In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, qualified young men are expected (and young women are given the option) to complete extended missionary service during the transition to adulthood. Some youth end their missionary service short of the anticipated duration, which is associated with markedly lower rates of religious activity post-return. This study is a qualitative inquiry into the developmental themes associated with early re turned missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who chose to re main active (be consistently involved with the church), sampling from areas with high rates of Latter-day Saint activity, where stigmatization of an early return is highest. Seventeen active early returned missionaries were administered semi-structured interviews. Six prom inent (occurring a majority of the time) developmental themes emerged from these inter views: identity transformation, optimistic future orientation, cognitive/emotional recon ciliation, strengthened religious conviction, enhanced empathic capacity, and perceptual change. Perceptual change would have been a non-majority theme if male responses had been excluded. Three contrast cases of inactive early returned missionaries are included.

Academy-industry collaborations offer an opportunity to address the goals of both the scientific community and technologists. However, such collaborations require careful planning to ensure success and mutual benefit. This paper proposes design thinking, a human-centered approach to problem-solving, as a framework to guide these partnerships and presents a case study of an academy-industry collaboration. Two organizations, 7 Cups and the Science of Virtues Lab at Baylor University, partnered to develop an artificial intelligence chatbot to increase gratitude within a digital moral community. We document our collaborative process, including the planning required, challenges encountered, and outcomes achieved. We conclude with a series of recommendations related to developing shared goals, recognizing and addressing obstacles, building relationships, communicating, addressing institutional and contextual needs (e.g., Institutional Review Board requirements, community membership), and continuing collaboration. We also embed these recommendations within the Three C’s Model of Academy-Industry Collaboration that encourages collaboration partners to (1) Clarify (Pre-Engagement), (2) Connect (During Engagement), and (3) Continue (Post-Engagement).

This study compared the effects of two gratitude interventions—weekly gratitude lists and gratitude letters—across four weeks. It also examined the role of the gratitude benefactor (God vs. humans) and the nature of the benefit recalled (abstract vs. concrete). Participants (N = 1,176) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) gratitude list, (2) gratitude letter to a human, or (3) gratitude letter to God. In the gratitude letter conditions, participants reflected on either abstract or concrete gifts. Results indicated that expressing gratitude toward a benefactor (God or a human) enhanced empathy and transcendent indebtedness relative to listing benefits without a benefactor. In contrast, participants in the gratitude list condition exhibited suppressed levels of empathy and transcendent indebtedness throughout the intervention. Letters directed to God and those focused on abstract gifts yielded the strongest positive outcomes. Finally, empathy and transcendent indebtedness mediated the relationship between intervention type and post-intervention prosocial giving, controlling for gratitude. These findings suggest that prosocial reciprocity was primarily motivated by empathy and transcendent indebtedness, rather than gratitude alone.

Though gratitude is a social emotion often expressed to people, it is also a moral emotion that can be experienced in the context of a higher power. Prior research has often measured different forms of gratitude as individual differences, but gratitude may vary over time. The goal of the present research was to examine how general gratitude and gratitude to God relate to well-being within individuals over time. Participants (N = 1,105) completed four questionnaires over a 2-year period. Both forms of gratitude were positively associated with concurrent meaning in life and negatively associated with concurrent anxiety and depression. Interactions supported a compensation model in which one form of gratitude was a stronger predictor of well-being at lower levels of the other. Lagged analyses indicated that both forms of gratitude predicted subsequent greater meaning in life and lower subsequent depression. Additionally, general gratitude predicted subsequent lower anxiety, whereas gratitude to God did not. This study highlights the importance of considering both forms of gratitude, which operate independently while compensating for one another.

This paper reflects on the contrast between the individualistic philosophical underpinnings of positive psychology and the relational underpinnings of a particular indigenous philosophical framework: that of Anishinaabe (North American Indigenous peoples) philosophy. The salience of the global loneliness epidemic and the fact that positive psychology, constrained by its existing assumptions, has struggled to address it effectively make such an exploration of alternatives timely (van Zyl et al., 2023). Traditional positive psychological tools may be iatrogenic by perpetuating an isolated view of the self, particularly when imposed on individuals and groups that value interconnectedness. Thus, we advocate for expanding positive psychology to reflect culturally diverse perspectives, especially non-individualistic perspectives that emphasize the relational nature of the person. Further, we propose a contextualistic approach to the problem of loneliness, one where we challenge and reposition assumptions to improve outcomes, avoiding the pitfalls of cultural relativism or the blind spots of universalism. Drawing on Anishinaabe philosophy, we show how three principles—relationality, process, and reciprocity—and their alignment with mino-bimaadiziwin (the good life) might inform a different inflection of positive psychology that would be better equipped to address loneliness. We provide preexisting and underutilized analogs of Anishinaabe relational approaches within psychology that are adaptable to more diverse worldviews to address the human problem of loneliness.

Acquiring gratitude and self-transcendence are critical to positive socioemotional development. Indebtedness to God may provide a pathway for this healthy development, yet it remains a largely unexplored construct. The purpose of the present work was to use two innovative qualitative methods; 1) exemplar sampling method (N = 15) and 2) cutting-edge machine learning and language models to visually describe the data (N = 5,598) and provide semantic maps. The thematic coding analyses resulted in 11 inquiry-driven themes (five describing the experience of indebtedness to God and six describing the outcomes of indebtedness to God). The experience of indebtedness to God was transcendent and positive. The machine learning language model analysis resulted in 1,920 unique tags and over 100 independent triangulated semantic themes, and several topographical views of the data to spur future research on this novel construct.

This study examines the potential salubrious role of religious gratitude as a protective factor for collegiate student-athlete mental health and the possible mediating role of perceived indebtedness to God and meaning in life. We draw on a sample of student-athletes from the United States (N = 415) who compete in NCAA Division 1 and 3 athletics. Our results suggest gratitude to God is associated with lower depressive and anxiety symptoms and less loneliness. Both indebtedness to God and meaning in life were found to be significant mediators of this association. The grateful and indebted disposition may lend itself to better mental well-being and social relationships in the context of sport, providing a unique and possibly untapped coping mechanism for religious athletes by reinforcing that their mattering to God and others is not contingent on their sport performance.

Gratitude has been studied in the context of human social relationships primarily, but relatively less is known about gratitude in relation to a deity. We extended this research by studying gratitude among Muslim American adolescents, an understudied population, by comparing feelings of gratitude to Allah with feelings of gratitude to people in their associations with affect in daily life. Muslim adolescents (N = 202) participated in an Ecological Momentary Assessment study by completing up to three momentary reports each day during three separate weeks. Within-person results showed that both forms of gratitude were positively associated with concurrent happiness and calmness and were negatively associated with concurrent anxiety and sadness, though gratitude to people was a stronger predictor of happiness than gratitude to Allah. Most of the associations between gratitude to people and affect were stronger when youth felt less grateful to Allah, thus supporting a compensation model in which one form of gratitude offsets lower levels in the other. Lagged associations indicated that gratitude to people more consistently predicted greater subsequent feelings of happiness and calmness, whereas happiness and calmness consistently predicted greater subsequent feelings of gratitude to Allah. Results have implications for how distinct forms of gratitude may differentially influence affect.

As a novel contribution, this study considers transcendent gratitude (e.g. gratitude towards non-human benefactors such as God, Science, or Karma) across diverse belief systems. The sample included 619 participants (M age 37.5, 52.6% female) across the U.S. with beliefs across three distinct categories: a) Theistic; 38.4%), b) Spiritual but not theistic; 26.4%, and c) Non-theistic/Non-spiritual (Other); 35.2%. Across the three belief systems, we tested the associations between gratitude and theistic predictors (e.g. feeling comfort or anger towards God, fidelity, interaction with God, attachment to God, and transcendent indebtedness) and non-theistic predictors (e.g. life comprehension, primal beliefs, prosocial behavioral intentions, and interpersonal attachment). Interestingly, we found that participants from all belief categories experienced transcendent gratitude. Comfort, anger, transcendent indebtedness, life comprehension, and prosocial intentions were robust predictors of transcendent gratitude across belief categories. We conclude with recommendations for more nuanced models of transcendent gratitude.

Gratitude and indebtedness facilitate cooperative relationships and prosocial behavior. Yet, studies are needed to assess whether indebtedness and gratitude have differential prosocial effects. Study 1 (N = 659; highly religious emerging adult sample) employed a 3 x 2 experimental design with six conditions; 1) gratitude-only to humans, 2) indebtedness-only to humans, 3) gratitude and indebtedness to humans, 4) gratitude-only to God, 5) indebtedness-only to God, and 6) gratitude and indebtedness to God. Study 2 (N = 1,081; nationally representative sample) was a replication of Study 1. People prompted to experience both gratitude and indebtedness had higher prosocial relational engagement (i.e. consistent effects for relationship proximity and direct reciprocity) than those who primarily experienced gratitude or indebtedness. Transcendent indebtedness (want to repay) was related to better prosocial outcomes than transactional indebtedness (have to repay). Secure attachment to God moderated the association between receiving a favor from God (versus human) and increased prosocial behavior.

Religious fundamentalism, characterized by rigid adherence to a set of beliefs putatively revealing inerrant truths, is ubiquitous across cultures and has a global impact on society. Understanding the psychological and neurobiological processes producing religious fundamentalism may inform a variety of scientific, sociological, and cultural questions. Research indicates that brain damage can alter religious fundamentalism. However, the precise brain regions involved with these changes remain unknown. Here, we analyzed brain lesions associated with varying levels of religious fundamentalism in two large datasets from independent laboratories. Lesions associated with greater fundamentalism were connected to a specific brain network with nodes in the right orbitofrontal, dorsolateral prefrontal, and inferior parietal lobe. This fundamentalism network was strongly right hemisphere lateralized and highly reproducible across the independent datasets ( r = 0.82) with cross-validations between datasets. To explore the relationship of this network to lesions previously studied by our group, we tested for similarities to twenty-one lesion-associated conditions. Lesions associated with confabulation and criminal behavior showed a similar connectivity pattern as lesions associated with greater fundamentalism. Moreover, lesions associated with poststroke pain showed a similar connectivity pattern as lesions associated with lower fundamentalism. These findings are consistent with the current understanding of hemispheric specializations for reasoning and lend insight into previously observed epidemiological associations with fundamentalism, such as cognitive rigidity and outgroup hostility.

The present study used longitudinal person-centered analyses to understand how parent religiosity, parenting styles, and parent-adolescent sex communication interact in predicting adolescent sexual risk-taking over time. The sample included 681 adolescents and their parents (Mage = 15, at wave 5) from Waves 5 and 6 of the Flourishing Families Project. Variables capturing parent religiosity, parenting styles, and parent-adolescent sex communication were used as class indicators in a latent profile analysis. Three classes emerged: (1) Non-religious Authoritative families, (2) Religious Authoritarian families, and (3) Religious Authoritative families. The Non-religious Authoritative and Religious Authoritarian families did not significantly differ on later adolescent sexual risk-taking (controlling for prior sexual risk-taking), while the Religious Authoritative families had adolescents with significantly lower subsequent sexual risk-taking. These results demonstrate the complex ways in which religion, parenting, and sex communication interact in predicting adolescent sexual risk-taking. Thus, both the content and process of sexual socialization may be important.

Research shows that the effects of athletics on virtue development are mixed. Religion provides people with a meaning-making system, community, and practices that can promote the cultivation of virtues and possibly enhance the impact of athletics on virtue development. Yet, little empirical research has assessed moral outcomes when religion and sport interact. The present study examines intrinsic religiosity as a moderator of the effect of athletic involvement on virtue and self-worth outcomes in collegiate student-athletes. Participants (N = 1930) were religious college students in the United States, 22% (n = 415) competing in an intercollegiate varsity sport. Moderated regression analyses revealed, contrary to predictions, that religiosity did not significantly moderate trait courage, trait patience, or goal patience. Consistent with predictions, religiosity significantly moderated goal courage, approval self-worth (i.e., the extent to which people base their worth on approval from others), and moral self-worth (i.e., the extent to which people base their worth on their own virtuousness). Whereas religiosity was associated with higher goal courage for non-athletes, the association was stronger for athletes. Religiosity was not associated with levels of approval self-worth for non-athletes, but the more religious athletes were, the less important other people’s approval was for their sense of self. Whereas religiosity was associated with higher moral self-worth contingency for athletes, the association was stronger for non-athletes. Applications for practitioners and future directions for researchers are discussed.

We test the effectiveness of 2 different written inductions of gratitude toward God and analyze the content and outcomes of these gratitude expressions. We recruited 1,170 predominantly Christian U.S. participants across 3 CloudResearch datasets. Participants were randomly assigned to write about gratitude to God or another benefactor, including people, parents, country, and unspecified benefactors, or to write about their daily activities. Study 2 further probed nuances related to control group instructions, and Study 3 examined outcome measures related to well-being and prosociality. The participants who wrote about gratitude toward God more frequently mentioned basic needs and self-transcendence and less frequently mentioned material items compared to other benefactors. They also showed high levels of expansive emotions and religious intentions. Our research provides methodological insights relevant to gratitude writing inductions and sheds light on the content and outcomes of gratitude toward God.

Indebtedness and gratitude motivate prosocial behavior, but no empirical work has examined how they operate when the giver is God. The Transcendent Indebtedness Scale (TIS) was created to measure positive indebtedness to God. Exploratory factor analysis was first conducted (N = 658), and then, the factor structure was confirmed in a second sample (N = 441). The two samples were then merged to estimate models examining the role of transcendent indebtedness in predicting outcomes. Transcendent indebtedness was a unique predictor of higher secure attachment with God, religiosity/spirituality, positive well-being, and prosocial behavior when controlling for gratitude. Transcendent indebtedness also predicted lower self-centered traits and religious dysfunction. The TIS appears to be a valid measurement of transcendent indebtedness to God-a construct with implications in developing prosocial behavior and religiosity in adolescence and emerging adulthood.

Despite the prevalence of beliefs across religions regarding repentance and divine forgiveness and their recognition in theoretical and religious studies, these constructs are relatively understudied phenomena in the social sciences. Furthermore, in recent years, multiple scholars have argued for the need for research to systematically study and highlight the experience and processes of repentance and divine forgiveness. Subsequently, this study explored processes of repentance, antecedents and motivations of repentance, resources to aid in repentance, and outcomes of repentance that should be further examined. This analysis was done using in-depth qualitative interviews with 15 emerging adult religious exemplars identifying with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The authors used NVivo 12 and team-based qualitative coding processes to identify themes. Repentance processes included personal change, took various lengths of time, were a part of participants’ religious identity, were recurrent processes, and were influenced by participants’ view of God. Antecedents and motivations included religious practices and rituals, emotions, interpersonal interactions, and their relationship with God. Resources that aided in repentance included religious practices and rituals, interpersonal relationships, and a relationship with God. Finally, participants reported experiencing personal changes in their behavior and character, positive emotions (including feelings of divine forgiveness), improved interpersonal relationships, and a better relationship with God. These processes align with some previously discovered and theorized findings on repentance, contribute a number of novel findings, and offer future direction regarding the motivations, resources, and transformative experiences that participants reported in their personal repentance and experience of forgiveness.

IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to unpack the role of adolescent religious affiliation in positive and negative youth outcomes. MethodsWe used data from Wave 1 (2002-2003) of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Participants were a nationally representative sample of 3290 adolescents from across the United States. Measures were adolescent-report or parent-report items of religiousness (individual religiousness, family religiousness, peer religiousness, and religious community supportiveness) and youth outcomes (future orientation, grades, community involvement, alcohol use, sexual activity, and depression). ResultsFirst, ANOVAs revealed that four dimensions of religiousness (individual religiousness, family religiousness, peer religiousness, and religious community supportiveness) and five youth outcomes (future orientation, grades, community involvement, alcohol use, and sexual activity, but not depression), varied significantly across religious affiliation. Second, regressions examining direct effects found that the multicategorical nominal variable of religious affiliation predicted all outcomes except alcohol use and depression after accounting for the four dimensions of religiousness. Third, each of the four dimensions of religiousness mediated relations between religious affiliation and at least one of the outcomes. ConclusionsIn short, religious affiliation seems to play a unique role in youth outcomes, above and beyond other dimensions of religiousness. This role of religious affiliation perhaps functions in part via individual and contextual dimensions of religiousness.

The present study examined whether declines in religiousness across adolescence precede religious deidentification in young adulthood. Data came from the National Study of Youth and Religion. Participants were religiously affiliated for the first three waves of the longitudinal study (N = 1144). Latent growth curve models found significant declines across adolescence in church attendance, prayer, scripture study, religious importance, and spirituality, whereas doubt was stable across time. Then, logistic regression models specified the latent intercepts and slopes as predictors of later (Wave 4) deidentification. Significant negative links were found for the intercepts and slopes on church attendance, prayer, scripture study, religious importance, and spirituality. For doubt, a significant, positive link was found for the intercept.