Do Catholic Religious Practices Attenuate the Deconversion of Emerging Adults in Poland? The Mediating Role of Transcendent Indebtedness

Abstract

Emerging adulthood is a time of strong religious change that often leads to deconversion, understood as the abandonment of faith. In the present study, we aimed to verify the role of Catholic religious practices in the deconversion process and the mediating nature of transcendent indebtedness in emerging adults from Poland. In this study, we used the Catholic Religious Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ), the Transcendent Indebtedness to God scale (T-ITG), and the Adolescents’ Deconversion Processes Scale (ADS). Two hundred and fifty-four emerging adults, 135 women (53.1%) and 119 men (46.9%), participated in a study conducted in Southern and Northern Poland between September 2022 and May 2023. Our study results revealed that those involved in both official religiosity and folk practices exhibit lower levels of deconversion, and this relationship is mediated by transcendent indebtedness. The presented research indicates that the belief and sense of obligation to repay a favor or debt to God is a buffering factor in the tendency to withdraw from the religious community and abandon faith.

1. Introduction

Emerging adulthood relates to a distinct period of development between the ages of 18 and 29 (Arnett et al. 2014). It is commonly characterized by extensive exploration (Negru-Subtirica et al. 2017), change (Koenig et al. 2008), and challenges (Yonker et al. 2012) in various areas of life, including identity construction, work, housing instability, commitment to romantic relationships and marriage, decisions about parenthood, emotion, and financial responsibility (Arnett 2007; Oliveira et al. 2020; Shulman and Connolly 2013). Religiosity is one domain that may particularly alter during this period. According to previous studies, emerging adults tend to reexamine their religious beliefs and behaviors (Koenig et al. 2008), personalize their relationship with God (Arnett 2000), and become more skeptical and independent of religious institutions (Arnett and Jensen 2002). These changes often result in emerging adults’ religious and spiritual decline (Yonker et al. 2012) and lack of religious participation (Arnett 2023; Arnett and Jensen 2002). Thus, young people depart from their formerly considered system of beliefs and disaffiliate from the religious community to which they belong (Zarzycka et al. 2023b). An example of such a departure is religious disengagement from Catholicism to reengagement with Pentecostalism in Brazil, as described by Py and Pedlowski (2020). In the literature, the process of leaving one’s religion is called deconversion (Łysiak et al. 2020; Streib 2021).

1.1. Deconversion in Emerging Adults

Deconversion has been described in many ways, making it difficult to obtain a consistent definition (Pérez and Vallières 2019). A review of psychological sources on the phenomenon of deconversion shows that the process of leaving one’s religion is characterized by “intellectual, experiential, emotional, and moral disengagement” (Streib et al. 2011, p. 13). The decision to withdraw may be voluntary (Jacobs 1987) or forced (Bradley et al. 2011), involve the loss of a previously significant religious experience (Streib and Keller 2004), an immediate change, or a gradual process (Barbour 1994).

Although 84% of Polish respondents declared themselves believers in 2022 (Zarzycka et al. 2023a), there is an increasing deconversion trend among emerging adults (O’Keefe and Jendzejec 2020). Poland, compared to other European countries, has shown signs of declining religiosity, which sociologists refer to as “creeping secularization” (Milerski and Zieliński 2023). Statistics released by the Catholic Information Agency (KAI) showed that in 2021, the percentage of people identifying themselves as deeply religious was only about 11 percent (Przeciszewski 2021).

Researchers have listed different reasons for young people leaving their religion. Nowosielski and Bartczuk (2017) suggest that adolescents adopt a more rationalistic perspective toward life and express resistance to existing religious worldviews. In British research (Francis and Katz 2000; Richter and Francis 1998), almost 20% of church leavers indicated a loss of faith and 11% mentioned specific problems with their church community as leading motives for leaving their religion. Many young adults disconnect because their faith community cannot help them live “in but not of the world”, wrestling with personal struggles, shortcomings (e.g., self-doubt, cognitive uncertainties, disagreement with some beliefs), and life issues (e.g., marriage, parenthood) (Barbour 1994; Kinnaman and Hawkins 2011). Others point to the hypocrisy of religious people as the reason for their departure from faith (Zarzycka et al. 2023a). Streib and Keller (2004) add that moral criticism and emotional suffering are among the most common causes of deconversion. In addition to cognitive and emotional antecedents, Puchalska-Wasyl et al. (2022) speak about the abandonment of religious practices as a crucial behavioral indicator of deconversion.

The deconversion process can also be viewed from a different perspective, in which the experience of searching for a new religious identity is more complex. According to Hervieu-Léger (2006, 2009), the rationale of disenchantment, which is typical of highly modern societies, does not indicate the end of religion. People who want to reorganize their lives do not always break ties with religious faith. They are rather “in movement”, being involved in a voluntary and individual spiritual path. Hervieu-Léger calls this process “the individualization of believing trajectories” (Hervieu-Léger 1998, p. 215) or “subjectivization of belief” (Hervieu-Léger 2009, p. 450). People who search for their religious identity are known as “pilgrims.” The figure of the pilgrim is a metaphor for individuals who choose not to follow formal institutional religious practices, identifying themselves as more spiritual than religious.

1.2. Religious Practices

The term “religious practices” is one of the constructs at the center of scientific research on religiosity and spirituality (Isacco et al. 2016). Religious practices are considered complex (Jegindø et al. 2013), diverse (Meza 2020), and rich with meaning (Slife and Reber 2012). They play a key role in the lives of many believers, reflect their identity (Ammerman 2021), express their personal desires (Büssing et al. 2016), constitute a social bond with religious groups (Dobosz et al. 2022), and shape people’s moral lifestyles (Halman and Draulans 2004).

Within the Catholic context, religious practices are defined as “bearers of belief” (Mikoski 2009, p. 272) and “acts of worship and devotion, the things people do to carry out their religious commitment” (Stark and Glock 1968, p. 15). Psychological literature notes that religious practices can be divided according to their consequences for human functioning (e.g., mental and physical health), their role in experiencing faith (e.g., personal faith and Church involvement), and private and public ways of expressing one’s relationship with God (e.g., individual and collective prayer) (Krok et al. 2022).

Another approach to religious practices concerns the distinction between official and folk practices. The first type of practice refers to official religiosity, which denotes the degree to which believers assent to the substance of faith and basic tenets of the Catholic Church, adhere to and pursue the Magisterium of the Church, and accept religious symbols and official teachings in the public space. The second type of practice implies folk practices, which assign personal and subjective importance to informal forms of prayer, also known as popular piety. Such spontaneous forms of devotion reflect the personal faith of believers (Krok et al. 2022).

Empirical evidence suggests that religious practices are related to gratitude. Therefore, it can be assumed that official and folk practices are also associated with transcendent indebtedness since responding to a gift from God involves a sense of divine indebtedness (Emmons and Kneezel 2005).

1.3. Transcendent Indebtedness to God

Transcendent indebtedness is a new issue in psychology because, until recently, all research concerned the topic of human indebtedness (Nelson et al. 2023a, 2023b). According to Nelson et al. (2023c, p. 108), transcendent indebtedness to God consists in feeling “glad indebtedness where the benefactor is God.” The authors list five conditions, the fulfillment of which allows a person to experience this type of indebtedness: (1) God is perceived as benevolent, kind, and compassionate; (2) the benefits received from God are perceived as gifts; (3) when receiving a gift from God, the beneficiary feels pleasant emotions, such as elevated love and gratitude; (4) recipients perceive this indebtedness as improving their relationship with the benefactor; (5) the experience of indebtedness leads beneficiaries to recognize that they cannot fully return kindness to God and, therefore, wish to symbolically express their gratitude.

Transcendent indebtedness to God is a notion conceptually close to gratitude to God. In fact, from a theoretical perspective, these notions are sometimes called a “tandem” (Nelson et al. 2023b), and empirically, they are highly correlated (Nelson et al. 2023c). However, both concepts differ from one another. For example, one can feel grateful to God for blessings but feel entitled to them; therefore, they feel no responsibility to pay it forward or show increased fidelity to God. Transcendent indebtedness to God helps distinguish those who feel entitled to or deserving of God’s gifts from those who think otherwise. Nelson et al. (2023c) provide a good illustration of this difference. They found that gratitude to God had no relationship with divine entitlement. However, feeling transcendently indebted to God was negatively associated with divine entitlement.

Although we know little about the mechanism of transcendent indebtedness, some research shows that “glad indebtedness” toward God correlates positively with gratitude to God, dispositional gratitude, awe, positive well-being, empathy, reciprocity, prosocial behavior, religious importance, involvement, autonomous motivation, spirituality, and secure attachment to God. It has also been inversely associated with costly grace, divine/trait entitlement, and perfectionism (Nelson et al. 2023c).

1.4. Deconversion, Religious Practices, and Indebtedness to God

In this study, we aimed to verify whether and to what extent religious practices attenuate deconversion in emerging adults through transcendent indebtedness to God (Figure 1). Based on the theoretical foundations presented so far, we assumed that:

H1. 

Official and folk practices correlate negatively with deconversion and its dimensions;

H2. 

Official and folk practices are positively associated with transcendent indebtedness to God;

H3. 

Transcendent indebtedness to God correlates negatively with deconversion and its dimensions.

The configuration of the title variables is exploratory due to the newness of these concepts and their mechanisms (e.g., official religiosity, folk practices, and transcendent indebtedness to God). Based on the lack of research on the relationship between these variables, we hypothesized that:

H4. 

Transcendent indebtedness to God mediates the relationship between official religiosity/and folk practices and deconversion;

2. Method

2.1. Participants and Procedure

Based on Koopman et al.’s recommendations (Koopman et al. 2015) for defining the sample size of mediation models and previous research findings (Krok et al. 2022; Zarzycka et al. 2023a), we calculated our sample size using a G*Power analysis (a maximum α value of 0.05, test power of 0.90; Anderson et al. 2017). Our results indicated that a sample of n > 218 would be sufficient to yield significant and reliable effects.

To meet the above-mentioned criteria, we recruited 280 participants in emerging adulthood (18–29 years old). Twenty-six participants failed to complete the questionnaires, leaving a final sample of 254 emerging adults: 135 women (53.1%) and 119 men (46.9%). The participants’ mean age was M = 23.08 (SD = 3.03; range = 18–29 years). Approximately half of them attended high school or university, and half had a full-time job. The recruitment process for the study was conducted in Southern and Northern Poland between September 2022 and May 2023. Most participants reported being Roman Catholic (87.8%), with 5.6% being agnostic, and 6.6% being atheists.

The participants were recruited by research assistants via personal contacts, colleges, workplaces, and cultural organizations. After agreeing to participate in the study, they were asked to complete a set of questionnaires that were either collected by research assistants or delivered by post. The participants were informed about the academic character of the study. They were also informed about the anonymous character of the study and that they could withdraw any time. In case of any questions, a research assistant was available to answer them. Informed consent was obtained from all participants and the study was approved by the University Ethics Committee at Opole University, Poland.

2.2. Measures

For Catholic religious practices, We used The Catholic Religious Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ) to measure religious and spiritual practices as they are understood within the tradition of the Catholic Church (Krok et al. 2022). It included 10 items divided into two subscales: official religiosity (e.g., Participation in Holy Mass is the most important element in practicing my faith) and folk practices (Forms of popular piety express faith in God in a simple way). Participants answered the items on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was 0.84 for official religiosity, and 0.81 for folk practices.

For deconversion, we used the 28-item Adolescents Deconversion Processes Scale (ADS) to assess deconversion (Nowosielski and Bartczuk 2017). The scale comprised five subscales: withdrawal from the community (e.g., I saw less sense in participating in joint prayers/meditations.); abandoning faith (e.g., I no longer felt any relationship with God/Higher Power.); moral criticism (e.g., Religious/spiritual moral principles increasingly seemed unlivable to me); experiencing transcendental emptiness (e.g., I am experiencing emptiness in my religious life), and deconversion behavior (e.g., I used religious/spiritual media less frequently). The sum of these answers provided the total score. The items were answered on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (completely untrue about me) to 3 (very true about me). The participants were asked to assess changes in their religiosity within the last 12 months. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.80 to 0.89 in the present study.

For transcendent indebtedness, we used The Transcendent Indebtedness to God scale (T-ITG) to measure transcendent indebtedness to God as gladly accepted indebtedness to God (Nelson et al. 2023a). It contained six items (e.g., Even though I can never repay God, I try to repay Him by the kind of life that I live; everything I have comes from God), which were assessed on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Cronbach’s alpha in the present study was 0.90.

2.3. Statistical Analyses

Statistical analyses were conducted in two steps. Firstly, we calculated descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and correlations among the variables used in our study (Catholic religious practices, deconversion, and transcendent indebtedness). Secondly, PROCESS macro v4.2 (Hayes 2017, model 4) was used to examine direct and indirect effects. The following parameters were set: bootstrapping with 10,000 resamples; 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals (CI).

3. Results

3.1. Preliminary Analyses (Correlations and Gender Differences)

At the beginning of our statistical analysis, we calculated correlations among Catholic religious practices, deconversion, and transcendent indebtedness, which helped us to gain initial insight into the associations among the variables (

Table 1. Descriptive statistics and correlations among Catholic religious practices, deconversion, and transcendent indebtedness in emerging adults.

Variables	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1. Official religiosity	3.46	1.34	–
2. Folk practices	4.10	1.10	0.37 ***	–
3. Withdrawal from the community	1.30	1.06	−0.39 ***	−0.12	–
4. Abandoning faith	0.89	0.95	−0.45 ***	−0.13 *	0.70 ***	–
5. Moral criticism	1.07	0.96	−0.39 ***	−0.17 **	0.77 ***	0.74 ***	–
6. Experiencing transcendental emptiness	0.69	0.76	−0.05	0.07	0.53 ***	0.60 ***	0.54 ***	–
7. Deconversion behavior	1.21	1.05	−0.23 ***	−0.08	0.80 ***	0.53 ***	0.66 ***	0.48 ***	–
8. Total Deconversion Score	1.03	0.81	−0.37 ***	−0.11	0.91 ***	0.84 ***	0.88 ***	0.72 ***	0.84 ***	–
9. Transcendent indebtedness	2.50	1.20	0.67 ***	0.44 ***	−0.22 ***	−0.43 ***	−0.25 ***	−0.01	−0.08	−0.24 ***

Note. *** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05.

).

Most of the correlations among Catholic religious practices, deconversion, and transcendent indebtedness were statistically significant. Official religiosity and folk practices were negatively correlated with abandoning faith and moral criticism but positively correlated with transcendent indebtedness. In addition, official religiosity was negatively associated with withdrawal from the community, deconversion behavior, and the total deconversion score. Transcendent indebtedness was negatively associated with withdrawal from the community, abandoning faith, moral criticism, and the total deconversion score.

We also used Student’s t-test to examine potential differences between men and women in the above-mentioned variables. However, there were no significant results for any of the variables examined.

3.2. Mediation Analysis

In the next step of statistical analysis, we performed a mediation analysis (Model 4) with official religiosity and folk practices as independent variables (separately), transcendent indebtedness as a mediator, and withdrawal from the community, abandoning faith, moral criticism, experiencing transcendental emptiness, deconversion behavior, and the total deconversion score as dependent variables (separately). To examine mediational effects, we used the bootstrapping procedure suggested by Hayes (2017) (samples = 10,000; 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals).

Table 2. Direct effects between Catholic religious practices, transcendent indebtedness, and deconversion in emerging adults.

Variables	Effect	Boot SE	LLCI	ULCI
DIRECT EFFECTS
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness	0.44	0.06	0.36	0.60
Official religiosity—Withdrawal from the community	−0.43	0.06	−0.46	−0.21
Official religiosity—Abandoning faith	−0.23	0.05	−0.31	−0.10
Official religiosity—Moral criticism	−0.40	0.06	−0.39	−0.17
Official religiosity—Experiencing transcendental emptiness	−0.08	0.05	−0.07	0.13
Official religiosity—Deconversion behavior	−0.31	0.07	−0.32	−0.13
Official religiosity—Total Deconversion Score	−0.22	0.05	−0.46	−0.21
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness	0.67	0.04	0.52	0.69
Folk practices—Withdrawal from the community	−0.03	0.06	−0.15	0.10
Folk practices—Abandoning faith	0.06	0.05	−0.04	0.17
Folk practices—Moral criticism	−0.06	0.06	−0.18	0.05
Folk practices—Experiencing transcendental emptiness	0.09	0.05	−0.03	0.16
Folk practices—Deconversion behavior	−0.06	0.06	−0.18	0.07
Folk practices—Total Deconversion Score	−0.01	0.05	−0.10	0.09

presents direct effects between Catholic religious practices and deconversion in emerging adults.

Our examination of direct effects showed that official religiosity was negatively correlated with withdrawal from the community, abandoning faith, moral criticism, deconversion behavior, and the total deconversion score. The only non-significant relationship was between official religiosity and experiencing transcendental emptiness. By contrast, folk practices were not associated with any deconversion dimensions, nor with the total deconversion score.

Table 3. Indirect effects for the mediating function of transcendent indebtedness between Catholic religious practices and deconversion in emerging adults.

Variables	Effect	Boot SE	LLCI	ULCI
INDIRECT EFFECTS
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Withdrawal from the community	0.05	0.05	−0.05	0.13
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Abandoning faith	−0.16	0.05	−0.26	−0.06
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Moral criticism	−0.09	0.05	−0.17	−0.04
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Experiencing transcendental emptiness	0.03	0.05	−0.07	0.14
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Deconversion behavior	0.09	0.05	−0.02	0.20
Official religiosity—Transcendent indebtedness—Total Deconversion Score	0.01	0.05	−0.09	0.11
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Withdrawal from the community	−0.09	0.03	−0.16	−0.03
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Abandoning faith	−0.20	0.04	−0.28	−0.13
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Moral criticism	−0.10	0.03	−0.16	−0.04
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Experiencing transcendental emptiness	−0.02	0.03	−0.08	0.03
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Deconversion behavior	−0.03	0.03	−0.08	0.03
Folk practices—Transcendent indebtedness—Total Deconversion Score	−0.10	0.03	−0.17	−0.05

shows the calculation results for the indirect effects of the mediating role of transcendent indebtedness between Catholic religious practices and deconversion.

Two indirect effects on the official religiosity–deconversion relationship were significant (Table 2). Firstly, transcendent indebtedness was a mediator between official religiosity and abandoning faith (B = −0.16, 95% CI = −0.26, −0.06). Thus, official religiosity had a positive relationship with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.52, 0.69) and a negative relationship with abandoning faith (B = −0.18, 95% CI = −0.30, −0.07). Secondly, transcendent indebtedness mediated the official religiosity–moral criticism relationship (B = −0.09, 95% CI = −0.17, −0.04). Thus, official religiosity had a positive relationship with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.52, 0.69) and a negative relationship with moral criticism (B = −0.14, 95% CI = −0.20, −0.06).

For folk practices, four mediating effects were significant. Firstly, transcendent indebtedness was a mediator between folk practices and withdrawal from the community (B = −0.09, 95% CI = −0.16, −0.03). Thus, folk practices had a positive relationship with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.60) and a negative relationship with withdrawal from the community (B = −0.21, 95% CI = −0.31, −0.07). Secondly, transcendent indebtedness mediated the association of folk practices with abandoning faith (B = −0.20, 95% CI = −0.28, −0.13). Consequently, folk practices were positively associated with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.60) and a negative relationship with abandoning faith (B = −0.46, 95% CI = −0.46, −0.27). Thirdly, transcendent indebtedness mediated the relationship between folk practices and moral criticism (B = −0.10, 95% CI = −0.16, −0.04). Thus, folk practices had a positive relationship with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.60) and a negative association with moral criticism (B = −0.22, 95% CI = −0.28, −0.07). Finally, transcendent indebtedness was a mediator between folk practices and the total deconversion score (B = −0.10, 95% CI = −0.17, −0.05). As a result, folk practices were positively correlated with transcendent indebtedness (B = 0.44, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.60) and had a negative relationship with the total deconversion score (B = −0.24, 95% CI = −0.25, −0.07) (Figure 2).

The strength of the mediational effects on individual subscales and the full deconversion scale varied for both official religiosity and folk practices. For official religiosity, the strongest effect was on the abandoning faith subscale (Effect = −0.16), which was significantly higher than the total scale (Effect = 0.01). For the other subscales, the effects ranged from 0.03 to 0.09. For folk practices, the total scale score (Effect = −0.10) was also smaller than the abandoning faith subscale (Effect = −0.20); however, it was equal for moral criticism (Effect = −0.10) and smaller compared to the other subscales (Effects ranged from −0.02 to −0.09).

4. Discussion

Our study provides a better understanding of the intuitively understood association that Catholics who practice their faith more zealously have a lower risk of departing from it. Our study has shown both the relevance of individual correlations (which provide a theoretical basis for building a mediation model) and the statistical significance of individual pathways.

Negative correlations between official religiosity, folk practices, abandoning faith, and moral criticism were noted (H1). Other significant dependencies included the negative relationship between official religiosity and community withdrawal, deconversion behavior, and the total score of deconversion (H1). A positive association was seen between official religiosity, folk practices, and transcendent indebtedness (H2). We also observed a negative correlation between transcendent indebtedness and community withdrawal, abandoning faith, moral criticism, and total deconversion score (H3).

The abovementioned results are congruent with existing literature and research. According to the Pew Religious Landscape Study, among those who declare themselves non-believers, 25% seldom or never attend worship services, and 38% do not pray at all or do so occasionally (Pew Research Center 2014a, 2014b). Furthermore, among those who attend religious services once or twice a month/a few times a year, 36% claim that moral decisions depend on the situation (Pew Research Center 2014c). This interdependence of religious practice, faith departure, and experienced moral struggle is universal and present in other religions. For example, in qualitative research on the factors associated with religious disaffiliation from Orthodox Judaism, one of the main rationales for ceasing practice was moral and social conflicts with Orthodox Judaism (Miles et al. 2021). Another qualitative study on non-compliance withfundamental Orthodox practices (such as Shabbos and kosher) revealed that one of the main initial triggers for disaffiliation was a lack of belief in the Torah/Orthodox Judaism, lack/loss of belief in God, and moral/ethical disagreements with Orthodox Judaism (Miles et al. 2023).

Correlational results remain consistent with religious de-identification theory, in which disengagement from bonding (a focus on creating relational closeness to the transcendent) originates from the loss of commitment to the divine or sacred through ritual practices (Van Tongeren and DeWall 2023). Intentional or deliberate termination of religious practices (e.g., prayer, meditation, religious singing, reading the Bible, participation in religious ceremonies and worship services, etc.) leads to a gradual loss of one’s sense of closeness to God, which can consequently cause a gradual departure from the faith. Furthermore, the disaffiliation process, according to Van Tongeren and DeWall (2023), implies distancing oneself from co-religionists by shifting the emphasis of practicing one’s faith from collective and public forms to private practices. There is a growing trend of individualization of faith in European countries, which manifests itself in predominantly personal and individual choices of religious practices (Mariański 2021). In this light, our study results are understandable, showing that those who practice official religiosity, such as attending Mass, show and strengthen identification with their faith group, accompanied by a reduced tendency to withdraw from it. Brown et al. (2023) explained feelings of connectedness to one’s congregation (in both religious and secular contexts), among other variables, by the frequency of attendance.

Gratefulness to God is often expressed in private prayers and liturgical acts of thanksgiving to God (Dunnington 2023). Gratefulness to God is consistent with the concept of transcendent indebtedness, which stems from the internalization of grace (in the Christian tradition). Individuals who engage in formal, liturgical Catholic religious practices, identify with their Church community, accept its teachings, and engage in various forms of popular piety are more convinced that God is benevolent and compassionate and bestows blessings on the believer. Thus, individuals are willing to admit that they cannot repay God and wish to express their gratitude in a symbolic way, such as obedience to God, a desire for self-improvement, or helping others (Nelson et al. 2023c). People who intensively perform both liturgical and folk practices favorably accept indebtedness to God.

Nelson et al. (2023c) examined religious exemplars of indebtedness toward God using qualitative methods. The effects of experiencing transcendent indebtedness include self-transcendence, increased obedience to God, and humility. These examples support the results obtained in this study, as self-transcendence and humility play an important role in remaining committed to a community despite difficulties and abiding in faith despite doubts. In turn, obedience to God can facilitate the acceptance of specific moral precepts that a person undergoing deconversion may reject.

The main novelty of our research is the discovery that transcendent indebtedness explains dependence and explains why more frequent practitioners do not undergo deconversion to a significant degree. The mediating role of transcendent indebtedness in the relationship between Catholic religious practices and deconversion holds true for six paths (two for official religiosity and four for folk practices).

Transcendent indebtedness has been shown to mediate the relationship between official religiosity and abandoning faith. This result may mean that a person participating in liturgical practices, such as the Mass, and manifesting internal compliance with the requirements of the Catholic Church is far from abandoning the faith. These dependencies show that practicing faith in a liturgical and official form helps one understand that a personal relationship with God is not a burden, but the essence of love (cf. Nelson et al. 2023b). This, in turn, upholds religious beliefs and becomes a protective factor against leaving the faith. In the second identified path, transcendent indebtedness mediates the relationship between official religiosity and moral criticism. People who present obedience to the teachings of the Church may experience less tension in accepting Catholic moral principles. This process appears to be explained by perceiving God as a benefactor to whom a person attributes good intentions and the will to do good for the believer (Dunnington 2023). These beliefs can increase confidence in the positive effects of moral fidelity. On the other hand, transcendent indebtedness leads to expressing gratitude to God in token. Presenting behaviors consistent with Catholic morality (e.g., maintaining premarital chastity) is one form of such expression. For example, Oishi and Cha (2023) discovered that gratitude to God was linked to abstinence during Lent.

Transcendent indebtedness has also been a mediator between folk practices and withdrawal from the community. However, no direct link has been identified between folk practices and community withdrawal. Dunnington remarks (Dunnington 2023, p. 9) that in the Bible, Christ’s disciples are called to owe nothing to anyone but God alone. Gratitude to God (and by implication, transcendent indebtedness) relativizes direct interpersonal gratitude, while also expressing gratitude to human benefactors whose acts of kindness result in thanksgiving to God. These observations may imply that attachment to informal ways of experiencing faith can be a protective factor against emerging adults withdrawing from their religious communities but only by building a sense of gratitude and a sense of obligation to God. Individuals who build transcendent indebtedness by involving themselves in popular forms of piety may have realized it while engaging in religious activities, such as group pilgrimages to holy places, or participating in communities with a particular group identity. As a substitute form of gratitude, those involved in folk practices may choose engagement and loyalty to the community, especially those who are marginalized and in need (Dunnington 2023). Van Cappellen et al. (2023) found that expressions of gratitude toward God may be one way in which religious beliefs and practices foster greater prosociality.

Transcendent indebtedness mediates between folk practices and abandoning faith. As with the previously described relationship, no direct effect between the explanatory and explained variables was found. Therefore, spontaneous forms of faith can contribute to weakening intellectual processes, including an increase in doubt or abandoning faith in favor of atheism or agnosticism. However, these decisions occur in a mediated manner by increasing transcendent indebtedness. This process is consistent with the Bible’s elementary message, where ingratitude is seen as a sin and can lead to atheism (Dunnington 2023). In qualitative research by Tsang et al. (2023), participants who wrote about gratitude to God were more likely to mention self-transcendence and showed high levels of religious intention.

Transcendent indebtedness also mediates the relationship between folk practices and moral criticism. Similar to the other cases, no direct relationship was found. A person who is more likely to undertake forms of piety outside the liturgy (e.g., praying the rosary, chaplet of Divine Mercy, singing the Litany of Loretto, pilgrimages to Marian shrines, etc.) sees oneself as a beneficiary of God, which reduces the risk of rejecting the moral principles provided by the religion. Another possible explanation is that some forms of piety (including veneration of images of Our Lady and other saints) may function as imitations of role models. Depictions of saints can serve a persuasive function in that they encourage moral goodness, inspire people to practice positive moral attitudes, and establish a bond between the viewer and the depicted role model (Zadykowicz and Kumór 2023).

Transcendent indebtedness also appears as a mediator between folk practices and deconversion. We found that transcendent indebtedness mediates the relationship between behaviors denoting simple forms of spontaneous religiosity and any changes in beliefs or emotions associated with abandoning one’s means of experiencing and/or manifesting religiosity. This result is consistent with a longitudinal study by Watkins et al. (2022), who noted that dispositional gratitude toward God predicts increased religious well-being, feelings of closeness to God, and religious commitment.

Our study results support the assumption that the mechanism by which religious practices can counteract deconversion processes is partially mediated by transcendent indebtedness. In other words, the conviction and obligation to repay a favor or debt to God, associated with a sense of justice, is a buffering factor for withdrawing from the religious community and abandoning faith practices. Nevertheless, further research (preferably in an experimental model) may resolve the direction of these relationships.