Religious Identity Development and Psychological Adjustment Among Muslim Adolescents: Results from the Identity Project Intervention in Germany

Identity formation constitutes a key developmental process during adolescence. This study extends previous research on ethnic identity development by focusing on the religious identity development of Muslim youth in Germany. Using a longitudinal waitlist control group design, we tested if Muslim ethnic minority students (N = 128; Mage = 13.43, SDage = 0.84, 43% female) who participated in an 8-week school-based intervention, the Identity Project, would show greater exploration of their religious identity, leading to increases in their religious identity resolution and in turn resulting in better psychological adjustment (i.e., higher self-esteem, less depressive symptoms) and higher global identity. Preliminary analyses revealed that Muslim youth in our sample are characterized by high religious identity during adolescence, represented by high values on religious identity exploration and resolution. Latent-change score models demonstrated that greater changes in Muslim youth’s religious identity exploration predicted higher religious identity resolution, resulting in better self-acceptance and a higher sense of global identity. However, Muslim youth who showed a clear sense of their religious identity, did not indicate less affective and somatic depressive symptoms. We conclude that for Muslim youth religion seems to constitute an important part of their identity while promoting their positive adjustment. Our results indicate that multicultural approaches in schools – such as the Identity Project – should not only respond to students’ ethnic identities but should also more explicitly cater to their religious identities.