Youth worldwide reluctant to discuss their identity with pastors, religious leaders: study

September 11, 2026

A new study suggests that youth worldwide are reluctant to discuss who they are with pastors and religious leaders, and many don’t feel like they belong in their faith communities.

The Christian Post reports that the Christian youth ministry organization Young Life released a report Thursday which documents the opinions of young people across the globe on their faith, sense of belonging and who they trust.

The report titled “The Relate Project 2026: Connecting with the Next Generation,” is based on responses collected from 7,105 respondents between the ages of 13 and 24 living in the United States, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Argentina, India and Liberia between November 2025 and January 2026.

Young Life Director of Research and Evaluation Kim Nollan told The Christian Post, “A few years ago, our staff were meeting and we realized that with some of the technology changes and social media, that there were influences on today’s teens and young adults that maybe we didn’t feel so equipped to meet.”

Nollan added, “And so we were curious about young people and wanted to learn more about them, make sure that we understand culture, what’s important to them, what their relationships look like with one another, with themselves, what they think about faith, and all kind of wanting to make sure that we were … knowing enough to be able to come up alongside people to help them flourish in life.”

According to the Christian Post, respondents were asked where they felt like they “most fit in or belong” and were given the option to pick up to two answers.

Among the entire sample, family and friends were the most commonly selected answers, followed by both school and online.

Religious respondents were more likely to identify family and their faith community as one of the places where they “most fit in or belong” than their non-religious counterparts.

By contrast, 61% of atheists named their families as the place where they “most fit in or belong,” while 66% pointed to their friends and smaller percentages said the same about online and school.

Nollan told the Christian Post that Young Life plans to conduct another version of this survey in 2028 and hopes to include more countries.

Photo: top, Credit: Courtesy New Life Church