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

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article deserves to be published but for this, it needs to be improved, revised, and with the adhesion of missing materials. Signage in the points below:

 

1.  The title lacks the data to specify the geography and temporality of the "un-conversion". As well as, the method of analysis of the article that begins to appear only on page 4;

2.  This data is also missing in the summary; 

3.  Addressing the process of un-conversion, would not it make the experience of identity more complex? Therefore, it is worth describing at least the category of the "pilgrim" of D. Herveu-Léger, in his "The Pilgrim and the Convert", Petropolis, Vozes, 2001.

4.  In the fragment "in Various areas of life", means Which Areas? To be more precise;

5.  The fragment “Thus, young people departure from their formerly considered sys-28 term of beliefs and disaffiliate from the religious community to which they have belonged” – is interesting because in rural Brazil there is so much the complex process of deconversion of "catholicism" as well as subsequently an adherence to Pentecostalism after a long process of “deconversion” of at least 5 years. The study that deals with this in Brazil is by Py, F; Pedlowski, M (2020), Pentecostalization settled in Zumbi dos Palmares. Theological Perspective, vol. 52. It is worthwhile to be attached as a case of complexification of the "disconnections" linked to new religious annexations afterward;

6.  Explain in more detail what "religious indebtedness" is, because in this way it seems to be a cause-of-effect relationship;

Thus, the article deserves to be published, but first needs to consider the parts signaled, attach authors, theories, and footers next to the six points signaled.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I have a few suggestions for improvement.

 

Abstract:

Please add more details about the population in the abstract (N & demographics).

 

Method:

How were the participants recruited? Online or in-person? Can you provide more details? Was an IRB obtained? Please provide details.

 

References:

The qualitative paper by Nelson et al. is now published: 

Nelson, J. M., Hendricks, J. J., Cazier, J. C., Hardy, S. A., & Wingate, D. (2023). Religious exemplars’ experience of indebtedness to God: Employing innovative machine learning to explore a novel construct. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 0(0), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2023.2190925

 

This paper does an excellent job of unpacking the mechanisms (in this case, transcendent indebtedness) underlying religious practices and deconversion. I highly applaud this important work. The findings are interesting and help explain how religious practices can deepen one's faith. 

 

I have a suggestion to improve the strength of the paper. The authors use gratitude and indebtedness interchangeably at times throughout the manuscript, which is understandable because they are so highly correlated. However, it is essential to note that they are different constructs. The paper needs to clarify that while transcendent indebtedness is highly correlated with gratitude, it is not the same construct. For example, one could feel grateful to God for their blessings but feel entitled to them and therefore have no responsibility to pay it forward or show increased fidelity to God. The T-ITG helps distinguish those who feel entitled to or deserving of God’s gifts from those who think otherwise. A good illustration of this is how Nelson et al. found that gratitude to God had no relationship with divine entitlement, but transcendent indebtedness was negatively related to it. There is something different (you mentioned humility, piety, fidelity) associated with indebtedness that gratitude does not inspire. That is probably why you chose the T-ITG instead of a measure of GTG in your study, but it would be good to explain that more clearly in the paper for your readers who don’t know what the T-ITG adds to the discussion above and beyond traditional conceptions of gratitude. Again, really great work! I am excited about the potential applications of your findings. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is good work, so you want to communicate your results more clearly. You reported in detail many things, more like a dissertation than a journal article where readers want to get to the main point first. The main result was actually not clearly reported. See my suggestion for the Figure with all the path values added, below. 

Here are a few ways: 

+ Instead of 4 hypotheses, you may just use 1, which is H4. The first three are components of that. 

+ Put all the results on each of the paths in Figure 1. You can do it right on Figure 1, or use Figure 2. Use full-scale first. This is your main result. 

 +Then, you can get into the finer details of that main result. For example, does one subscale explain most, or even more, than a full scale? 

+ Much of what you have no in the Discussion section should be in the Results section. In the discussion, recap the results briefly, in about a paragraph. Then, answer this important question: Your hypothesis is not surprising (people who identify and practice more with a religion are less likely to drop out). So, what is the new discovery in your study? Arguably it's the mediation, particularly if it is very strong. 

+ The construct of indebtedness is OK, and you repeatedly connected it to gratitude. What is the difference? Is there a difference? Is the difference important? If there is no important difference, shouldn't you use gratitude or gratefulness, which has a much bigger body of studies (thus, you contribute more to it) than indebtedness? Plus, indebtedness may have a negative connotation, as argued in Steindl-Rast's 1984 Gratefulness, the heart of prayer. 

We look forward to this excellent publication, particularly when you sharpen the message. 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The suggestions were attached to the paper.