Pascarella, E. T. and P. T. Terenzini. 2005. How College Affects Students: A Third Decade of Research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
This book provides a broad, synthetic overview of research on how college students change during college. Its scope is much broader than religion, but it does include some analysis of religious change in college. The authors discuss recent research that shows that college students do not reject religion, but rather “refine and reinterpret previously held beliefs into more complex, personalized, and internalized concepts.” Additional findings include: students seem to become more tolerant of religious diversity in college; there is limited evidence that students at Christian schools experience less decline in religiosity than those at other schools; and students who live on campus appear to become more irreligious than those who live off campus.
