Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2026

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Shelly Smith-Acuña

Second Advisor

Daniel N. McIntosh

Third Advisor

Daniel Hettleman

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Keywords

Religious dones, Young adults, Religion, Spirituality, Attachment to God, Narrative identity

Abstract

This qualitative study aims to learn about how religious dones — those who were formerly religious but no longer identify as religious — have constructed their life narratives in light of their religious deidentification, with particular attention on the evolution of religious identity, perceived relationship with God, and social connections across the lifespan. A narrative methodology was employed to capture participants’ experiences in a story format to understand the subjective meaning-making process of their lived experiences, and six young adults between the ages of 23-29 participated in the study. Data collection consisted of a life-story portion of the interview with a single narrative-inducing question, followed by a follow-up portion consisting of semi-structured questions informed by McAdams’s narrative framework. Narrative analysis suggested prominent themes across participants, including navigating parental expectations of religious participation, experiencing incongruence between belief and behavior in their relationship with God, holding an ambivalent understanding of God, undergoing identity development and growing out of past identities, and negotiating change in social connection and shift in religious connection. In addition, while overarching themes were shared across participants, each individual's experience remained distinctly their own and were shaped by the unique constellation of family dynamics, social context, personal identities, and individual struggles. The interviews revealed that their past experiences with religion were significant in the evolution of their identity development, values, relationships, and career pursuits. As such, attending to the client’s past religious experiences can be a meaningful avenue for deepening clinical understanding of the individual.

Copyright Date

6-6-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Michelle Suh

Provenance

Received from author

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

53 pgs

File Size

655 KB

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