The population of religious “nones,” those who do not affiliate with any religion, is continually growing. Many of those who identify as nones have exited from religious traditions. Sparse research has examined the psychological processes involved in religious exit. Although various theories of religious exit have been proposed, they have provided limited empirical utility for psychological research. Immigration psychology, with its empirically well-established paradigms, may provide a better theoretical basis with which to understand religious exit. More specifically, the push (from origin group) and pull (towards destination group) theory of migration may be useful in understanding what motivates individuals to leave religions, and the individual psychological experiences of the religious exit process. Further, the push and pull theory may inform the trajectories of disaffiliates and their psychological wellbeing and adjustment post religious exit. This study’s main aim was to empirically establish a measure of push-pull forces for religious exit. To accomplish this goal, Latent Variable Modeling was performed to reduce a larger push-pull item bank (38 items) to a brief 8-item scale. Hypothesis testing using correlation and Structural Equation Modeling demonstrated that push and pull are associated with mental health outcomes for those leaving religions.
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