July 1, 2010 | Editor's note: Scroll down for the quiz.

Restless youth seeking to forge their own identities are a demographic group that religious communities will always have with them.

And whether it is a 19th-century evangelist warning about dance halls or moonlit buggy rides down the wrong path or a 21st-century prophet relying on anecdotal evidence to proclaim a generation “spiritual but not religious,” there will be no shortage of alarms sounded about the future of religious belief.

Yet, amid the temptations of sweeping simplistic answers, there is an impressive, growing body of contemporary research that religious leaders can turn to for guidance on how to reach the next generation.

It will not be easy. It never has been. Young adulthood is a time of transition and freedom during which religious practice is one of many life choices competing for attention.

Religious participation increases with age and family status, notes sociologist Mark Chaves of Duke University, and part of the reason today’s young adults are even less likely to participate in congregations is they are more likely to marry later and be childless than earlier generations.

The “age effect” is not the only challenge facing congregations. Declines in attendance among mainline and Catholic young adults go beyond what one would expect from their age group.

Yet there are also many signs of hope that puncture popular generalizations that the current generation is alienated from organized religion or, in pop-culture speak, “spiritual but not religious.”

In fact, several major national studies show that the core faith of young Americans has changed little in the last four decades.

In the Panel Study of American Religion and Ethnicity led by researchers at Rice University and the University of Notre Dame, more than half of respondents ages 18-29 said religion or religious faith was very important, extremely important or the most important part of their lives.

Only 14 percent of respondents in this age group, compared with 11 percent of all respondents, said religion was not important. Eighty-two percent of young adults said they believe God loves them and cares about them, the same percentage as the overall response.

If one is looking for significant differences in the beliefs of young people today compared with earlier generations, “It’s just hardly there,” said Michael Emerson of Rice, a director of the religion panel study.