Aspects of identity in a British Christian sample

Quantitative studies on religiosity and identity appear to be generally absent. In the present study we investigated this relationship, and predicted that personal identity would be positively associated with church attendance, and mainly intrinsic and quest Christian religious orientations, while social identity would exhibit a positive association with extrinsic orientation. A total of 161 British Christian adults took part in the study and responded to standardized measures of Christian religiosity and identity. The predicted relationship between religiosity and aspects of identity was to an extent supported. As expected, personal identity showed a positive association with quest, while social identity was positively related to extrinsic-personal, and negatively to intrinsic. Counter to our predictions, church attendance had an inverse association with social identity, while it lacked an obvious association with personal identity. It appears that the social expressions of Christians are more likely to be concerned with broad inclusive collective identities.