Adolescent Religious Motivation: A Self-Determination Theory Approach

The purpose of the present set of studies was to develop a short and valid measure of religious motivation based on self-determination theory and demonstrate the role of religious motivation on youth outcomes. Participants were from five studies of religious adolescents and their parents from across the U.S (total N = 2982). Using confirmatory factor analyses we created a 12-item Religious Internalization Scale (RIS-12) capturing three forms of religious motivation: external, introjected, and identified. Relations between religious motivation and youth outcomes were assessed using structural equation modeling. In general, identified religious motivation positively predicted adaptive outcomes (e.g., prosocial behaviors, psychological well-being, and positive traits) and negatively predicted maladaptive outcomes (e.g., antisocial and health-risk behaviors, mental illness, and negative traits), whereas the inverse was largely true for external religious motivation. Introjected religious motivation was a poor predictor of outcomes. Further, identified religious motivation often remained predictive of outcomes when controlling for religious involvement. Lastly, in several cases, identified religious motivation and religious involvement interacted when predicting youth outcomes such that higher identified religious motivation strengthened links between religious involvement and outcomes. These findings validate the RIS-12 as a self-determination theory measure of religious motivation and elucidate the important role of identified religious motivation during adolescence.