In the modern US, where most adolescents spend nearly nine hours a day consuming media, entertainment and digital platforms represent a space in which adolescent spiritual and religious flourishing can be either promoted or extinguished. Yalda Uhls and Alisha Hines at the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA are piloting a project to explore how adolescents use digital media to develop, express, and share their religious and spiritual identities, and how media creators may (or may not) intentionally support that development.

The research will investigate:

• How, when, and where adolescents use entertainment and digital media (e.g., films, shows, social media) to cultivate their religious and spiritual identities;
• How adolescents use media to communicate their beliefs, learn about others’ spiritual worldviews, and build community, and how it  impacts their flourishing;
• How adolescents speak about spirituality, religion, and identity, and if  their language distinct (e.g., age-specific) in ways that could help researchers, practitioners, and storytellers better support them.

To address these questions, data will be collected from 125 adolescents across major faith traditions (Catholic, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant and Latter-day Saints, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu, Muslim, and “None”) through focus groups exploring topics including the accuracy of media representations, online faith communities, identity formation, and media as a space for practice. Standard qualitative methods will be used alongside a nationally representative survey to map broader trends in adolescents’ spiritual and religious development through media.

Findings will be shared through a Creative Collaboration Workshop involving researchers, entertainment professionals, religious practitioners, community partners, and youth. The workshop will generate actionable insights to guide content creators in producing spiritually resonant and inclusive content. It is hoped that the findings gained through this pilot project will inspire further research on the intersection of religiosity, spirituality, and media use/consumption among adolescents in global contexts.