Religion often creates cultural meaning for interpersonal relations as individuals and societies develop interactively (Etengoff & Daiute, 2013). Religious tools, such as God and texts, have reportedly been used in both relationally adaptive and maladaptive ways (Brelsford & Mahoney, 2009;Brelsford, 2011). Extant research regarding relational uses of religion largely focuses on Christian dyads' general conflicts, as opposed to conflicts related to religious prohibitions. This study expands the current research regarding theistic triangulation (i.e., God/faith positioned as an ally against other party) and mediation (i.e., God/faith invoked constructively to mediate conflict), by focusing on gay men and their Jewish and Christian relatives' accounts of relational religious tool use (Brelsford & Mahoney, 2009;Brelsford, 2011). 23 gay men (10 Jewish backgrounds, 13 Christian backgrounds) and 15 of their religious family allies (7 Jewish, 8 Christian) completed semistructured interviews focusing on the quality of their post-coming-out relationships and how they use religion to negotiate associated conflicts. Interviews were analyzed utilizing an applied cultural historical analysis (Etengoff & Daiute, 2013). 74% (17/23) of gay men reported that their religious relatives utilized theistic triangulation in post-coming-out conflicts. 65% (15/23) of gay participants reported that theistic triangulation negatively impacted their familial relationships. Alternatively, 69% (16/23) of gay participants also spoke highly of religious family allies that navigated post-coming-out issues and conflicts effectively. These findings illuminate the necessity of including socioreligious contexts in our study and treatment of gay men and their religious families.

Much of the religious/spiritual development of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals (GLBs) has focused on experiences of conflict and distress, providing little insight into how these identities can be integrated. The present study explored the religious and spiritual lives of GLBs with a specific focus on the integration of these identities. We conducted a retrospective secondary data analysis of 750 GLB individuals from the Northern California Health Study to quantitatively assess sexual orientation and religion/spirituality integration using hierarchical cluster analysis. Resulting MANCOVA analyses of the five revealed groupings (integrated, gay identity struggle, anti-religious/spiritual, secular, and low gay salience) present numerous statistically significant differences between these integration clusters and a variety of dependent variables including measures of demographics, religiosity/spirituality, gay identity, and multiple mental health outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings while also making suggestions for future research.

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Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in America, with approximately 6 to 7 million Muslims living in America within the past decade. However, there has been little psychological research conducted focusing on the development of the Muslim American self. This inquiry addresses that gap by focusing on how familial religious affiliation during childhood and the everyday environmental activity systems of emerging adulthood impact religious practice and the construction of the religious self among Sunni-Muslim American emerging adults (N = 63, 18-29 years) via the development of diverse mediational strategies. Utilizing an applied cultural historical activity theory–based analysis, the authors found that participants’ religious development emerged as a diverse and dynamic process developing in relation to the interacting activity systems and sociorelational contexts of emerging adulthood.