Religious Conversion: Is It an Adolescent Phenomenon? The Case of Native British Converts to Islam

Köse, Ali̇

doi:10.1207/s15327582ijpr0604_2

Cited by 23 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Even the least frequently cited one (influence of friends) was acknowledged as an important reason by almost 17% of respondents. Consistent with previous literature (Haddad, 2006; Kose, 1996a; Wohlrab-Sahr, 2006), our findings support Kose’s (1996b) finding that conversion to Islam is a complex decision typically occurring in adulthood. These women rated multiple reasons for conversion that, with only a few exceptions, were also positively intercorrelated, suggesting that conversion is a multidimensional decision.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Moreover, qualitative analysis suggested the appreciation of Islamic tenets as another common reason for conversion. Second, it is also noteworthy that conversions typically occurred in adulthood, consistent with Kose’s (1996b) study and that almost 30% of these women reported graduate education. Together, these findings contradict any popular assumption that women’s conversion to Islam is due to extenuating circumstances.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Research regarding conversion to Islam in the contemporary West (Kose, 1996b; Lakhdar et al, 2007) is rare. No quantitative study has examined persons who choose Islam in the United States, nor has any quantitative study focused on Muslim women.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Reasons for conversion to Islam among women in the United States.

Maslim

Bjorck

2009

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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Fuller Theological SeminaryNine reported reasons for converting to Islam were quantitatively assessed regarding prevalence and importance among 304 women in the United States. The appeal of Muslim moral values and dissatisfaction with one's former faith were primary reasons, followed closely by enhanced sense of identity and alignment with cultural views (regarding ethnic diversity and gender roles). Active (theological and personal) reasons for conversion were more important and prevalent than passive (social) reasons. Qualitative analyses of additional write-in responses suggested four other reasons for conversion, including the appeal of Muslim tenets and an increased sense of significance/meaning. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Reasons for conversion to Islam among women in the United States.

Maslim

Bjorck

2009

Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

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“…Psychologists have mostly focused on conversion experiences in a Judaic and Christian religious context, primarily within Protestant evangelicalism and to a lesser degree Roman Catholicism and Judaism. Few psychological studies describe conversion to and from non-Western religions such as Buddhism or Islam (for recent examples, see Köse, 1996aKöse, , 1996band Köse & Loewenthal, in press).…”

Section: The Meaning and Varieties Of Conversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Conversion and Personality Change

Paloutzian¹,

Richardson²,

Rambo³

1999

Journal of Personality

220

126

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The question of whether religious conversion causes changes in someone's personality is examined in light of two bodies of literature-the research on personality change and the research on conversion. When the theory and research on personality change is applied to the question of whether conversion causes such change, the answer depends on what level of personality is of concern. Research on the relation between religious conversion and a variety of behavioral, attitudinal, emotional, and lifestyle variables is consistent with this conclusion. Although conversion seems to have minimal effect on elemental functions such as the Big Five traits or temperaments, it can result in profound, life transforming changes in mid-level functions such as goals, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors, and in the more self-defining personality

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“…Specifically, we can reject the psychological notion 14 In the course of researching for this article, i came across one study that found that native British converts to Islam became Muslim at an average age of thirty (29.7). The author did not say anything about changing conversion ages across time, but he did emphasize that such conversions were more likely to occur post-adolescence (Kose 1996). that joining a contemporary new religion is primarily a response to an ado lescent development crisis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Youth-Crisis Model of Conversion: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed?

Lewis

2014

Numen

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Initially formulated in the 1970s when large numbers of former counterculturists were joining alternative religions, the youth-crisis model of conversion posited that new recruits were predominantly young people whose involvement could be explained as a function of their youth (e.g., as an adolescent developmental crisis). The present study presents statistics on recruits to seven different contemporary new religions that fun damentally challenge this item of conventional wisdom. Six out of seven data sets also embody a striking pattern of gradually increasing age across time for new converts.In addition to uncovering the growing age-at-recruitment pattern -which I desig nate the E-correlation -I argue that: (1) With the exception of efforts to understand true youth movements such as Internet Satanism, attempts to interpret conversions to contemporary emergent religions as being a function of the imputed youthfulness of recruits is no longer in touch with the reality on the ground. (2) The persistence of the characterization of converts as youthful reflects a failure to build a strong empirical base for such generalizations. Instead, we have relied upon quantitative work carried

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Religious Conversion: Is It an Adolescent Phenomenon? The Case of Native British Converts to Islam

Cited by 23 publications

References 7 publications

Reasons for conversion to Islam among women in the United States.

Reasons for conversion to Islam among women in the United States.

Religious Conversion and Personality Change

The Youth-Crisis Model of Conversion: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed?

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