Religious Orientation and Identity Salience: An Exploration of Religious Self in Emerging Adults

Religion is seen as an important concept in all parts of the world, yet something that is hard to define. The importance of religion seems to have decreased in today’s world. The present study aimed at studying the salience of religious identity and understanding how it is related with religious orientation. The study also analysed the qualitative statuses of religious identity and relation of these statuses with religious orientation. The data was collected through quantitative methods– Bell Measures for Religious Identity and Religious Orientation Scale were used. The study made some interesting findings where it was found that half of the individuals in the study did not consider religion as an important domain of their identity. Additionally, the remaining found religion to have a medium level of importance in their lives. Significant relations were seen for religious orientations and salience of religious identity, as well as with religious identity statuses.