Meaning-Making and Religion at Critical Life Junctures

Abstract

Over the past few decades, Canada has witnessed a profound shift in how individuals relate to religion—not simply in terms of declining affiliation, but in how meaning, identity, and belonging are negotiated beyond traditional religious institutions. While previous research has identified key factors that support intergenerational religious transmission, less attention has been paid to how individuals negotiate challenges to their religious identities at critical moments across the life course. Drawing on select qualitative interviews from the Transmission of Religion Across Generations project in Canada, this article examines how individuals make meaning with and from religion when their beliefs are stressed or challenged. Focusing on autobiographical narratives of participants socialized into Christian and Muslim traditions, it explores how religious identities are maintained, transformed, or abandoned at critical touchpoints and turning points. The findings suggest that participants’ trajectories varied according to social supports and interpretive resources available to them, as well as the degree of institutional flexibility within their religious traditions. By examining the processes and conditions of meaning-making, this article offers a framework for understanding how religious identities are negotiated and supported at key moments across the life course, shaping patterns of religious continuity, transformation, and decline.

1. Introduction

Over the past few decades, Canada has witnessed a profound shift in how individuals relate to religion—not simply in terms of declining affiliation, but in how meaning, identity, and belonging are negotiated beyond traditional religious institutions (Reimer 2023; Wilkins-Laflamme 2023; Young and Shipley 2020). Drawing on data from the 2021 nationally representative sample of the Transmission of Religion Across Generations: A Comparative International Study of Continuities and Discontinuities in Family Socialization project, approximately 40% of Canadians identify as non-religious, a figure that rises to 55% among Millennials. While national surveys consistently document this rise in nonreligious affiliation, such figures capture only part of the story. Behind these trends lie complex personal trajectories in which religion is not simply abandoned but reinterpreted, contested, or selectively retained, particularly at critical moments across the life course.

A substantial body of research has documented a long-term pattern of religious decline across Western societies, with each successive generation reporting lower levels of religious affiliation, belief, and participation (Beyer et al. 2017; Voas and Chaves 2016). This generational shift has been linked, in part, to changes in family dynamics and the weakening of intergenerational religious transmission (Manning 2015; Stolz et al. 2016). Parents are increasingly less likely to view religion as an obligation to be passed down, instead framing religious engagement as an individual choice (Stolz et al. 2016; Voas and Doebler 2011). As a result, even when children are socialized into religious traditions, transmission is no longer assured. This becomes particularly evident during emerging adulthood, a period characterized by identity exploration, increasing autonomy, and exposure to new social environments, when inherited religious identities are frequently tested, renegotiated, or abandoned (Arnett 2000; Barry and Abo-Zena 2014a; Denton and Flory 2020). Moreover, when transmission does endure through this period, it often involves transformation (Cummins and Beyer 2026), as religious beliefs and practices are adapted to align with contemporary social contexts and—as this paper argues—experiences. These negotiations may be particularly complex for individuals from immigrant backgrounds and religious-minority communities, whose identities may be stressed or challenged across multiple cultural contexts and in relation to experiences of difference and otherness (Kramer 2016). Encounters with dominant social norms may therefore create additional moments in which inherited religious identities are consciously examined and renegotiated.

This paper examines how individuals make meaning with and from religion at key junctures in their lives. Focusing on participants who were socialized into religious traditions, and thus entered emerging adulthood with a religious foundation, it identifies the moments at which religious identity is strengthened, transformed, or negotiated away. Specifically, the paper addresses three key questions: (1) What life moments (touchpoints and turning points) appear to stress or disrupt religious identity? (2) How do individuals resolve the cognitive discomfort that emerges at these moments—whether in favour of or away from religion? and (3) Which factors contribute to the resilience or erosion of religious identity over time?

Drawing on cases selected from the broader Transmission of Religion Across Generations project, I argue that meaning-making at critical touchpoints and turning points shapes whether religious identity is maintained, transformed, or abandoned. The ability to resolve tensions at these critical life junctures in favour of religious continuity is supported by access to interpretive tools, flexibility within belief systems, and supportive social networks.

2. Literature Review: A Changing Landscape

Within the literature on intergenerational transmission, several factors have been consistently identified as supporting religious continuity. These include high parental religiosity (Myers 1996), consistent and intentional religious socialization (Bengtson et al. 2009; Cummins and Beyer 2026), the influential role of mothers and, to a lesser extent, grandparents (Bengtson et al. 2009, 2013), warm and close parental relationships (Bengtson et al. 2013; Day et al. 2009; Manning 2015; Smith and Adamczyk 2021), affectionate parenting style (Dudley 2000; Smith and Adamczyk 2021, pp. 53–54), open discussions about religion (Denton et al. 2020; Dollahite and Thatcher 2008; Smith and Adamczyk 2021), and sustained engagement with religious communities (Cummins and Beyer 2026; Smith 2021; Wuthnow 2000). While these factors significantly increase the likelihood of transmission, they do not guarantee it. Even under optimal conditions, religious identity remains susceptible to change, particularly when individuals encounter environments and experiences that challenge or destabilize their existing belief systems.

Beyond the family, broader cultural and institutional conditions also play a critical role in shaping religious identity. Living in predominantly secular environments exposes individuals to diverse worldviews and normative frameworks, often rooted in liberal and progressive values (Friesen 2025; Inglehart 2021; Wilkins-Laflamme 2023). Cultural shifts associated with modernization—including increased emphasis on individual autonomy and progressive values surrounding sexuality and gender equality—may conflict with traditional religious teachings and authorities, thereby complicating religious continuity (Gärtner and Hennig 2022; Inglehart 2021; Robbins [1990] 2017). Others highlight the impact of religious scandals—particularly those involving moral failure or institutional cover-ups—in eroding trust and undermining the moral credibility of religious institutions (Bottan and Perez-Truglia 2015; Wuthnow 2022).

At the same time, research suggests that higher rates of retention are often found among more conservative religious traditions and among immigrant-background or religious-minority communities, where religion may function as a key source of identity, cohesion, and boundary maintenance (Güngör et al. 2011; Smith 2021; Smith and Adamczyk 2021, p. 43; van de Pol and van Tubergen 2014). Culture and ethnicity may also play supportive roles in religious continuity, provided that they meaningfully intersect with religious identity (Bengtson et al. 2013, p. 166; Cummins and Hennig 2025; Putney et al. 2013). However, immigrant background and minority status do not guarantee religious continuity (Beyer and Ramji 2013; Güngör et al. 2011). Individuals navigating multiple cultural contexts may experience identity through both internally negotiated and externally imposed forms of otherness. Encounters with dominant social norms, cultural difference, exclusion, or marginalization can heighten self-awareness and generate tensions between inherited religious identities and lived experience (Kramer 2016, pp. 15–16).

Taken together, this body of research suggests that religious continuity is shaped not only by family transmission but also by the cultural and institutional contexts in which inherited religious identities are lived and experienced. The tensions arising within these contexts may become especially salient during emerging adulthood.

Emerging adulthood has been identified as a particularly significant period for religious identity formation and change (Arnett 2014). As parental oversight diminishes, young adults encounter new social environments, relationships, and worldviews that encourage exploration and identity negotiation (Arnett 2000; Denton and Flory 2020; Gärtner and Hennig 2022; Smith and Denton 2005). This period is also marked by important life transitions and turning points—including entering higher education, relocating, beginning careers, and forming long-term relationships—that frequently prompt reflection on inherited beliefs and values (Arnett 2014; Barry and Abo-Zena 2014a; Fiori et al. 2004). These broader transitions may also expose young adults to what we describe as touchpoints: interpersonal or social encounters—such as conflict with religious authorities, experiences of exclusion, or exposure to competing values—that generate tension with inherited religious beliefs. Not surprisingly, it is during this period that religious participation and affiliation often decline (Thiessen and Wilkins-Laflamme 2017; Uecker et al. 2007).

Building on this literature and drawing on Park’s (2005) meaning-making framework, this paper not only helps explain why some of the factors associated with religious continuity and decline matter but also examines how individuals interpret and attempt to reconcile tensions between their religious beliefs and lived experiences at critical touchpoints and turning points across the life course.

3. Theoretical Framework: Meaning-Making and Religious Identity

Meaning-making provides a critical lens for understanding how individuals interpret, revise, and negotiate their religious identities when confronted with experiences that challenge their beliefs or sense of self. Rather than viewing religious identity as fixed or inherited, this perspective emphasizes its dynamic and ongoing construction across the life course, shaped by both social context and personal reflection. In this sense, religious identity is not simply maintained or lost but actively reworked in moments of tension, disruption, or change.

At its core, meaning-making refers to the process through which individuals interpret life experiences in relation to their broader belief systems, values, and sense of purpose (McLean and Pratt 2006, p. 716). Park conceptualizes that individuals operate with a “global meaning system”—an overarching framework that includes core beliefs, goals, and worldviews, often informed by religious beliefs (Park 2005, p. 360). This system functions as a lens through which experiences are interpreted and given significance. When individuals encounter events that conflict with this framework, a discrepancy emerges, prompting efforts to restore coherence.

These efforts may take several forms. First, individuals may assimilate the experience by reinterpreting it in ways that align with their existing beliefs, thereby preserving their global meaning system (Park 2005, p. 360). Second, when discrepancies are too significant to reconcile through reinterpretation, individuals may engage in accommodation by adjusting or transforming their belief system to incorporate the new experience. This process may result in more individualized forms of religiosity, where beliefs are personally reinterpreted while remaining meaningful. It may also contribute to movement toward more “fuzzy” forms of religion (Voas 2009), or away from institutional religion altogether as commitment becomes diluted or weakened. Ultimately, when these accommodation efforts are successful, they facilitate meaning-focused growth—a constructive reframing whereby individuals derive new insight or personal development from disruptive events, resulting in a newly harmonized global meaning system.

Importantly, meaning-making results in a new way of seeing or understanding an experience, often involving the reinterpretation of the situation or the revision or reordering of one’s beliefs and goals in an effort to regain internal coherence (Park 2005, p. 360). When discrepancies between lived experience and global meaning systems are too great, individuals may struggle to restore coherence, resulting in fragmentation—or “shattering”—of one’s belief system (Park 2005, p. 360). In such cases, when meaning-making efforts fail to resolve these discrepancies, unresolved tensions can accumulate over time, contributing to disaffiliation or the erosion of religious identity and commitment.

While existing research has often examined how individuals draw on religion to make meaning in response to life stressors (Christensen-Duerden et al. 2026; Lysne and Wachholtz 2011; McLean and Pratt 2006; McLean and Thorne 2003; Perry 2024), this paper shifts the focus to religion itself as an object of meaning-making. That is, rather than asking how religion helps individuals interpret difficult experiences, this study examines how individuals interpret, evaluate, and sometimes revise religion in light of those experiences. In doing so, it highlights how moments of cognitive dissonance—arising from social encounters, cultural pressures, or life transitions—become critical sites where religious identity is either reinforced, transformed, or abandoned.

Building on this framework, I argue that the outcome of these meaning-making processes depends not only on the nature of the discrepancy but also on support structures and interpretive resources available to the individual. These include the ability to reflect critically on belief, degrees of flexibility within religious frameworks, and access to supportive families, communities, and other subcultural networks. While meaning-making is often conceptualized as an individual cognitive process, more recent work has emphasized that meaning-making also unfolds within broader interpersonal and social contexts (Park 2010; Whitney and King 2014). The narratives presented here suggest that parents, peers, partners, religious leaders, and community members provided both support and interpretive resources through which discrepant experiences could be assimilated into—or accommodated within—their global meaning systems. In this sense, subcultural networks do more than reinforce existing beliefs; they shape the social conditions under which meaning-making occurs.

4. Methodology

4.1. Data Collection and Analysis

This paper draws on qualitative data from the multinational Transmission of Religion Across Generations: A Comparative International Study of Continuities and Discontinuities in Family Socialization project, which examined the factors that nurture, sustain, and impede religious transmission within families. Following Bengtson et al. (2013), the study employs a qualitative, multi-generational design, using semi-structured, in-depth interviews to explore how religious identity is formed, negotiated, and transformed over time.

Participants were recruited as part of two- and three-generation family units. In total, 16 families participated in the study, including 12 three-generation families and 4 two-generation families, yielding 58 participants across three generational cohorts: Generation 1 (n = 15, born 1931–1947), Generation 2 (n = 22, born 1953–1974), and Generation 3 (n = 21, born 1981–2002). The sample includes individuals from a range of religious backgrounds, including Roman Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Shi’i Ismaili Muslim, and those identifying as non-religious.

Interviews were conducted either with family members together or individually, depending on participant availability and preference. Each interview lasted approximately two to three hours and followed a semi-structured format designed to elicit narrative accounts of religious upbringing and identity. Interviews began with a common prompt—“Can you tell us about the role religion played, if any, in your family?”—which encouraged participants to reflect on their experiences in relation to both personal and familial contexts. This narrative approach allowed for the emergence of both shared and divergent perspectives within and across generations.

While the broader project examines intergenerational transmission, this paper focuses specifically on Generation 3 participants, whose transition through emerging adulthood occurred within a socio-cultural context characterized by increasing secularization, pluralism, and individualization (Wilkins-Laflamme 2023, p. 2). These participants provide a critical lens for understanding how religious identities are negotiated in contemporary settings marked by competing value systems and diverse social influences. The analysis is further limited to participants who were socialized into religious traditions, as prior research suggests that early religious socialization provides a foundational framework for identity formation (Bengtson et al. 2013; Smith and Adamczyk 2021). From this group, four cases were selected to illustrate the various ways in which meaning-making unfolds at critical life junctures (see

Table 1. Interviewed family members and birth data.

Family Identifier	Generation 1	Generation 2	Generation 3
F2	Paternal Grandmother (b. 1933, Catholic)	Mother (b. 1960, Catholic)	Jean-Michel (b.1995, Spiritual)
	Paternal Grandfather (b. 1936, Catholic)	Father (b. 1960, Catholic)
F7	Maternal Grandmother (b. 1938, Lutheran)	Mother (b. 1969, Lutheran)	Anna (b. 1998, Lutheran)
F11		Father (b. 1951, Ismaili) Born in Tanzania Immigrated in 1979	Rahim (b. 1985, Ismaili) Born in Canada Rizwan (b. 1986, Not Religious) Born in Canada

), highlighting the processes and conditions that shape religious continuity, transformation, and decline. Two of the four cases are brothers who were deliberately selected as a paired comparison. Their shared family environment, immigrant background, and religious socialization, alongside their divergent religious trajectories, provide a particularly useful opportunity to examine how later touchpoints, turning points, and social supports can lead to different outcomes. These cases are intended to illustrate the conceptual framework developed in this paper rather than represent the frequency or predictability of particular outcomes. Generation 3 participants raised entirely outside of religion were excluded in order to more precisely examine how individuals with a religious foundation respond to challenges to their religious identities over the life course.

The analysis adopts a narrative and thematic approach, attending to how participants construct meaning through autobiographical storytelling (McAdams 2011; McLean and Breen 2009). Particular attention is given to moments in which participants describe experiences of tension, conflict, or transition in relation to their religious identities. Through iterative coding and comparative analysis, two key analytical concepts—touchpoints and turning points—emerged inductively from the data. Touchpoints refer to interpersonal or social encounters that generate cognitive or emotional tension, while turning points denote broader life transitions that prompt reflection and potential shifts in identity.

The analytic strategy focuses on how participants interpret these moments and the processes through which they resolve—or fail to resolve—cognitive dissonance. By comparing participants who maintained religious identities with those who transitioned toward non-religious or spiritual identifications, the analysis identifies patterns in how meaning-making unfolds under different social and contextual conditions.

As with all qualitative research, this study has limitations. The sample size is relatively small and not intended to be representative. Rather, the goal is analytical generalization—developing conceptual insights into the processes through which religious identity is negotiated. Additionally, the reliance on retrospective narratives means that findings reflect participants’ interpretations of past experiences, which may be shaped by present perspectives. However, as narrative scholars have argued, it is precisely these interpretations that are central to understanding identity construction (McAdams 2011, pp. 106–7; McLean and Pratt 2006, p. 715).

4.2. Analytical Framework: Touchpoints and Turning Points in Autobiographical Narratives

4.2.1. Storytelling and the Construction of Religious Identity

The narrative structure of the interviews provides an important entry point into understanding how religious identity is constructed and negotiated over time (McAdams 2011). Participants were invited to reflect on the role of religion in their upbringing, and in doing so, frequently identified key moments in which their beliefs were affirmed, challenged, or transformed. These narratives reveal how individuals make sense of their experiences retrospectively, constructing coherent accounts of identity that integrate moments of tension, disruption, and change.

Autobiographical storytelling is not simply a recounting of past experiences—it is a process through which individuals construct a narrative identity (McAdams 2011, p. 100; McLean and Breen 2009, p. 702). Through storytelling, individuals interpret past experiences, assign meaning to them, and situate themselves within an evolving life trajectory (McAdams and McLean 2013). For the purposes of this study, these narratives provide insight into how religious identities are shaped, particularly at moments when individuals encounter dissonance between their lived experiences and their broader belief systems. Such moments serve as key sites of meaning-making, where religious identity may be reaffirmed, revised, or abandoned.

4.2.2. Touchpoints: Social Encounters and Destabilizing Experiences

I define touchpoints as interpersonal encounters and social exchanges that generate tension, discomfort, or cognitive dissonance. These moments arise when new information, social interactions, or cultural expectations conflict with an individual’s existing global meaning system. Because religious beliefs often form a central component of identity (Park 2005), such discrepancies can be particularly destabilizing.

At these moments, individuals are confronted with the need to interpret and respond to dissonant experiences. As cognitive dissonance theory suggests, unresolved tension may lead individuals to reject, reinterpret, avoid conflicting information, or seek validation from like-minded others (Harmon-Jones and Mills 1999, pp. 6–7). In this sense, touchpoints do not automatically lead to transformation; they may instead reinforce existing beliefs when individuals rely on in-group support or defensive strategies.

Touchpoints can create the conditions for meaning-making. When individuals possess the interpretive tools and social support necessary to engage with dissonance, these encounters can prompt reflection and open the possibility for change. Across all participant narratives in the broader qualitative sample, common touchpoints included conflicts with religious authority, experiences of exclusion or otherness, or marginalization, exposure to progressive social values, and engagement with secular practices such as partying or drinking. While these experiences varied in intensity, they often marked the initial moments at which religious belief and identity were stressed or challenged.

4.2.3. Turning Points: Life Transitions and Self-Understanding

Turning points, by contrast, are the moments of transition or redirection in one’s life course—often signalling a shift in roles, perspectives, or self-understanding (Fiori et al. 2004). These moments typically involve shifts in social roles, environments, or relationships, such as entering higher education, relocating, forming or ending romantic relationships, career changes, or experiences of loss and crisis (Barry and Abo-Zena 2014b).

Turning points are significant not simply because they involve change, but because they require individuals to reassess their routines, beliefs, behaviour, and sense of self in relation to new circumstances (McLean and Pratt 2006, p. 715). As participants navigate these transitions, they often engage in deeper forms of reflection, asking whether their existing belief systems remain meaningful or viable. These moments therefore function as critical junctures at which religious identity may be reinforced, adapted, or relinquished.

Importantly, turning points are not inherently disruptive; their impact depends on how they are interpreted and, arguably, access to social supports. As narrative research suggests, it is the retrospective construction of these events as meaningful turning points—rather than the events themselves—that shapes identity (McAdams 2011, pp. 106–7; McLean and Pratt 2006, p. 715). In this study, turning points frequently intersected with touchpoints, as life transitions exposed individuals to new environments, encounters, and perspectives that generated personal reflection.

Distinguishing between touchpoints and turning points clarifies the processes through which religious identity is negotiated. Touchpoints operate at the level of encounters, generating moments of tension or dissonance. Turning points, on the other hand, are transitions—life trajectories prompting broader reflection and potential reorientation. When these processes intersect, they create powerful sites of meaning-making. The analysis that follows suggests that religious identity is not transformed through a single moment, but through an accumulation of experiences in which dissonance is either resolved, accommodated, or left unresolved.

This conceptual distinction provides the analytical foundation for the case studies that follow, which illustrate how meaning-making unfolds across different social contexts and life trajectories.

4.2.4. Immigrant Background, Otherness, and Meaning-Making

Migration background and minority experiences introduce unique sets of challenges and opportunities that impact religious identity formation, particularly through experiences of cultural difference and social marginalization. For individuals navigating multiple cultural contexts, encounters with the dominant society often function as touchpoints—moments that disrupt or complicate existing beliefs, values, and ways of being. These encounters can heighten self-awareness, prompting individuals to engage more consciously with their ethnic, cultural, and religious identities (Kramer 2016, p. 15). In this sense, experiences of otherness are not merely markers of difference; they can become critical sites of meaning-making.

Experiences that are perceived as stressful, exclusionary, or identity-threatening tend to provoke deeper reflection, increasing the likelihood of active meaning-making (McLean and Pratt 2006, p. 716; Park 2005). For individuals whose identities are frequently negotiated across cultural boundaries, such moments are often recurring rather than isolated. As a result, identity formation becomes an ongoing, dialogical process in which beliefs are continually re-evaluated in light of lived experience.

The extent to which these tensions are successfully integrated—or remain unresolved—plays a decisive role in whether religious identity is maintained, transformed, or abandoned across the life course.

5. Case Studies

The following four cases were selected from the Generation 3 participants who were socialized into religion during childhood and adolescence. They were chosen because they illustrate different ways in which meaning-making unfolded at important touchpoints and turning points, resulting in religious continuity, transformation, or movement away from institutional religion.

Two participants were raised in Catholic and Lutheran Christian traditions, while the other two are second-generation Shi’i Ismaili Muslim (henceforth, Ismaili) brothers from an immigrant background. The latter cases offer a particularly useful comparison: despite similar religious socialization and a shared family context, the brothers’ divergent life experiences led to different religious outcomes. Together, these cases allow us to observe how meaning-making unfolds under varying social conditions and at distinct touchpoints and turning points.

5.1. Jean-Michel (Family 2)

Jean-Michel (b. 1995) was raised in Quebec in a highly religious Catholic household, though his parents practiced a form of faith that was individualized and less institutionally anchored. His father, Paul, once considered the priesthood before becoming a psychologist, integrating religious ideas and values into his professional work. His mother, Myriam, came from an anti-religious family background shaped by negative experiences with Catholic leadership. She later pursued religion independently through study and mentorship. As a religious educator, Myriam socialized her children into Catholicism while allowing for interpretive flexibility and individualization.

Despite completing key Catholic sacraments, Jean-Michel experienced a disconnect between institutional religion and the more meaningful, individualized spirituality cultivated at home through family discussions. He felt that the church did a poor job of making the preparations for the sacraments as engaging and meaningful as his parents had: “They talked about the texts and teachings, but it was a bit childish, the way it was approached... Or it was too simplistic... And I wasn’t at all interested in what was going on”.

Other touchpoints emerged in elementary school, where he was teased for his mother’s role as the school’s religious educator. These experiences introduced feelings of embarrassment and prompted him to conceal aspects of his religious identity, marking the beginning of internal tension.

This tension intensified during high school, when his mother’s broadcasted religious sermons over the intercom at school further exposed him to peer scrutiny in an environment largely indifferent or hostile to religion, “I was a little embarrassed… It’s something that bothered me quite a bit, it made me a little uncomfortable”. The majority of his friends were averse to religion, and he described talking about religion with his peers as like “talking to a wall”. While two close Catholic friends offered some support, the absence of a broader reinforcing peer community appears to have contributed to a gradual weakening of his religious engagement.

A key turning point occurred during a trip to Europe, when Jean-Michel stayed with a spiritual mentor in Vienna—recommended by his parents—and encountered alternative spiritual frameworks. This experience prompted a process of accommodation, as he began to reinterpret his beliefs outside the structures of institutional Catholicism. He explored meditation, philosophy, and alternative spiritual practices, gradually constructing a more individualized and non-institutional form of spirituality: “Slowly, I discovered more of this aspect of life, philosophy or uh, a vision of nature… That’s how it started”. Unlike his earlier experiences with institutional religion, this encounter offered an interpretive framework that he found personally meaningful and engaging. Jean-Michel continues to identify culturally as Catholic, but no longer aligns with institutional belief and practice.

Jean-Michel’s trajectory illustrates a form of stress-related growth, in which repeated touchpoints—particularly experiences of social discomfort combined with weak communal reinforcement—together with a transformative turning point, redirected meaning-making toward a more individualized spiritual identity while preserving a sense of cultural continuity.

5.2. Anna (Family 7)

Anna (b. 2000), a Lutheran Christian from Alberta, was raised in a highly engaged religious environment where church participation structured both family life and social belonging. Her parents were deeply involved in church activities, and she regularly attended services, religious education classes, and community events. This consistent engagement provided a strong foundation of both belief and belonging.

Early touchpoints emerged in elementary school, where Anna encountered a predominantly secular peer environment that was often dismissive of Christianity. These experiences of marginalization positioned her as an outsider and created tension between her religious identity and social surroundings. However, rather than leading to withdrawal, these moments reinforced her attachment to her religious community, which she experienced as a space of acceptance and authenticity: “For me, going to church was a place where being a Christian, being a Lutheran, was a good thing and it was accepted and it was perfectly fine… when I go to church, I can be more myself than I can be at school… I had a hard time fitting in”. In this case, experiences of otherness functioned not as destabilizing forces, but as catalysts for deeper in-group identification, strengthening rather than weakening her religious commitment.

A more destabilizing touchpoint occurred during a leadership transition within her church, when her mother faced harassment and exclusion under new pastoral authority. This conflict introduced a lasting distrust of religious leadership and represents a significant moment of stress to her belief system: “I have a hard time feeling like I can trust religious leaders… I one hundred percent know that there are good leaders within the church, but I don’t trust them”. Rather than disengaging from religion altogether, however, Anna and her family sought out a new church community, demonstrating the importance of institutional flexibility and continued access to supportive networks.

A key turning point came with Anna’s transition to a Christian university. This new environment provided intellectual and theological tools that enabled her to engage critically with her faith:

I grew up in the space where you don’t talk about your faith, you don’t talk about spirituality at all… those things are very separate. And now I’m attending a school where they have chapel twice a week and you have to take religion classes. It’s very weird for me to be in the space of, ‘Oh, religion is something I can think about intellectually as a part of my learning’. And that has really been very important for me. And I honestly think it’s been really crucial to me still having a faith life.

Exposure to academic discussions of religion allowed her to reinterpret and integrate previously unresolved tensions, particularly those related to progressive social values like gender equality, social justice, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Through this process, Anna engaged in accommodation—reworking aspects of her belief system while maintaining her overall religious identity.

Anna’s trajectory illustrates how strong subcultural networks, combined with opportunities for flexible intellectual engagement, enabled her to reconcile dissonant experiences while remaining within her religious tradition. Rather than leading to disaffiliation, her touchpoints and turning points became opportunities to reinterpret and adapt her faith, resulting in a religious identity that was both resilient and transformed. Unlike Jean-Michel, whose meaning-making ultimately led him beyond institutional Catholicism, Anna’s meaning-making remained rooted within Christianity, allowing her to maintain continuity with her childhood tradition despite significant changes to how she understood and practiced it.

5.3. Rahim (Family 11)

Rahim (b. 1985), a second-generation Indo-East African Ismaili Muslim raised in Alberta, grew up in a highly cohesive religious and cultural environment. His family was deeply embedded in the Ismaili community, with regular participation in jamatkhana (congregational house),1 religious education, youth programming, and community events. Religious identity was reinforced through strong family bonds and consistent engagement with co-religionists, creating a cohesive network of social and religious support.

The family prayed together daily, and Sunday breakfasts were dedicated to discussing religion alongside important social and ethical issues. Much of the brothers’ lives revolved around family, faith, and community, with their parents serving as role models for living as practicing Muslims.

A significant turning point occurred when Rahim left home to attend university in Ontario. This transition introduced new social environments and exposure to alternative expressions of Muslim identity, including peers who did not observe religious practices as strictly. These encounters functioned as touchpoints, generating moments of dissonance as Rahim confronted differing interpretations of faith and lifestyle.

The presence of institutional and peer-based support—particularly the local and campus jamatkhanas alongside the Ismaili Student Association (ISA)—provided comfort, familiarity, and continuity across this transition. These networks functioned as stabilizing structures, allowing Rahim to maintain his practices and reinterpret challenges within a familiar framework of meaning: “Jamatkhana is the same [wherever you go]. It just feels like you’re home”. Rather than changing his beliefs or distancing himself from religion, Rahim interpreted these experiences in ways that reinforced his existing faith, deepening his engagement with in-group networks as a means of resolving cognitive discomfort.

Subsequent life transitions, including relocation and marriage, introduced additional moments of adjustment but did not fundamentally disrupt his religious trajectory. Although relocating required Rahim to re-establish meaningful religious ties, he moved with his Ismaili partner, whose shared religious identity provided an important source of continuity and support. Marriage further embedded religion within his family life. A particularly significant turning point occurred with the birth of his children, which deepened his commitment to religious practice and intergenerational transmission. This moment reactivated and intensified his engagement with the community, illustrating how life-course events can reinforce existing identities.

Rahim’s case demonstrates how consistent access to strong subcultural networks can buffer against the destabilizing effects of cognitive dissonance. Even when exposed to competing norms and values, the availability of communal and institutional support enabled him to sustain his religious identity and commitment across multiple life transitions.

5.4. Rizwan (Family 11)

Rizwan (b. 1986), Rahim’s younger brother, shared a similar religious upbringing, characterized by strong family involvement and deep immersion in the Ismaili community. Like his brother, he regularly attended jamatkhana, participated in community events, and maintained a social network largely composed of fellow Ismailis. This foundation initially supported the maintenance of his religious identity through adolescence and early adulthood.

A critical turning point emerged when Rizwan moved to the United Kingdom for graduate studies. Unlike his previous environments, this setting lacked the institutional and social supports that had previously reinforced his religious practices. The absence of an ISA and limited access to jamatkhana disrupted the continuity of his religious engagement. At the same time, he encountered a social culture in which activities such as drinking were deeply normalized and routinized, creating repeated touchpoints that conflicted with his existing belief system: “Everybody has a drink, and then you go to dinner, and everybody drinks wine and then you come back for port after dinner. [Drinking] was… woven into everything you did”.

Without a supportive in-group to mediate these tensions, Rizwan experienced increasing stress to his global belief system. Initially, he attempted to accommodate these discrepancies by privatizing and individualizing his religious practice. However, in the absence of communal reinforcement, these adaptations proved difficult to sustain: “[I] seriously thought about what all of this meant to me… I was just grappling with these questions of, well, what does this mean for me? Is it worth it for me to be doing this on my own? Because you’re going to have to push yourself to observe these rituals when it’s not happening at a community level”. This moment captures a shift from accommodation toward disengagement, as the burden of maintaining religious practice without social support became increasingly untenable.

Over time, Rizwan formed new social networks outside the Ismaili community and became increasingly integrated into secular environments. Rather than immediately abandoning his faith, he first adapted by privatizing his religious practice and attempting to maintain aspects of his religious identity on his own. As the communal context that had previously reinforced his beliefs became less accessible, however, he increasingly accommodated new values and experiences into his global meaning system, resulting in the gradual transformation of his religious identity. While he did not fully abandon his identity, it became increasingly cultural rather than religious in nature. He continues to identify as Ismaili and maintains occasional connections to the community, but without regular participation or strong belief commitment: “I have a lot of distance from the faith, [but] I think the cultural stuff is hugely important, and I wish I had the chance to go to [jamat]khana more often. I think of myself very much as an Ismaili, but I would say that because of cultural reasons”.

Rizwan’s trajectory highlights the limits of early religious socialization in the absence of sustained communal reinforcement. Although he shared a similar religious foundation with his brother, his later turning points unfolded in contexts where subcultural networks were more difficult to maintain or recreate. Whether these environments contributed to his gradual disengagement or increasingly reflected an identity already undergoing transformation is difficult to disentangle. What is evident, however, is that the weakening of communal support coincided with a gradual accommodation of new beliefs, values, and practices into his global meaning system, ultimately shifting his religious identity from primarily religious to predominantly cultural. His case illustrates how life transitions can expose individuals to conditions that either support or undermine meaning-making in favour of religion.

6. Discussion

The cases demonstrate that religious identity is actively negotiated during emerging adulthood, when participants encounter new environments, relationships, and competing worldviews. While religious upbringing remains important for religious continuity (Bengtson et al. 2013; Gärtner et al. 2025; Smith and Adamczyk 2021), emerging adulthood is a period during which religious trajectories are often renegotiated (Arnett 2014), making meaning-making central to understanding religious continuity and change. The following discussion examines the principal social, cognitive, and institutional conditions that shaped meaning-making processes and their implications for religious continuity and change at key life junctures.

Across the broader qualitative sample, the presence of strong subcultural communities emerged as one of the most consistent factors shaping meaning-making processes. While previous research has consistently identified sustained engagement with religious communities as an important predictor of intergenerational religious transmission (Bengtson et al. 2013; Cummins and Beyer 2026; Smith and Adamczyk 2021; Wuthnow 2000), the present findings help explain why. Participants who maintained religious identities, such as Anna and Rahim, continued to have access to communities that provided belonging alongside ideological and social resources that supported the development of, and ongoing access to, interpretive tools for meaning-making at touchpoints and turning points (Whitney and King 2014). By contrast, Jean-Michel and Rizwan illustrate different pathways through which these supports were weakened or lost. For Jean-Michel, weak community ties and tensions with institutional Catholicism emerged during adolescence and were later reconciled in his twenties through a transformative encounter with alternative spiritual frameworks. Rizwan, however, remained deeply engaged with the Ismaili community into emerging adulthood. His religious trajectory shifted only after relocating in his late twenties to an environment where he was unable to recreate the communal structures that had previously reinforced his faith and helped him navigate adversity. These cases raise a broader question of whether all religious traditions are equally effective at cultivating congregations and communities that function as sites for meaning-making and foster communal belonging that sustains religious continuity.

While religious communities can provide belonging and interpretive resources across the life course, religious traditions appear to differ in their capacity to nurture strong in-group identities and enduring forms of collective engagement and belonging. Bengtson et al. (2013) found that Mormons, Evangelicals, and Jews were much more embedded in community structures than others like Catholics and Mainline Protestants. Similarly, in our study, we found that Muslims and Evangelicals were more embedded in religious and cultural communities alongside subcultural networks like student associations, supporting continuity across life stages. Additionally, when community engagement goes beyond weekly worship to include volunteering, youth activities, summer camps, and life passages and celebrations (Bengtson et al. 2013, p. 166; Cummins and Beyer 2026), communal belonging is strengthened, providing enduring social support and interpretive resources that individuals can draw upon when navigating periods of adversity.

These findings highlight the central role of subcultural communities in sustaining religious continuity by reinforcing global meaning systems and supporting meaning-making processes. Regular engagement with religious communities reinforces one’s global meaning system, making it more resilient in the face of competing values and experiences. At the same time, these communities serve multiple functions: they provide interpretive resources for negotiating cognitive discrepancies and create social environments in which religious beliefs and practices are normalized, thereby reducing exposure to competing worldviews. Conversely, the absence of such communities leaves individuals more vulnerable to unresolved tension and increases the likelihood of religious decline or disaffiliation.

The experiences of immigrant participants underscore the importance of context in shaping religious resilience. Supportive communities, strong in-group bonds, and access to religious or cultural networks can buffer against the destabilizing effects of cognitive discrepancy and provide important resources for maintaining religious and cultural identity following migration (Čapo 2022; Güngör et al. 2011; Park 2010; van de Pol and van Tubergen 2014). In many cases, retreating into religious, cultural, or ethnic communities serves as a protective mechanism, providing both validation and interpretive resources for managing dissonance. These dynamics may help explain why some immigrant religious communities demonstrate resilience—even amid broader patterns of secularization. At the same time, it is important to recognize that experiences of discrimination and marginalization, while harmful, can in some cases reinforce communal identity through shared experiences of exclusion and solidarity (Bengtson et al. 2013, p. 166; Cummins and Hennig 2025; Putney et al. 2013).

For Rahim, strong communal ties provided continuity across life transitions, reinforcing his religious identity even in unfamiliar environments. For Rizwan, the absence of such structures during a critical turning point contributed to isolation and eventual disengagement. These contrasting trajectories illustrate how immigrant-related experiences can either strengthen or weaken religious identity, depending on the availability of supportive and normalizing social networks and interpretive resources.

At the same time, experiences of marginalization were not limited to immigrant participants. Several non-immigrant Christian participants in our Generation 3 sample, including Anna and Jean-Michel, described feeling like outsiders within increasingly secular social environments—a marked contrast to the experiences of most Christian participants from Generation 1, who came of age in a society where Christianity remained culturally normative and generally reinforced rather than challenged religious identity (Beyer and Legault-Leclair 2025). Like immigrant experiences of otherness, these moments functioned as touchpoints that heightened self-awareness and prompted reflection on religious identity. In Anna’s case, feeling marginalized for her beliefs intensified the need to make meaning of her religious identity in relation to dominant cultural norms and deepened her engagement with her community. As with immigrant participants, the outcome of these experiences depended on the availability of supportive in-group networks: where such support was present, marginalization reinforced religious commitment; where it was absent or insufficient, as with Jean-Michel and Rizwan’s cases, it contributed to distancing or disengagement.

These findings suggest that experiences of “otherness”—whether rooted in migration, religion, or broader cultural difference—constitute a common touchpoint through which meaning-making is initiated. While the sources and intensity of marginalization differ, the underlying mechanism remains consistent: experiences of social tension prompt individuals to either reinforce, reinterpret, or abandon their religious identities, depending on the resources available to them. This pattern is consistent with research demonstrating that experiences of minority status and perceived difference can heighten identity salience and strengthen in-group identification (Güngör et al. 2011; Putney et al. 2013; Tajfel and Turner 1986).

Importantly, the ability to resolve these tensions in ways that sustain religious identity depends on access to, and the development of, interpretive tools. Interview participants who engaged in open discussions about religion in childhood and adolescence were more likely to draw on theological, moral, and intellectual frameworks to accommodate stressful experiences without abandoning their faith. This was particularly evident in Anna’s case, where intellectual engagement enabled the reconciliation of progressive values within her belief system. By contrast, participants who lacked such resources often experienced unresolved dissonance, leading to gradual disengagement or reconfiguration of belief. This finding helps explain why previous research has consistently identified talking about religion as an important factor in intergenerational transmission (Denton et al. 2020; Dollahite and Thatcher 2008; Gärtner et al. 2025; Smith and Adamczyk 2021, pp. 54–55, 71–72). The exercise of talking about religion in open and non-judgmental ways appears to cultivate pathways to religious continuity not only by increasing confidence in articulating religious ideas (Smith and Adamczyk 2021, pp. 71–72) but also by scaffolding meaning-making. This finding is consistent with Whitney and King’s (2014) argument that religious communities function as contexts for meaning-making by creating opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and the exploration of religious beliefs. Further, conversation itself requires individuals to organize discrepant experiences into coherent explanations, consider multiple perspectives, and verbally work through inconsistencies—processes that facilitate the construction and revision of meaning (Clark 1993). In this way, discussions about religion—whether at home or in the community setting—provide children and adolescents with opportunities to develop the interpretive tools needed to navigate future challenges to their religious identities, while encouraging religion to be actively interpreted and personally appropriated rather than passively accepted or abandoned. Their effectiveness, however, also depends on whether the religious tradition itself allows sufficient flexibility to accommodate discrepant information.

Differences across religious affiliations also impacted religious outcomes. Protestant participants in the greater sample, regardless of generation, appeared to have greater flexibility in adapting their beliefs, often drawing on decentralized authority structures to accommodate tensions. In contrast, participants from more centralized traditions, particularly Catholicism, sometimes encountered greater difficulty resolving discrepancies, especially when institutional authority was perceived as rigid or unchanging. This finding is consistent with scholarship suggesting that contemporary Catholic disaffiliation is often driven less by a rejection of spirituality than by dissatisfaction with institutional authority, perceived rigidity, and the limited capacity of religious institutions to respond to changing social values (Hervieu-Léger 2000; Inglehart 2021; Turpin 2019). More broadly, these findings coincide with scholarship suggesting that religious continuity in secular societies increasingly depends on the capacity of religious traditions to accommodate individualized meaning-making and interpretive flexibility (Ammerman 2013; Hervieu-Léger 2000; Wuthnow 1998). At the same time, the present findings suggest that institutional flexibility is only one of several factors shaping religious continuity. Its influence appears to depend on the broader social and communal contexts in which meaning-making occurs, including access to supportive communities, opportunities for dialogue, and interpretive resources. The findings presented here suggest that strong communal belonging may reinforce existing global meaning systems by providing social validation and interpretive resources that enable individuals to resolve cognitive discrepancies while preserving their religious identities. This may help explain why more conservative religious traditions, despite offering less doctrinal flexibility, often demonstrate high rates of religious continuity through strong communal bonds and shared systems of meaning.

Viewed through Park’s framework, the four cases illustrate several distinct meaning-making trajectories. Rahim primarily assimilated challenging experiences into his existing global meaning system, reinforcing rather than altering his religious outlook. Anna assimilated conflict with religious leadership by reinterpreting these experiences, while accommodating progressive values, maintaining continuity with her Christian identity through the transformation of particular beliefs rather than the abandonment of her faith. Jean-Michel’s trajectory most closely resembles stress-related growth, as dissatisfaction with institutional Catholicism prompted the development of a broader individualized spirituality. Rizwan initially attempted to preserve continuity by maintaining religious practice despite the absence of community. As these efforts became increasingly difficult to sustain, however, his global meaning system gradually shifted through accommodation, resulting in an identity that remained culturally Ismaili but was no longer grounded in religious belief or practice. This gradual transformation may also resemble what Park describes as the partial “shattering” of a global meaning system, whereby aspects of one’s belief system become untenable and are reconstructed into a fundamentally different worldview. Together, these cases demonstrate that meaning-making is not simply an individual cognitive process but one that is also shaped by the availability of social supports, interpretive resources, and institutional contexts (Park 2010). Rather than occurring in isolation, meaning-making unfolded through ongoing interactions with families, communities, and religious institutions.

Taken together, the findings identify meaning-making at touchpoints and turning points as a key process through which religious identities are maintained, transformed, or abandoned. The direction of this process depends on personal motivation and the availability of social and cultural supports, interpretive resources, and flexibility within religious institutions and belief systems. Where these conditions enable individuals to reconcile religious beliefs with lived experience, continuity becomes more likely; where they are absent or insufficient, decline and disaffiliation become more likely.

7. Conclusions

This paper examined how individuals make meaning with and from religion at critical life junctures, with particular attention to the processes through which religious identities are sustained, transformed, or abandoned. Drawing on autobiographical narratives, the analysis identified key touchpoints and turning points where religious identities were stressed or challenged.

The findings show that early religious socialization provides important initial resources, but continuity depends on whether individuals have the support systems and interpretive tools needed to resolve cognitive dissonance at critical moments across the life course. Together, these resources support meaning-making processes that facilitate religious continuity by enabling individuals to assimilate or accommodate challenging experiences without abandoning their broader belief systems. In their absence, unresolved dissonance may accumulate over time, contributing to the gradual weakening or dissolution of religious identity.

This study also highlights the importance of flexibility within religious frameworks, as well as how experiences of internalized difference can shape religious identity trajectories. Participants who were able to reinterpret or adapt their belief system in response to cognitive discrepancies were more likely to maintain religious identities, even in transformed forms. By contrast, rigid belief systems often limited the capacity for meaning-making, increasing the likelihood of disengagement. Additionally, the findings suggest that experiences of otherness—particularly when difference becomes internalized among immigrant and minority populations—can intensify meaning-making processes, sometimes reinforcing in-group belonging but also, in the absence of support, contributing to disaffiliation.

Taken together, these findings offer a process-oriented account of religious decline in secular societies. Rather than viewing disaffiliation as a singular decision or simple rejection of religion, this study shows how it emerges through the cumulative effects of unresolved tension across life junctures. As secular environments become more dominant, maintaining religious identity requires sustained effort, access to supportive networks, and the ability to reinterpret belief systems in response to changing social realities.

By shifting the focus from outcomes to processes, this paper contributes to existing literature on religious transmission, transformation, and decline by developing a conceptual framework that demonstrates how meaning-making mediates the relationship between social context and religious identity over time. In doing so, it offers a process-oriented framework for understanding why similar life events can lead to religious continuity for some individuals and religious transformation or disaffiliation for others. Future research should continue to examine how meaning-making unfolds across diverse social contexts and among diverse (non)religious, cultural, ethnic, and migrant identities at touchpoints and turning points. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that religious continuity and decline are best understood not simply as the products of isolated life events, but as the cumulative outcomes of meaning-making processes unfolding at critical life junctures.