PARENTAL RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AS A PREDICTOR OF IDENTITY STYLES OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

This case study is an endeavour to discuss the parental religious orientation as a predictor of identity styles of university students. Developed questionnaires were used for parents to collect data about their religious orientation as well as for university students about their identity styles. Total 1887 university students of 1st to 8th semesters and their parents from 10 public universities in Pakistan were selected through random sampling technique. Path analysis in Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) was used in order to calculate the relationship between parental religious tilt and university students’ individual styles. The study revealed that extrinsic religious orientation is a major contributor in developing diffusive/avoidant identity style. On the other hand parental intrinsic religious orientation plays lesser role in diffusive identity style.