I might have a bit of an answer re: the Rumspringa thing- grain of salt, this isn’t based on research into the Amish per se, but on research into similar processes with other religious groups, namely, Evangelicals, and making a comparison. One of the reasons Evangelicals and Mormons send forth missionaries is to deepen the divide between their members and the ‘other’, because missionaries aren’t usually welcomed with open arms- most people find them deeply annoying. So you have these kids, out on their own for the first time, cut off from their families and communities, and thrown into entirely new ones, where they are generally rejected, belittled, antagonized, and sometimes outright attacked.
This can be deeply traumatizing, and rather than make the missionary go ‘hm, maybe what I’m doing is Annoying and Fucked Up,’ it usually makes them go ‘wow, the world outside my religion really is a terrible awful place like everyone said,’ so they bank hard and lean in even deeper into the cult, because they are comparatively more welcomed there than in the ‘outside world’.
I would imagine Rumspringa can have a similar affect on Amish youths- imagine you spent your entire life in a closed, isolated community, living in a very specific way in a close-knit community, and suddenly you step out into greater society- and it’s all different. Cultural norms are different, the people react to you strangely, you seem funny and weird and you’re devoid of both cultural touchstones and normative knowledge. Depending on how isolated you were, you might not even know how to navigate in this world on a fundamental level.
No matter how rebellious and excited you might be, this is going to be an overwhelming experience- you aren’t so much exploring your other options as you are getting beat upside the head with an alternative you were in no way shape or form prepared for, making that alternative scarier and harder to adapt to. There’s a lot of secret rules and hidden loops to modern society that can be tough to overcome even when you’re born inside it, nevermind raised explicitly to avoid it.
So if we look at it through this lens, Rumspringa is less an encouragement of independence, and more like a subtle threat. This is the world you have to look forward to if you leave. It’s confusing and complicated and full of rejection and is going to punish you for existing in it. Might as well stay here, where it’s safe and familiar.
This is somewhat touched on if you read interviews with ex-amish folks, although this will also by necessity be from people with the biggest bones to pick about the community, and had some of the worse experiences. I found this interview on VICE, and some of the interviewee’s quotes on leaving:
The biggest physical challenge was that I didn’t know how to survive or act in the outside world. I didn’t know how to get a job. I had only a third-grade education. […]
Everything felt loud and scary. The electric lights hurt my eyes, and I was constantly turning them off. I was even scared of the hairdryer at first, because it made so much noise. I felt very overwhelmed for about six months.
Plus, there’s always the fact that if you do decide to peace out on Rumspringa. Well, that’s your entire family gone. That’s all your friends, siblings, cousins. You just don’t have those anymore. You will likely be shunned by them, if you try to stay in contact at all. It’s an emotional toll that can be difficult to overcome in its own right, especially when you’re young.
You don’t have to tie someone down with threats to make them stay where you want them. You just have to convince them the alternative is worse.
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