Religious deidentification has been conceptualized as a multidimensional process of identity change, one aspect of which is perceiving prior religious belonging as a constraint (Van Tongeren & DeWall, 2023; Falewicz et al., 2026). Because religion can serve as a meaning-making framework for coping with life stress (Park, 2005), changes in religious identity may weaken interpretive resources and disrupt one’s sense of coherence. From a meaning-making perspective, this disruption may impair psychological adjustment, especially when accompanied by lower authenticity and reduced meaning-making capacity (Park, 2010). The present study examined whether the link between the religion-as-a-constraint aspect of religious deidentification and psychological distress is explained by lower authenticity and reduced meaning-making. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 207 participants (163 women; 𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑒=25.8, 𝑆𝐷=9.07). Measures included the Multidimensional Scale of Religious Deidentification (Falewicz et al., 2026), the Meaning-Making Questionnaire (Krok & Zarzycka, 2020), the Authenticity Scale (Jastrzębski et al., 2025), and the General Health Questionnaire-12 (Makowska & Merecz, 2001). Religion as a constraint was positively associated with psychological distress and negatively associated with authentic living and meaning-making. Authentic living was positively related to meaning-making and negatively related to distress, whereas meaning-making was negatively related to distress. Bootstrap analyses indicated a significant serial indirect effect (β = .0025, 95% CI [.0008, .0047]), such that the association between religion as a constraint and psychological distress was mediated by lower authentic living and reduced meaning-making. These findings suggest that religious deidentification may undermine well-being by weakening fidelity to the self and limiting meaning-making resources.
Authenticity and Meaning-Making as Pathways Linking Religious Deidentification to Psychological Distress