In plain language
Does personality shape whether a teenager becomes religious, or does holding religious values shape a teenager's personality? Most prior research, conducted mainly with adults, suggested the first direction—that traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness precede religiousness. But almost nothing was known about how this works during adolescence, a period when both personality and religious sentiment are changing rapidly.
As part of the Wollongong Youth Study, 765 Australian high school students completed measures of the Big Five personality traits, Eysenckian psychoticism, and intrinsic religious values (for example, how much they value "being at one with God or the universe") in Grade 10 (average age 15.4), with 410 completing the measures again in Grade 12 (average age 17). Structural equation models then tested which came first: personality or religious values.
The results ran against the adult literature. No personality trait in Grade 10 predicted changes in religious values by Grade 12. Instead, the influence flowed the other way: adolescents with stronger religious values in Grade 10 became more agreeable and less psychotic (that is, less hostile and toughminded) by Grade 12, controlling for their starting levels of those traits. This is the first study to demonstrate that religious values predict later agreeableness and psychoticism during adolescence, consistent with the idea that religion acts as a meaning-making system—and that committing to a religious community's expectations can genuinely shape a developing personality.
Key findings
- Religious values at Grade 10 predicted an increase in agreeableness (β = .10, p < .05) and a decrease in psychoticism (β = −.08, p < .05) two years later, controlling for baseline personality.
- No personality variable at Grade 10 predicted either increases or decreases in religious values at Grade 12—the reverse of what most adult longitudinal studies had found.
- The two effects were independent: when agreeableness and psychoticism were entered into a single model, religious values still uniquely predicted decreases in psychoticism (β = −.10) and increases in agreeableness (β = .09).
- Cross-sectionally, religious values correlated positively with agreeableness and conscientiousness and negatively with psychoticism at both time points, replicating prior findings.
- No significant gender differences emerged; models assuming identical effects for males and females fit the data better.
- This is the first study to show that religious values precede personality change during adolescence, suggesting developmental stage and generational context matter for the religion–personality relationship.
How to cite
APA
Huuskes, L., Ciarrochi, J., & Heaven, P. C. L. (2013). The longitudinal relationships between adolescent religious values and personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(5), 483–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.010
BibTeX
@article{huuskes2013longitudinal,
author = {Huuskes, Lee and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Heaven, Patrick C. L.},
title = {The longitudinal relationships between adolescent religious values and personality},
journal = {Journal of Research in Personality},
year = {2013},
volume = {47},
number = {5},
pages = {483--487},
doi = {10.1016/j.jrp.2013.04.010}
}
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- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
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Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.