should be crafted with care and a deep understanding of the particularity of young adults’ experiences and the shifting social conditions that determine their lives. This article surveys recent research on the status of young adulthood, especially the religious commitments of young adults, and will hazard some general conclusions for the Church’s ministry with young adults.
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Books
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After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion
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Christianity and the University Experience: Understanding Student Faith
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Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives
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Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from the Late Teens through the Twenties
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The First Year Out: Understanding American Teens after High School
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Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them
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Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood
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The Millennials: Connecting to America's Largest Generation
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Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
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You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith
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Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults In, Out of, and Gone from the Church
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