Springtide Research Institute was recently featured in Crux. This article, Study finds young strong in faith amid virus, but increasingly lonely by Christopher White, is reprinted in part below, but we encourage you to visit their site to read the piece in its entirety.

NEW YORK – A new study finds that while young people are experiencing heightened levels of loneliness and isolation as a result of social distancing, they are not experiencing a decline in their faith. 

Among those surveyed, 35 percent of respondents said that they are actually experiencing an increase of faith, and 46 percent attested to having developed new religious practices. 

Yet while Church leaders may be relieved by that data, 50 percent of those who’ve attended an online service also reported they don’t have anyone to talk to about how they are feeling, and 44 percent report feeling isolated because no one has reached out to them. 

Further, clergy or faith leaders account for less than one percent of those adults who’ve reached out to young people, who represent what the study labels one of the “most lonely and isolated generations that have ever existed.” 

In addition, the survey found a severe lack of trust in institutions. On a scale from 1 to 10, over 60 percent of young people rank their trust level at 5 or lower for a range on institutions, including organized religion, with religious practice not offering a “protective effect” against the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” 

(Christopher White, Crux, April 20, 2020)

Click here to read the article in full.