Implicit religion, extrinsic religious orientation and consumerism: Exploring what ‘no religion’ young people do to make themselves feel better

McKenna, U., Francis, L.J. and Stewart, F. (2025) Implicit religion, extrinsic religious orientation and consumerism: Exploring what ‘no religion’ young people do to make themselves feel better. Journal of Religious Education. ISSN 1442-6200

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Abstract

The present study tests the connection among 8,084 unchurched 13- to 15-year-old students between consuming chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol to make themselves feel better and levels of purpose in life and suicidal ideation. After controlling for personal factors (sex and age) and psychological factors (extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism) the data demonstrated that such consumption was associated with lower levels of purpose in life and higher levels of suicidal ideation. This connection is explored in light of Edward Bailey’s theory concerning implicit religion and Gordon Allport’s theory concerning extrinsic religious orientation.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Published by Springer in 2025. This is an author accepted manuscript of a published open access article available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-025-00260-9. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.
Keywords:	implicit religion religious orientation chocolate caffeine alcohol purpose in life suicidal ideation
Depositing User:	Ursula Mckenna
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2025 10:06
Last Modified:	18 Aug 2025 10:06
URI:	https://lbro.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/1252

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