A 17-year Longitudinal Study of Spiritual Development and Psychological Correlates in a Sample of College Students

• Main Author: Bartz, Jeremy Daniel
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2007
• Subjects: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; Psychopathology; Religiosity; Intrinsic; Religious Motivations; Mental Health; Development; Religious Development; Counseling Psychology; Special Education and Teaching
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1197; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2196&context=etd

In 1984, 1987 and 2001 data were collected on a religiously devout group of college students in an effort to better understand the process of religious development and the relationship between religiosity and mental health. This study analyzes that data by examining the stability of two different religious development styles that were identified in 1984, the stability of religious motivations over the course of adulthood, and the relationship between devoutness and psychopathology. This study found that (a) the religious developmental styles did not remain consistent from 1984 to 2001, (b) the participants' religious motivations remained stable over the course of adulthood, and (c) these religiously devout individuals have consistently fallen within the normal range on measures of psychopathology and have demonstrated continual reduction in their scores on those measures. This Dissertation was later edited for journal publication. You can find that version here.