The relation between identity styles and religiosity in adolescence: Evidence from a longitudinal perspective

Although recent studies (Duriez, Soenens, & Beyers, 2004; Duriez & Soenens, 2006) investigating the link between Berzonsky’s (1990) identity styles and the religiosity dimensions of Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence and Literal versus Symbolic (Duriez, Soenens, & Hutsebaut, 2005) assumed a unidirectional effect of identity styles on religiosity dimensions, this was never tested. In the present 2-wave longitudinal study among Belgian adolescents (N = 724), within-time correlations support previous findings that, whereas Exclusion versus Inclusion of Transcendence is positively related to a normative identity style, Literal versus Symbolic relates positively to an informational and negatively to a diffuse / avoidant style. In addition, cross-lagged analyses examining the direction of effects between identity styles and religiosity dimensions indicate that the effects from identity styles to the religiosity dimensions are dominant. Implications of these findings and discrepancies between the within-time correlations and the cross-lagged effects are discussed.