Religion and Applied Developmental Science

Applied Developmental Science

Applied developmental science (ADS) has brought renewed attention to the significance of religion in the process of human development. Four major themes of ADS are that (1) there is a fused relationship between an individual and the different environments he or she grows up in; (2) there is the potential for positive change and development; (3) development is a life span process; and (4) there is diversity both within an individual's own developmental trajectory and between the developmental trajectories of different individuals. Recognizing the importance of the environments and contexts in which people live and grow as being potentially influential in affecting development, ADS highlights the potential importance of the religious context and community in positive development. In addition, given the collaborative nature among scholars, scientists, practitioners, and people within ADS, this scientific movement has the potential to influence the understanding and practice of religion as it relates to human development (Lerner, 2002).

ADS is based on developmental systems theories (see, e.g., Lerner, 2002), which explain human development as occurring as a result of interactions between people and the many different levels of systems they encounter during their lifetimes. These systems include everything from a person's biological makeup, family, friends, schools, culture, religion, and even the historical period in which the person lives. When applied to religion, developmental systems theories reveal the potential richness and complexity of resources available for development within the religious context. They emphasize how individual processes and contextual influences interact and change across time. Consequently, core individual capacities, such as intellectual, physical, emotional, moral, and spiritual processes, are important components of the system, as are contextual factors such as beliefs, social influences, and even potential supernatural influences. Most important, ADS calls attention to the interaction between these personal and environmental factors over time. When the individual and different systems or environments interact in adaptive ways across time, positive change is experienced in both the person and the environments in which the person lives. ADS provides a means for understanding how an individual might interact and grow in a positive trajectory in the context of religion (Lerner, Dowling, & Anderson, 2003).

Recognizing the broad diversity of religious traditions and practices, it would be difficult to address all the possible contexts related to religion. Certainly, contexts such as faith-based institutions, faith-based activities such as youth programs, and religiously devoted families are common contexts of influence. Whereas there are a great number of shared contexts of influence, the religious contexts that are more individual (e.g., personal places of prayer and meditation, personal resources such as scripture, psalm, and art) are innumerable. As such, religious contexts can be diversely described both between and among individuals and between and among groups. In addition, for each individual and group, the influence of multiple levels of the context on religious development changes across time. Examining three broad categories of potential contextual influences within religion provide a means to understand the different levels of influence within a religious context. These contextual categories are the ideological, the social, and the spiritual (King, 2003).

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