Understanding the religious and spiritual dimensions of students’ lives in the first year of college

Abstract

In this study we sought to understand how the first college year impacted students spiritually and religiously. The sample was comprised of 3,680 first-year students from 50 colleges and universities across the country and included individuals repre-senting a variety of racial/ethnic and religious backgrounds. Overall, students became less religiously active, but were more committed to integrating spirituality into their lives after one year. Further, religious-ness and spirituality were highly correlated, although personal characteristics, insti-tutional variables, and college experiences were also associated with these constructs. The present-day college or university tends to refrain from directly encouraging students to reflect on their “inner lives, ” particularly their spiritual values and development (Astin, 2002; Raper, 2001). Although higher education was steeped in religious tradition for much of its past, Enlightenment ideals during the late 19th century encouraged a shift toward valuing positivistic paradigms and scientific objectivity (Marsden, 1994). The turning tide had vast implications—both positive and negative—for academe. On one hand, it allowed for scientific advancement and made possible the representation of nonreligious or non-Protestant philosophies in the academy (Marsden; Raper). On the other hand, spirit lost ground to science in the process, and religious perspectives began to appear out of place in the secular milie