Social anxiety, social comparison, self-consciousness, and deconversion in adolescents: a path analysis approach

Abstract

Adolescence is a time of biological, psychological, and social changes during which youth may undergo religious/spiritual (r/s) transformations. Previous studies on adolescents’ r/s transformations have focused on factors that predict involvement in or converting to a religion. Deconversion, which is going from being religious to leaving religion, is an instance of r/s transformation just as much as turning towards religion is. The present study analysed whether social variables – social anxiety and social comparison orientation – can be related to adolescent deconversion processes. Two alternative path models were examined. The study included 550 Polish adolescents (60.7% female), with the majority declaring a Catholic religion. The age of the respondents was from 14 to 18 years (M = 16.32, SD = 1.22). The Adolescent Deconversion Scale, the Retrospective Analysis of Religiosity, the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure, and the Self-Consciousness Scale were used. The results showed that social anxiety is the main predictor of social comparison, and the relationship between social comparison and deconversion is mediated by private self-consciousness. Thus, social comparison emerging from social anxiety has the psychological potential to predict higher deconversion processes among adolescents.

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