Openness and spiritual development in adolescents

Parent and peer relationships and relational spirituality in adolescents and young adults.

“…The Parental Spiritual Support Scale was developed for the purposes of this study to assess adolescent perceptions of their parents' willingness and openness to discuss and support the development of their religiosity and spirituality and their level of comfort having those discussions. The development of the items included in the scale was driven by qualitative interview data described in Kelley, Athan, and Miller (2007), and by theoretical assumptions generalized from extant research on the influence of parenting qualities on adolescent spiritual development. The scale consists of six items, with three assessing maternal support and three assessing paternal support.…”

“…Previous research has demonstrated both parents and friends to be highly significant contributors to spiritual/religious development in adolescents (Boyatzis, Dollahite, & Marks, 2006;DeVaus, 1983;Kelley, Athan, & Miller, 2007;Myers, 1996;Regenerus, Smith, & Smith, 2004;Schwartz, Bukowski, & Aoki, 2006). Integrated with current findings on the partial heritability of the augmented capacity for relational spirituality, the authors from this research team propose that parents can serve as facilitators of spiritual development by offering spiritual support throughout the adolescent individuation process.…”

“…Within this framework of understanding, Relational Spirituality can also extend to shape daily relationships with fellow humans through the practice of forgiveness, where forgiveness is conceptualized as a spiritual approach toward interpersonal relationships (Krumrie, Mahoney, & Pargament, 2008;McCullough, Bono, & Root, 2005). dow for cultivation of an explicitly personal relationship to G-d (i.e., Relational Spirituality), a process which transpires through questioning and exploring spiritual/religious beliefs and practices (Fowler, 1981;Good & Willoughby, 2008;Kelley, Athan, & Miller, 2007;Marcia, 1980;Ozorak, 1989), and can culminate in a personally chosen spirituality that tends to persist into adulthood (Good & Willoughby, 2008;Kendler, Gardener, & Prescott, 1997;Kendler et al, 2003;Mirola, 1999). Viewed from the developmental stage models of Fowler (1981) and Marcia (1980), the process of clarifying spiritual/religious questions and developing a personally meaningful sense of relation with G-d may be fostered through familial and social contexts.…”