1 Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults Annette Mahoney* Bowling Green State University Introduction Journalists love a… [604157]

1 Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality
among Emerging Adults
Annette Mahoney*
Bowling Green State University

Introduction
Journalists love a scandal, especially when it involves family life and religion. Recall
these recent headlines:
• December 2008: Bristol Palin becomes an unmarried, teenage mother; her mother is
a staunch evangelical Christian and Republican vice presidential nominee.
• April 2009: After Mel Gibson’s mistress becom es pregnant, his wife of 28 years and
mother of his six children files for divorce; Mel is a devout Catholic and
director/producer of The Passion of the Christ , a $370 million hit accused of
inflaming intolerance of Jews.
• June 2009: Governor Mark Sanford becomes tearful as he explains his extramarital
affair, saying, “I had met my soul mate”; he and his wife spent the prior six months
attending a weekly religious support group for couples.
With headlines like these, many emerging adults may doubt whether religion offers
anything to strengthen American marriages and families. Hypocrisy seems to abound.
Leaders of evangelical Christia ns (about 25% of the U.S. po pulation) seem to dominate
the airwaves on faith and family. “Christian ity” often seems synonymous with Biblical
fundamentalist rhetoric that elevates one partic ular type of family to a social and sacred
pedestal—namely, the 1950s middle-class visi on of a breadwinner father married to a
stay-at-home mother of their biological offs pring. Could this be one reason emerging
adults flee organized religion? How might co ngregations convince them that faith does
matter for family relationships? Given that we bsites and self-help books on spirituality

* Annette Mahoney is a professor of psycho logy at Bowling Green State University.

2 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
emphasize the pursuit of individual happine ss and well-being, with no mention of
marriage or parenthood, it is a difficult endeavor indeed.
Yet scientific evidence does show th at religion matters to contemporary
marriages and families, and it is important that adults of all ages know about such
findings. In this essay, I present three key points for congregations, their ministers, and
emerging adults to know about research on fa ith and family life. Specifically, I describe
religion’s role in forming and sustaining fami ly relationships. Next, I highlight specific
religious beliefs and practices about marital an d parent-child relationships that help to
sustain these ties. Finally, I demonstrate that scholars know next to nothing about how
religion operates, for better or worse, when families are dysfunctional or fall apart.
Forming Family Relationships
Let me start with the role that religion seems to play in forming family bonds. This helps
keep straight the fact that profound theologi cal conflicts exist in our culture about what
kinds of family units should be formed an d then promoted as the ultimate spiritual
ideal. For instance, controversies exist as to which, if any, of the following households
are spiritually on par with families consisting of married heterosexuals and their
biological children:
• cohabiting heterosexual couples living with children
• single mothers who have children outside of marriage
• divorced, single-parent households
• married heterosexuals who remain childless
• same-sex couples, with or without children
• step-families
As one thinks about this question, consider that nearly all same-sex couples living in the
deep South told one group of researchers th at they viewed their own union as having
divine significance and meaning. Similarly, heterosexual couples from this region who
entered into a covenant marriage believed th eir highly traditional male/female spousal
roles were a service to God.
Despite growing diversity of families in Ame rica, the bulk of research on religion

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 3
and family structure addresses how religiou s involvement promotes the formation of
heterosexual marriages and traditional pare nt-child ties. Thus, the possibility that
certain religious beliefs or practices might motivate people to form nontraditional
familial ties (e.g., moving in with a “soul mate ” or being a “big brother” to a foster child)
remains virtually unstudied. Wi th this in mind, let me turn to research findings about
the role that religion has been found to play in creating marital and parent-child
relationships.
Getting Married
As popular Internet dating sites seem to know, recent studies show that contemporary
young Americans continue to use religious simila rity as an important factor in screening
prospective mates. In national surveys, me n and women express similar wishes for their
potential partners to share their religious tr adition (e.g., none, Catholic, Protestant).
Couples also decide early in their matc hmaking process to what extent religious
compatibility matters. Thus, the percentage of couples who have the same religious
affiliation does not change across the stag es of dating, being sexually intimate,
cohabiting, or marrying.
When it comes to marrying, research shows that conservative Protestants,
Catholics, Latter-day Saints, and Jews are th e most likely to wed partners from their
tradition (50% to 65%). Also, emerging adults who view religion as more important to
their daily life and attend religious services frequently are less likely to cohabit with a
partner before, or instead of, getting marri ed. Similarly, emerging adults from all
denominations who see religion as highly im portant are most likely to get married in
their early 20s. Higher religious attendance also increases the odds that unmarried,
pregnant women will marry after giving birth. Analogously, gays and lesbians who view
religion as important more often engage in ritualized commitment ceremonies with
same-sex partners. In general, the decision to exchange sacred vows with another
person depends on the centrality of faith to on e’s life, rather than affiliation with a major
religious group.
Becoming a Mother
Virtually all religions encou rage married couples to procreate, and this message

4 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
continues to sway young women. Women who vi ew religion as important to their lives,
for example, are more likely to give birt h after age 24. By contrast, women who say
religion is unimportant are more likely to have unplanned births, especially during
adolescence, or to remain childless into middl e age. In short, when religion is important
to women from any faith, they make e fforts to have motherhood happen within
marriage. Young women's intention to have children is also tied to greater importance of
religion in their lives, not how often they atte nd services or their specific tradition. This
finding applies to women who hold liberal as well as conservative social attitudes about
feminism and family life. Overall, young wo men who personally value religion are more
likely to have children and want to be mothers.
Becoming a Father
Unlike the considerable research on women, social scientists know next to nothing
about religion's role in men fathering or de siring biological children. Researchers have
repeatedly examined whether fathers who are conservative Protestants invest more time
in forming a relationship with their childr en after they are born , rather than being
distant or absent. No consistent links exist between being a conservative Protestant and
the amount of time that recent generations of married fathers spend with their children.
Also, unmarried fathers living in low-income, urban centers of the United States are
more likely to avoid offspring born out of wedlock if they are conservative Protestants,
perhaps because fatherhood outside of marri age violates religious expectations. By
contrast, across religious denominations, fa thers who attend religious services more
often also spend more time playing with their children. This suggests that greater
involvement in any organized religion genera lly fosters the formation of father-child
relationships. It is less clear whether this is because of specific religious beliefs that men
hold about fatherhood or because men gain social support for this role from their
religious communities.
Juggling Gender Roles at Home and Work
Emerging-adult couples face hard choices in juggling who does what in and out of the
home. Many cannot afford for either spouse to be a full-time homemaker, and most
wives are employed before and after having children. For devout emerging-adult

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 5
couples, this can trigger consternation. Nati onally speaking, however, people within
conservative Protestant or Muslim communities hold diverse opinions about how couples should divide the roles of breadwi nner and homemaker. Many believers hold far
more flexible attitudes about equality betw een spouses than the stance that husbands
merit divinely sanctioned dominance over wi ves. In recent decades, some conservative
Protestant religious leaders have begun to urge husbands either to devote more time to
their “manly” segregated household tasks or to pull more weight across the board.
Neither message has hit home , however, in terms of what husbands actually do.
Conservative Protestant wives report doing mo re of both traditional “female” and “male”
housework than other wives, while conservat ive Protestant husbands report the same
(modest) effort as other husbands on both types of housework.
The foregoing does not, however, mean that religious progressive couples are
more egalitarian in their marital decision ma king. On the whole, conservative Protestant
couples are just as likely as other couples to share decisions about financial matters,
child rearing, and who should work o utside the home. Thus , while conservative
Protestant couples say they believe more in traditional gender roles than mainline Protestant couples, the actions of both groups are in fact similar. Similarly, contemporary couples display no discernible differences in their time commitments to
work versus family due to their religious a ffiliation; conservative Protestant couples are
no more or no less likely to prioritize ti me for family than other couples. It remains
unclear, then, to what extent religion can assist emerging-adult couples in combating
financial pressures, careerism, or mate rialism in order to put family first.
Sustaining Family Relationships
Despite deep theological divisions within and across religious denominations about the
type of family structures that should be fo rmed, most faith traditions encourage similar
virtues (e.g., love, self-sacrifice, and commitment) to facilitate the stability and health of
family bonds. Indeed, researchers are beginning to uncover specific religious beliefs and
practices that could help emerging adults sustain the traditional or nontraditional
family relationships they do create.

6 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
Enhancing Marital Quality
Over the past 30 years, slightly higher mari tal satisfaction has been tied to going to
religious services frequently and belongin g to a religious tradition (e.g., Catholic,
Protestant, or Jewish versus none). Simi larity of husband and wife on religious
attendance and affiliation also slightly boosts marital satisfaction. Newer research offers
insights into three specific and robust ways that religion enhances marital dynamics.
First, persons can pray privately for the we ll-being of their romantic partner. Such
activity predicts greater satisfaction with a relationship over time as well as selfless
concern, gratitude, and forgiveness of partners. Second, spouses often view their marriages as having divine significance, eith er by viewing the union as having sacred
qualities (e.g., believing it is sacred or is part of a larger spiritual plan) or being a
manifestation of God (e.g., God plays a role in the union or the union reflects God’s will). Several studies show that greater belief in the sanctity of one’s marriage predicts
more marital love, satisfaction, and po sitive communication processes. Equally
important, such links are not just the result of other positive elements of the marriage or
of the spouses’ overall religious involvemen t. Third, couples can engage in religious
activities together (e.g., joint prayer or spir itual dialogues). Such activity correlates with
higher satisfaction and better communication sk ills. We also know that college students
and mothers who mutually discuss their sp iritual journeys tend to have more
harmonious relationships and resolve confl ict collaboratively. Couples who deeply
disagree in their interpretation of the Bibl e, however, experience more conflict. And
some family dyads draw God into their conflicts as a third party. On the one hand,
married couples who do this say it helps th em to resolve conflict by encouraging mutual
self-reflection, patience, empathy, and account ability. On the other hand, attempting to
team up with God to help win arguments with a partner can escalate distance and
conflict between family members.
Decreasing the Risk of Domestic Violence and Sexual Infidelity
Sensationalistic stories in the media about re latively rare instances of religion fueling
domestic violence can create an impression th at religion feeds such behavior. In fact, the
opposite is true. According to multiple stud ies, persons who freque ntly attend religious

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 7
services are much less likely than those who attend infrequently to perpetrate or to be
the victim of domestic violence in marital, cohabiting, or dating relationships. Further,
contrary to stereotypes, being a conservative Pr otestant, biblically conservative, or in an
interfaith marriage does not increase these risks. The only documented situation where
religion systematically increases the odds of domestic violence is in the proportionately
few marriages (7.5%) in which couples strongly disagree about the Bible. Here, biblically
conservative men married to more liberal wive s are more likely to be aggressive than
men married to women with similar biblical views.
When it comes to infidelity, Mel Gibson and Governor Sanford are the exceptions
rather than rule. People who attend religious services often are less likely to engage in
extramarital affairs. But caveats do apply. Th e odds of infidelity paradoxically increase
for people who often attend services yet do not feel close to God and for people who
infrequently attend services yet do feel close to God. Also, purely private religious
experiences (e.g., prayer) are unrelated to the chances a person will have an affair. Thus,
sexual fidelity depends upon both people inte rnalizing spiritual beliefs about fidelity and
seeking communal support to fulfill such valu es. Recent research also shows that the
more newlyweds view sexuality within their marriage as sacred or as connected to God,
the better their sex life is over time. This sugg ests that certain spiritual beliefs can enrich
couples’ sexual lives, not me rely discourage infidelity.
Risk of Child Physical Abuse
Contrary to conventional wisdom, frequent re ligious attendance by parents substantially
decreases, rather than increases, their risk of being physically abusive to their children
over time. Despite widespread worries that religiously conservative parents justify child
physical abuse on religious grounds, this question has not been studied directly. The
closest study reports that the odds that college students would be abusive to
hypothetical children was not influenced by their religious tradition, attendance, or
orthodoxy, or by the centrality of religion to their daily life. Only those who used religion
for self-centered purposes were at greater risk . In short, emerging adults who take their
faith seriously appear to be less likely to be physically abusive to their children than
those who do not.

8 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
Disciplining and Nurturing Children
Consistent with conventional wisdom, parent s who belong to conservative Protestant
groups or have literalistic views of the Bibl e do tend to spank children more than other
parents. One study found this was particularly true if parents strongly believe that parenting is a spiritual calling. In contrast, biblically liberal parents who strongly view
parenting as a spiritual endeavor are less like ly to spank. It does not follow, however,
that conservative Protestant parents are exce ssively harsh. Indeed, they report yelling
less and being more physically affectionate with their children than other parents.
Further, in one in-depth study, conservative Protestant parents were no more likely to
spank their preschoolers when stressed than other parents and just as willing to use
nonpunitive discipline strategies. Conservative Protestant fathers also say they give their
children more affection and supervision than other fathers. Taken together, conservative Protestant parents appear, on average, to blend firmness and warmth in
child rearing in a manner consistent with thei r religious views of parenting and with the
broad acceptance of spanking in American cu lture; national surveys find that most
preschoolers (around 85%) and school-aged children (up to 50%) are spanked by a
parent at least once per year.
Of course, little is known about the ways religion promotes parenting among the
70% to 75% of Americans who are not conserv ative Protestants. Clues here come from
small-scale studies of young, single mother s with limited financ ial resources. Under
these circumstances, higher religious attend ance and personal importance of God or
spirituality is correlated with positive parenting. This includes more satisfaction, self-
confidence, authoritativeness, and consistency in parenting as well as less parental
distress. This implies that emerging adults across faith traditions could turn to religion
in healthy ways to help them cope with parenting challenges.
Coping with Family Problems
So far, I have covered evidence suggesting that religious individuals tend to seek out and
enjoy harmonious family relationships. Paradoxically, they may therefore be ill-
equipped to handle family problems that viol ate their religious expectations of how to
form and sustain family bonds. Examples in clude infertility, out-of-wedlock birth,

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 9
infidelity, domestic violence, or serious dysfunction in marital or parent-child
relationships. These situations may trigger sp iritual struggles that create or intensify
personal and relationship distress. Alternat ively, spirituality may be a wellspring of
resilience in times of family trouble. In gene ral, however, very little research exists on
religiously centered efforts to cope with stre ssful family situations that are helpful or
harmful. Recent research on divorce illustrates both types of roles.
Coping with Divorce
Americans (particularly white women) who o ften attend religious services and couples
who are religiously similar are less likely to divorce at some point in the future than
others. Nevertheless, approximately 28% of Ca tholics, 34% of Protestants, and 33% of
born-again Christians have had a prior divo rce, compared to 33% of all adults. Note,
these figures are based on a snapshot of a 2006 national sample, not the eventual
likelihood of a divorce over time, about 46% overall in 2008. Thus, religion lowers the
risk of a future divorce but does not render immunity against divorce. This raises
important questions about spiritually centered coping and postdivorce adjustment.
Initial research on this topic found that divo rcing adults as well as college students with
divorced parents often interpreted this event as the loss or violation of something sacred
and experienced spiritual struggles about it. Such spiritual distress exacerbates emotional distress. On the other hand, divorc ing adults who turn to God and a spiritual
community for support are less depressed ov er time. The picture is less clear for
parental divorce. Emerging adults who recalle d trying to use such spiritual resources at
the time of the divorce reported higher cu rrent maladjustment. National surveys also
show that when parents divorc e, their children are likely to switch denominations or
disengage from organized religion. Thus, the experience of divorce seems to often be a
spiritual trauma, and this merits further scholarly attention.
Deepening Our Understanding of Prevention and Intervention
Taken as a whole, the scientific evidence indi cates that religion tends to promote family
formation and prevent family difficulties. Emer ging adults should seek healthy ways of
integrating their faith into their pursuit of family relationships, and communities of
faith should not be silent about their faith’s contribution to relational well-being. At the

10 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
same time, social scientists need to investig ate further religious factors that can help or
harm family relationships, especially during times of family trouble, and partner with
diverse communities of faith to help indivi duals prevent family distress and intervene
effectively when family crises do occur. Fait h and spirituality possess unique resources
that can positively address the special challenges of contemporary marriage and
parenting, in ways that scientists and mini stry practitioners alike have only begun to
understand.

Selected Resources for Further Information
Butler, M. H., and Harper, J. M. (1994). The divine triangle: God in the marital system
of religious couples. Family Process, 33, 277–286.
This insightful article would be of great interest to pastoral counselors, marital and
family therapists, and lay people. In it , the authors use family therapy concepts
(based on Bowenian or structural family systems approaches) to show how couples
may triangulate God into the marital system when conflict emerges. They give case
examples to illustrate how God could be dr awn into three types of counterproductive
spiritual triangles that block resolution of conflict between family dyads: coalition
(e.g., one or both partners act as if God is on his or her side in a conflict),
displacement (e.g., one or both partners vi ew their relationship problems as being
God’s fault), or substitutive (i.e., one or both partners seek out God’s support for
relationship difficulties and avoids de aling directly with problems in the
relationship).
Edgell, P. (2005). Religion and family in a changing society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press.
In this book, sociologist Penny Edgell discu sses ways that religious congregations in
America have tried to cope with the rapi d changes that have occurred in family
structure in the past 40 years and how families participate in local religious

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 11
communities. She conducted an in-depth study of congregations and community
residents in upstate New York that included surveys, interviews, examination of religious communities’ material s written for lay people (e.g., bulletins), and direct
observation of the communities. Based on th is information as well as other social
science studies, Edgell says that while some religious groups may be nostalgic for the
Ozzie and Harriet days, others are chan ging, recognizing that fewer and fewer
families fit this traditional pattern. To keep members with nontraditional family
arrangements within the congregation, i nnovative communities have emphasized
individual freedom and personal spirituality and actively welcomed single adults and
those from nontraditional families.
Another interesting point that Edgell di scusses is that mothers and fathers
appear to seek involvement in congregations for different reasons. Men tend to think
of congregations as social support struc tures and to get involved as a means of
participating in the lives of their childr en. Women, by contrast, are more often
motivated by the quest for religious expe rience and can adapt more readily to
pluralist ideas about family structure. This, Edgell concludes, may explain the
attraction of men to more conservative congregations and women to nontraditional religious groups.
Overall, this is a thought-provoking and balanced analysis of ways that
religious organizations are attempting to cope with contemporary family structures.
The book won the 2006 Distinguished Book Award, Section on Sociology of Religion,
American Sociological Association.
Fincham, F. D., Beach, S. R. H., Lambert, N. M., Stillman, T., and Braithwaite, S.
(2008). Spiritual behaviors and relationship sati sfaction: A critical analysis of the role of
prayer. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 27, 362–388.
This journal article includes three studies that examine the effects of young adults
praying for the well-being of a romantic partner on their relationship. In Study 1, the
authors find that benevolent prayer for the partner predicted later relationship
satisfaction, but relationship satisfaction did not predict prayer over time. This
suggests that prayer improves relationship satisfaction, rather than vice versa. In

12 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
Study 2, the authors show that prayer fo r a partner’s well-being is what makes a
difference, not just overall amount of genera l praying. They also show that prayer for
the partner makes a difference in relationsh ip satisfaction, even after taking into
account other types of positive and negative behaviors in the relationship. Finally, in
Study 3, the authors find that a key ingredient that seems to make praying for a
partner’s well-being helpful is that this ki nd of prayer draws the attention of the
person praying to the longer-term well-bein g of the relationship, rather than short-
term goals of getting one’s own needs met.
Gallagher, S. K. (2003). Evangelical identity and gendered family life. Piscataway, NJ:
Rutgers University Press.
This excellent, highly accessible book would be of interest to anyone curious about
how contemporary young evangelical families try to integrate religion and
spirituality into their family relationships on a day-to-day basis. The author reports
findings based on a national survey an d personal interviews with over 300
evangelical families. She includes engaging stories, examples, and quotes to bring the
material alive. She particularly pays atte ntion to how husbands and wives approach
the issue of egalitarianism within the spou sal relationship. She discusses the history
and current practices for a model in which husbands have religiously based authority
and leadership in the home versus a mode l in which husbands and wives create a
balanced partnership. She offers rich accou nts of how couples deal with the demands
of sharing parenting and homemaking tasks within the home and of balancing career
and family demands.
Mahoney, A. (in press). Religion in families, 1999 to 20 09: A relational spirituality
perspective . Journal of Marriage and Family .
This article (which provided the scholarl y foundation for this essay) summarizes
scientific findings on religion/spirituality and marital or parent-child relationships
based on empirical studies that were publ ished in peer-reviewed journal articles
from 1999 through 2009. Readers interested in learning more about research from
1999 through 2009 or who would like background material for conducting future

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 13
research studies would benefit from reading the article.
Mahoney, A., Pargament, K. I., Murray-Sw ank, A., and Murray-Swank, N. (2003).
Religion and the sanctification of family relationships. Review of Religious Research,
40, 220–236.
This article explains and gives examples of how social scientists can study ways that
people can perceive marriage and parenting as being sacred. The term sanctification
is used in the article to label this process. This authors define an d treat sanctification
as a psychological process in which aspects of life are perceived as having spiritual
character and significance. The article disc usses how the construct of sanctification
applies to marital and parent-child relati onships as well as to the entire family
system according to diverse religious tradit ions. The authors list specific questions
used to assess sanctification and explain ways that sanctification can be positive for
family life. The article also highlights th e potential harm that may result from the
sanctification of family relationships an d discusses circumstances that may present
particular risks (unavoidable challenges, viol ations by family members, loss, conflict,
and intrapsychic and institutional barriers).
Mahoney, A., and Tarakeshwar, N. (2005). Religion's role in marriage and parenting in
daily life and during family crises. In R. F. Paloutzian and C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook
of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 177–198). New York: Guilford Press.
This chapter provides an accessible summary of scientific findings on
religion/spirituality and marital or parent -child relationships based on empirical
studies that were published in peer-revie wed journal articles from 1980 through
1999. Readers interested in learning more about research from 1980 through 1999 or
who would like background material fo r conducting future research studies would
benefit from this article.
Mahoney, A., Krumrei, E. J., and Pargament, K. I. (2008). Broken vows: Divorce as a
spiritual trauma and its implications for grow th and decline. In S. Joseph and P. Alex
Linley (Eds.), Trauma, recovery, and growth: Positi ve psychological perspectives on

14 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
posttraumatic stress (pp. 105–124). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
This chapter explains and presents case examples from a research study on how a
divorce can be experienced as a spiritual trauma. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first section talks about how people may interpret a divorce as the loss
or violation of a marriage that was once viewed as sacred. Such interpretations are
tied to more emotional and spiritual dist ress. The second section talks about ways
that people may experience a variety of sp iritual struggles in coping with a divorce
and how this may intensify psychological di stress and conflict with the ex-spouse.
The third section talks about ways that pe ople can draw on spiritual resources to
cope effectively with a divorce, including when it is experienced as a loss or violation
of sacred vows. This chapter could help lay people, pastor counselors, and mental health professionals explore the spiri tual dimensions of divorce and thereby
facilitate growth and recovery after a divorce.
Onedera, J. D. (Ed.) (2008). The role of religion in ma rriage and family counseling .
New York: Routledge.
This is a rare book that attempts to summa rize for mental health professionals what
different religious traditions teach about re ligious/spiritual beliefs and practices that
pertain to family life. This book provides practitioners with an overview of the
principles of the major world religions, with a focus on how each religion can
influence family dynamics and how best to incorporate this knowledge into effective
practice with clients.
Most chapters follow a format in which the author, writing from his or her
specific religious background, covers the following topics: definitions of marriage;
roles within marriages and families; child bearing; birth control; abortion; teenage
pregnancy; finances; dissolving relationship s, divorce, and annulment; managing the
family after separation or divorce; deat h and dying; and homosexuality in couples
and families in that religion.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research,
practice . New York: Guilford Press.

Marriage and Family, Faith, and Spirituality among Emerging Adults 15
This is a classic and comprehensive text on the psychology of religion and coping. It
is a must-read for anyone interested in wa ys religion may come into play, for better
and worse, when individuals encounter a wi de variety of stressful life events. The
book includes many examples, yet covers material in a sophisticated and complex
manner. It addresses the commonplace phrase “there are no atheists in foxholes” by
revealing the many ways religion can be a help or a hindrance during times of
trouble. The author masterfully weaves together key concepts with first-hand
accounts, insights from clinical practice, and empirical research.
Pargament, K. I. (2007). Spiritually integrated psychotherapy: Understanding and
addressing the sacred . New York: Guilford Press.
A growing number of books are being writte n about how to address spiritual matters
in the process of providing psychotherapy to clients. This book is one of the best,
written by a leading researcher and scholar. It would especially be useful to pastoral
counselors and religious leaders who prov ide counseling. The book provides a
systematic and thoughtful way of understa nding how religious/spiritual beliefs and
practices can provide unique and rich sets of resources to transform one’s life. With
equal coverage, the book discusses how reli gious/spiritual beliefs and practices can
be part of the problem or make it worse. The innovative framework is written from a
nonsectarian perspective and covers both traditional and nontraditional forms of
spirituality. It offers concrete ideas and practices for discussing spiritual matters
with clients, assessing spir ituality as part of their problems and solutions, and
drawing on spiritual resources to re solve distress. Highly recommended!
Walsh, Froma (Ed.). (2008). Spiritual resources in family therapy . 2nd ed. New York:
Guilford Press.
This edited book includes 14 chapters wr itten by different family therapists about
various ways that they address spirituality in individual and family therapy work.
The editor also offers two introductory chap ters on the interface between spirituality
and family therapy. The book presents a broa d and pluralistic view of spirituality and
offers an ecumenical wellspring for therapists and clients of diverse faith

16 Changing Spirituality of Emerging Adults
orientations. Many different traditions are represented, with an emphasis on ways
spirituality can be a resource to facilitate change and growth. The book should be of
interest to pastoral counselors, mental he alth professional, family therapists, and
other health professionals.
Yust, K. M. (2004). Real kids, real faith: Practices fo r nurturing children's spiritual
lives . San Francisco: Wiley.
This book is an excellent resource for parents who want concrete ideas for how to
facilitate their children’s spiritual lives. The author is a pastor, teacher, mother, and well-respected theologian. The material is drawn from a three-part study of
children’s spirituality as well as practice s and literature found in diverse religious
traditions. The author covers core universa l principles and provides parents with
specific lists of resources from different tr aditions (e.g., children’s books, religious
reading materials for different age groups , various religious rituals). The writing
style is highly engaging and practical. Th e author suggests that parents should treat
their children as being capable of asking important spiritual questions and help them
build a firm foundation for their spiritual development. In short, the book combats
the notion that children should be left on their own to discover a spiritual identity
and provides valuable guidelines for how pa rents can foster their children’s spiritual
development.