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Expressions of Religiosity andSpirituality among Australian 14Year OldsKath EngebretsonPublished online: 21 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: Kath Engebretson (2002) Expressions of Religiosity and Spiritualityamong Australian 14 Year Olds, International Journal of Children's Spirituality, 7:1,57-72, DOI: 10.1080/13644360220117604

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International Journal of Children’s Spirituality,Vol. 7, No. 1, 2002

Expressions of Religiosity and Spiritualityamong Australian 14 Year Olds [1]KATH ENGEBRETSONAustralian Catholic University, St. Patrick’s Campus, 115 Victoria Pde, EastMelbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. E-mail. k.engebretson@patrick.acu.edu.au

ABSTRACT This article describes and reports on part of a research project that was carriedout by three researchers, among 248 Year 6 (11 years old) and 338 Year 9 (14 years old)students in the Catholic schools of Victoria, Australia. The research set out to discoverinformation about religious af� liation and practice among the young people, the ways inwhich they typically expressed spirituality, and the extent to which religious af� liation andpractice did or did not provide a framework for, and nurture, their spirituality. This paperreports on the � ndings of the research in relation to the Year 9 students, detailingcharacteristics of the spirituality of the young people and demonstrating that it cannot beassumed that Church af� liation and practice nurture young peoples’ spirituality. Theresearch was introductory and provocative in that it indicates some discrepancies with otherresearch in one of its six areas, that of religious practice. While possible reasons for thisdiscrepancy are given, it is hoped that the research described here will provoke further andmore speci� c studies.

Introduction

The issues surrounding young people, religious af� liation, spirituality and the waysin which spirituality is expressed, are of interest not only to educators, but also toChurch ministers, families and welfare groups that work with young people. Thisarticle reports on a small research project that was conducted among two groups ofAustralian young people who attend Catholic schools in the Victorian metropolitanArchdiocese of Melbourne, and the rural diocese of Ballarat. The groups consistedof 248 Year 6 students (11 years old) and 338 Year 9 students (14 years old). Theaims of the research were three-fold. The � rst aim was to determine the extent ofreligiosity among the students. The second aim was to seek information about thespirituality of the students, and particularly the ways in which they express spiritual-ity. The third aim was to determine the extent to which religious af� liation andpractice did or did not provide a support for spirituality for the students who werereligiously af� liated. For reasons that will be explained in a later section of the paper,the research is presented as introductory and provocative, in that it raises issues and

ISSN 1364-436X print; 1469-8455 online/02/010057-16 Ó 2002 Taylor & Francis LtdDOI: 10.1080/13644360220117604

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58 K. Engebretson

questions that help to guide further research in this area at local school level and inwider environments.

The Terms Religiosity and Spirituality

The term religiosity was used throughout the research to denote acceptance of anda level of practical commitment to a religious tradition, while the word spiritualitywas used to refer to the spiritual dimension of life, which can, but does notnecessarily relate to a speci� c faith tradition. In this research spirituality was seen asa sense of relatedness to something which is beyond, yet connected to the self, andwhich is approachable through life experience. This may be a personal or non-per-sonal presence, which is apprehended by the individual as God, or power orpresence (Hay & Nye, 1998). Harris (Harris & Moran, 1998, p. 109) describesspirituality as ‘our way of being in the world in the light of the Mystery at the coreof the universe’, and sees it as personal and communal, concerned with justice andwith the non-human universe, relating to age as well as the Age, concerned withexperiences and the rituals that emerge from them and involving new and re� nedunderstandings of the sacred. For Harris, these seven components are ‘interpretivekeys’ to the spirituality of the past, present and future. This understanding, amongmany ways of describing spirituality, informed the research.

The Middle School

This research focused on students in the middle years of schooling in Catholicschools in Victoria. The term middle school is often used to describe studentsbetween Years 5 and 9, or between 11 and 14 years of age (Cummings, 1996). Twogroups at either end of the middle school were selected, (Years 6 and 9), in orderthat speci� c areas of development and change may be discovered. This articlehowever, for reasons of length, reports only on the research with the Year 9 group.

During the past decade there has been a growing interest, both locally andglobally, in the middle years of education. Many students have experienced a senseof frustration and, indeed, alienation during these years (Braggett, 1997) andschools are challenged to discover ways in which to address the problems of thisperiod. One approach to this has been the development, in some Australian schools,of separate middle school campuses in secondary schools, where 13–15 years oldspursue a curriculum that has been developed with their psychological well-being inmind.

Religiosity and spirituality are acknowledged as positive factors in the lives ofmany young people. Belief in moral values, which in the context of this research maybe linked to religiosity or spirituality or both, has been identi� ed as one of 10protective factors that help to immunize young people from destructive and anti-so-cial behaviour. The Survey of Risk and Protective Factors carried out by HumanServices Victoria (1999), involved 9000 young people in Year 9 in the schools ofVictoria. It identi� ed 25 risk factors for young people, within the four categories ofcommunity, school, family and peer/individual. Within the same four categories 10

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 59

protective factors were identi� ed. It was found that belief in moral values was oneof the factors that helped to prevent self-destructive and anti-social behaviour amongyoung people. Not only religious schools and Churches, but all those who work withthis age group, need to understand something of the ways in which middle schoolstudents think about spirituality, and to provide for its development in a range ofprogrammes.

The Research Context

Turning away from the Churches

Recent research has demonstrated that in most Western secularized countries, whilethere is a growing interest in spirituality and a growing willingness to claim belief inGod, the mainstream Christian Churches are losing the place they once held asmediators of faith and spirituality (Brienen, 1998, p. 2; Kay & Francis, 1996). Thistrend is certainly true of Australia (McKay, 2000). Among Australian Catholicyouth there is a widespread rejection of institutional religion, with the NationalCatholic Life Survey showing that only 5% of Catholic young people between theages of 15 and 19 attend Church regularly (Australian Catholic Bishops’ Confer-ence, 1996),[2] although this rises to about 18% of Catholics over 40. Statisticsfrom other religions in Australia con� rm this trend (Godley & Hughes, 1998; Schild& Hughes, 1998; Blombery, 1998; Burke & Hughes, 1998), although there are signsof particularly strong growth in attendance at Pentecostal Churches (McKay, 2000,p. 221).

The privatization of belief and the individualism in religiosity and spirituality,upon which researchers have commented (Brienen, 1998; Crawford & Rossiter,1991) are readily recognizable among today’s young people. Combined with this isan increasing rejection of the mainstream Churches as mediators of faith andmeaning, even among those who have been immersed in a Church culture throughtheir families and schools. A key � nding of the project Young People and the FutureConsultation (Australian Episcopal Conference, 1998) conducted by the AustralianBishops’ Committee for Justice, Development and Peace, found that there was alevel of cynicism and disappointment among young people towards the Church,with the institution and its leaders not being generally seen as hearing young people,answering their needs or being aware of their problems. Churches need to developmore realistic and informed styles of ministry, but all who are involved with youngpeople in some way whether through education, families or welfare, cannot ignoreissues of spirituality in their work with the young.

A Privatized, Individualized Spirituality

Gallagher (1997) suggests that the moral dimension of young people’s spiritualitymay be weakened because of its lack of connection with religions, that it hasuncritically embraced relativism and lacks the passion of commitment to big causes.Along with others, Moran (1995) argues that we cannot speak about spiritualityunless we speak about it in a religious framework. Is spirituality among young people

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60 K. Engebretson

necessarily connected to religious traditions or can it and does it exist independentlyof them?

It has also been claimed that even the idealism of the young is expressed in waysthat are divorced from the really big political issues that give shape to our economicand political world. Brienen (1998) points out that increasingly young people areseriously concerned about issues in their society, such as the destruction of naturalresources, racism, prejudice, economic rationalism and the arti� cial values espousedby the world around them. However, while they are political, their politics arefocused on speci� c issues, and they do not necessarily make a connection betweenthe wealth in which Western countries live, and the immediate effects that this wayof life has on the two thirds of the world who struggle to survive. They are motivatedfor particular causes but will not radically challenge the system. Gallager also makesthis point,

A certain agreement seems to exist among sociologists about the spiritualidentikit picture of young people in Europe and North America now. Theypresent the young person of today as living within a restricted horizon ofmeaning and values. The typical quest is subjective, rather than political,within the private sphere of relationships rather than the larger world ofcommitments or projects. (Gallager, 1997, p. 125)

A Need to Make Connections

Other researchers disagree seeing a powerful urge to ‘connectedness’ in the spiritu-ality of young people. According to Harris,

A vital element in spirituality of young people is its connectedness, itsrelational and communal character, which is in contrast to a privatised andindividualistic spirituality. The impulse towards connectedness places thepractice of justice in a special and privileged place, with justice understoodas � delity to the demands of all our relations. (Harris & Moran, 1998,p. 109)

British researchers Hay and Nye (1998) use the term relational consciousness todescribe a child’s awareness of being in relationship with something or someone,that is, I-Others, I-Self, I-World and I-God. They believe this is at the core ofchildren’s spirituality, which adds a special value to children’s ordinary or everydayperspective. Eckersley’s (1997, p. 245) research into young Australian’s perceptionsof the future found that:

their dreams for Australia were of a society that placed less emphasis on theindividual, competition, material wealth and enjoying ‘the good life’, andmore on community and family, cooperation and the environment. Someexpressed their wishes in terms of a greater recognition of the ‘natural’,‘human’ or ‘spiritual’ aspects of life. (Eckersley, 1997, p. 245)

Previous research then has raised issues about the relationships, if any, betweenindividualization and relativism, and the urge to connect in the spirituality of youngpeople. Does the spirituality of young people seek individuation or connectedness?

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 61

Is it concerned with morality and justice and in what contexts? What place dorelationships, awe, wonder and a sense of self have within it?

Against this background then, the objectives of this project were:

(a) To investigate the extent of religious af� liation and practice among Year 6and of Year 9 students in Catholic schools;

(b) To investigate the ways in which these students perceive and expressspirituality;

(c) To analyse the extent to which religiosity is or is not a factor in or anexpression of their spirituality, thus providing religious educators andChurch ministers with information upon which to develop improved pro-grammes for middle school adolescents.

The Student Groups

Two hundred and forty eight (248) Year 6 students and 338 Year 9 students tookpart in the survey. These were drawn from a range of geographically and socio-eco-nomically different schools, as well as from single sex and co-educational schools.Some points need to be made about the students who took part in the research.

· The students were all drawn from Catholic schools, so some familiarity withChristianity could be assumed.

· A small group of students belonged to Orthodox traditions within Christianity andto religious traditions other than Christianity. Allowances were made for this inthe research instrument.

· The student group who took part in the research was smaller than originallyintended. It had been the intention to survey 20 groups of Year 6 students and 20groups of Year 9 students, which would have brought the numbers to approxi-mately 1000 students. In fact, 586 students � nally took part. In certain schools itwas not possible to gain parental consent for the students to take part. In somecases consent was refused, but more often parent consent forms were not re-turned. At least two factors may have contributed to this. The � rst factor mayhave been the distribution of information and consent forms to students, whichwas undertaken by the participating schools. While the three researchers involvedadministered the survey themselves, it was left to the school to administer theparent information and consent forms. Some schools followed up the return ofconsent forms and others did not. A further factor in� uencing the size of thegroup may have been the highly multicultural nature of the families. It isreasonable to assume that many families without an everyday command ofEnglish, would not have understood the request, or would have been suspiciousof their children being asked to comment on religion and spirituality. In thesecases parental consent forms were not returned. This issue provided an importantlesson for the researchers. In future projects efforts will be made to send infor-mation to parents in their home language. Finally, therefore, the students whotook part were those whose parents had given permission, and while this groupwas certainly quite multicultural, it is reasonable to assume that more newly

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arrived families were not as well represented as had been hoped. The limitationsimposed by these factors need to be kept in mind in interpreting the data, and forthese reasons, the researchers are careful to call this research initial and provoca-tive, in that it presents some discrepancies with other research in one of its sixareas, and raises early issues about the religiosity and spirituality of the studentsthat must be deepened, broadened and extended in further projects.

The Research Instrument

The Development of the Questionnaire

In 1998 a short, open-ended questionnaire was trialed among approximately 200secondary students from seven different Catholic schools. In this questionnaire thestudents were asked to discuss, in 10 lines or more, their attitude to Churchpractice, their understanding of spirituality, the ways in which they express spiritual-ity and the connections if any between religiosity and spirituality in their lives. Theresponses from these questionnaires indicated a number of common categories andthese became the main categories in the questionnaires that was developed for thisproject.

Part A of the Questionnaire

Because this research was concerned with the links, if any, between religiousaf� liation, religious practice and spirituality, it was deemed necessary to gather someinformation from the students about their religious af� liation and practice and thatof their parents. Section A of the questionnaire provided 10 questions which soughtto ascertain the family culture of the student, their religious af� liation (Catholic,other-Christian, other religion) and the religious af� liation of their parents, theirlevel of religious practice and the importance they placed upon religion in their lives.The information gained from this section was used for correlation with the responsesgiven in Part B.

Part B of the Questionnaire

The categories that emerged from the initial open-ended questionnaire related to theways in which young people think about and express spirituality. They were:

· Awareness of a transcendent dimension. (This category contained questions aboutthe student’s awareness of a transcendent dimension in life).

· Inner life and prayer. (This category contained questions about the student’ssense of identity and their valuing of prayer).

· Values and justice. (This category sought to discover the extent to which thestudent’s spirituality was coloured by an awareness of justice).

· Relationships. (Here the students were asked to re� ect on the important relation-ships in their lives in terms of their spirituality).

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 63

Table 1. Gender, ethnicity and religious af� liation

Gender/ethnicity/religious af� liation Percentage

Female respondents 49Male respondents 51Catholic 80Other Christian faithother religion 13No religion 7Born in Australia 88Born in an Asian country 6At least one parent born in Australia 58At least one parent born in Asian country 13At least one parent of another Christian faith 11At least one parent Catholic 73Religious pictures/artefacts in the home 67Religion very or fairly important 46Religion of no importance at all 6.5

· In� uence of a religious tradition. (This section sought to discover the links, if any,between religiosity and spirituality in the lives of the students).

These � ve categories became the � ve sections of part B of the questionnaire withapproximately 10 questions in each section.

Multiple Choice Rather than Open-ended Questions

In most cases the questions required a never … sometimes … often … response.This approach was chosen over open-ended responses, � rst because of the age of thestudents involved and the differences that could be expected in their written andcommunication skills, and second in order to maximize the numbers of studentsinvolved. Nevertheless, within the questionnaire, in a small number of questions,open-ended responses were invited. As was expected, however, most students didnot use these opportunities to expand on their responses.

The Results among the Year 9 Students

Gender, Ethnicity and Religious Af� liation

Table 1 indicates the gender, family ethnicity, and religious af� liation of the group,as well as the importance they attached to religion. For the most part, the secondarystudents surveyed were born in Australia, were Catholic and came from Catholicfamilies. Religion held a quite signi� cant place in the lives of almost half the groupwith almost half saying that it held little or no importance.

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Table 2. Religious practice

Religious practice Percentage

Attend Mass weekly or monthly 40.2(Catholic students)

Rarely or never attend Reconciliation 66.4(Catholic students)

Never attend Church or worship (students 67of traditions other than Catholicism)

Attend Church or worship only on special 33days or yearly (Students from traditionsother than Catholicism)

Religious Practice

Table 2 indicates the rate of attendance at Catholic Mass and the Sacrament ofReconciliation of those students who identi� ed as Catholic. Of the students whoidenti� ed as belonging to traditions other than Catholic, 67% did not ever attendChurch or worship and 33% did, saying that they attended on special days or aboutonce a year.

In relation to the rest of the Catholic population, this group had a very high levelof religious practice, with an average of about 40% often attending Church orworship (weekly or monthly) and about 21% saying that they never attended Churchor worship. It is important to note that this percentage indicates an average, andacross the schools surveyed the attendance rate varied from very low to very high.The majority of the 21% who never attended Church or worship were fromChristian traditions other than Catholic or from other religions. In regard toattendance at the sacrament of Reconciliation, the majority of the Catholic studentssaid that they never or rarely attended the sacrament.[3]

These results on religious practice need to be compared with the results of theCatholic Church Life Survey cited earlier, which show that only 5% of Catholic15–19 years olds were at Church on the particular Sunday that the survey was taken.The high level of practice among this group needs therefore to be considered in thecontext of the nature of the group described earlier in this paper. For reasons whichwere outlined earlier, the group that was surveyed was not necessarily typical ofthose attending Catholic schools in the two dioceses. However, since the research ispresented as introductory and provocative, and because the data on religiousaf� liation involved only one section of a six section survey, it was not considered thatthis high rate of practice among this group negated the � ndings about spiritualitywhich were the concern of this research.

Transcendence

Table 3 summarizes the responses of the students to questions involving an aware-

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 65

Table 3. Transcendence

Item from questionnaire abbreviated Sometimes (%) Often (%)

Spends time in prayer andor quiet thoughts 57.7 25.7Claimed to believe in a Supreme Being 29.9 61.5Believed that a loving power sustains the universe 43.5 36.7Believed that there was a loving God who cared about 29 60.1

themBelieved that they have a special place in the universe 46 42Wonder about the meaning of life and their place in it 53 26.9Like to share with God things that have happened to 40 27.4

themFilled with wonder by the beauty of the world 47.6 42.6Like to have quiet time to listen to their own thoughts 53.8 35.5

and feelings

ness of a transcendent dimension in life. The responses yielded the followinginformation:

· The majority (83.5%) sometimes or often spent time in prayer andor quietthoughts.

· The majority (91.4%) claimed to believe in a Supreme Being at least sometimes.· The majority (80.2%) said that at least sometimes they believed that a loving

power sustains the universe.· The majority (89.1%) said that they sometimes or often believed that there was

a loving God who cared about them.· The majority (88.4%) believed that they had a special place in the universe.· The majority (79.9%) said that they wondered about the meaning of life and their

place in it.· The majority (67.4%) said that they sometimes or often liked to share with God

things that have happened to them.· The majority (90.2%) said that they were sometimes or often � lled with wonder

by the beauty of the world.· The majority (89.3%) often or sometimes liked to have quiet time to listen to their

own thoughts and feelings.

The large percentages of participants who expressed positive reactions to thequestions in this section indicated that their spirituality included belief in a lovingSupreme being, a healthy level of self-esteem and self-respect, and an ability to bere� ective. The responses of this group of participants are presented, and thequestion is raised of whether the high levels of positive responses to these questionsresult from the fact that the respondent’s were exposed to the daily study of religionin a Christian school. Would students in other schools settings give the same positiveresponses? Further research in other contexts would be necessary to learn about this.

At the end of this section, the students were asked if they wanted to add anything

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Table 4. Inner life and prayer

Item from questionnaire abbreviated Often orsometimes (%)

Saw themselves as special and unique 84Saw that they had many gifts to share 90Believed that life was worthwhile and important 94.7Wonder what will happen after death 89.9Believe that enduring dif� cult times has helped them to grow 92Experience days when just being alive makes them happy 87.3

more in relation to these questions. Twenty-eight per cent of students did and thethree most common responses:

· Af� rmed belief in a Supreme Being (20%).· Wondered about the future and about the purpose of life (13%).· Expressed enjoyment of times of quiet and solitude (8%).

Inner Life and Prayer

Table 4 summarizes the responses of the students to questions about prayer, and theinner life.

The results re� ect the importance of issues of identity among this age group, withthe students in general having a strong sense of self-acceptance and worth. In theprocess of de� ning their identity, and approaching adulthood, adolescents mustestablish a way of being in the world that is relatively stable and constant (Erikson,1975). With identity achievement, adolescents will develop their own spiritualsystem, often an eclectic mix of a variety of elements. The � ndings show that amongthis group of students self-acceptance was high, and life was seen as worthwhile.They showed an ability to re� ect on the growth that can occur in enduringdif� culties. Their level of thought and re� ection about issues of life’s meaning, asexpressed in the responses in this section, tends to indicate that this kind ofre� ection is an important part of the spirituality of this age group, and links withHarris’ (Harris & Moran, 1998, p. 109) personal dimension of spirituality.

Values and Justice

The students’ responses to the questions relating to values and social justice yieldedthe percentages shown in Table 5.

Harris claims that:

A vital element in spirituality of young people is its connectedness, itsrelational and communal character, which is in contrast to a privatised andindividualistic spirituality. The impulse towards connectedness places thepractice of justice in a special and privileged place, with justice understood

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 67

Table 5. Values and justice

Item from questionnaire abbreviated Often (%) Sometimes (%)

Like to be part of a group that helps others 18.6 56.6Leading a morally good, fair and just life is important 56 36Concerned by the fact of homeless and disadvantaged 44.1 46.7

people in societyAll people should be respected regardless of 81.7 14.2

differencesTry to reach out to those who are lonely and isolated 42 53Try to be honest, fair and just 56.2 41.8Concerned about world hunger 57.7 36.4

as � delity to the demands of all our relations. (Harris & Moran, 1998, p. 109)

This connectedness, as well as young peoples’ interest in social justice issues, uponwhich other researchers have commented (Crawford & Rossiter, 1991; Brienen,1998), is borne out here. The majority of students showed interest in helping others,valued fairness and justice, were concerned by disadvantage in their local and globalcommunities, expressed the belief that all should be valued equally and were awareof the alienated in their society. At the end of this section the students were askedto nominate a television programme or other aspect of the media (e.g. an advertise-ment) where acts of morality and value were shown. Sixty-four per cent respondedto this and the results covered a wide range of television programmes and advertise-ment. All students who responded to this question nominated the media itembecause it either depicted a message about helping others or showed key charactersbeing compassionate, just and honest.

It can be claimed that a sense of altruism, of concern for others, of responsibilityfor others, and admiration of this in others, is part of the way in which the youngpeople surveyed approached their lives. While this concern may not be linked to thehigh levels of belief in God and prayer that this group claimed, these earlier � ndingsneed to be considered in weighing up whether this concern is more than naturalaltruism. Is this concern for others greater because of the beliefs exhibited by thisgroup? It seems fair to make at least a tenuous connection, particularly given thatother researchers (Crawford & Rossiter, 1991; Brienen, 1998; Harris & Moran,1998) have identi� ed a concern with social justice as an important part of youngpeople’s spirituality. This possible link however, needs to be tested with othergroups of young people from other denominational schools, both in Australia andbeyond.

Relationships

The following information was derived from the student responses to the section on

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Table 6. Relationships

Item from questionnaire abbreviated Often (%) Sometimes (%)

In� uenced in what they think and do by their parents 43 49.3Love and support of family has helped them to become who 68.9 27.8

they are todayImportant to be liked by peers 61.4 33.8In� uenced by peers 31.9 58.8Important to share thoughts and feelings with friends 56.8 32.4Important to share thoughts and feeling with an adult in 33.5 44.4

your lifeUnable to share thoughts and problems with any adult 20

the questionnaire that was concerned with relationships. Percentages are shown inTable 6.

Relationships with parents and family were valued, as were friends and the peergroup. The ability and need to share thoughts and problems with friends wasimportant as was the ability to share with signi� cant adults. Ninety-three per centresponded to the question that asked them to nominate the most important personor persons in their lives and the majority (63%) nominated immediate family or amember of the immediate family. Friends were nominated by 30% of the studentswho answered this question.

A very wide range of answers was given to whom the students most liked andadmired. The highest recurring categories were as follows: immediate or extendedfamily member including brothers, sisters, parents or individual parent, uncles,aunts, cousins; sports stars; musicians, TV or � lm stars; public � gures who areknown for their work for others; friends. A small number nominated no one, sayingthat they were happy to be themselves.

In general the young people who responded appeared to have relationships ofacceptance and trust with their parents and families, and with signi� cant otheradults. This factor is important when considering that other research (Crawford &Rossiter, 1991) has indicated that young people do respect the life philosophies ofothers, and will listen to a respected adult when he or she shares issues of spiritualityand values. This one issue among many others could perhaps be used more in theconstruction of school curricula. Of concern among this group of students was thatover 20% did not feel able to share thoughts and ideas with signi� cant adults. As wasto be expected, the peer group, to varying degrees, was an extremely importantelement in the relationship of the Year 9s surveyed. Friendship relationships arecritical factors in resolving the development tasks of identity and intimacy (Erikson,1975). As the young person experiences more of life, he or she enters into a wider� eld of relationships, experiencing af� rmation as well as disappointment (Shelton,1983). Shelton claims that it is in the experience of relationship, and the youngperson’s deep need for intimacy and belonging, that the emerging self comes tounderstand more deeply what it means to be human and so a platform for genuine

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 69

Table 7. Religious af� liation and spirituality

Item from questionnaire abbreviated Percentage

My religion helps me to think about the Yes 56.2 No 40.8meaning of life

Belong to a religious tradition but it does 33not help me to think about the meaning oflife

Spirituality nurtured by Church Yes 53.3 No 43.5attendance

Parish community has enriched Yes 43.8 No 31.1spirituality

School community has enriched Yes 50.3 No 46.2.spirituality

Neither parish community nor religious 24 of those identifying as Catholictradition has enriched my spirituality

Religious tradition but not parish 12 of those identifying as Catholiccommunity has enriched my spirituality

Parish community and religious tradition 40 of those identifying as Catholichave enriched spirituality

spirituality is built. The results here indicate that Harris’ (Harris & Moran, 1998)communal dimension of spirituality is signi� cant for these young people.

The most telling conclusion is the extent to which family relationships, oftenincluding a close relationship with parents or one particular parent, is important forthese students. The comments they made about their parents were often extremelypositive, with individual students speaking of the support and friendship they enjoyfrom their parents and how much they admire them. Interestingly, teachers were notmentioned at all as people who are most admired.

The Links between Religious Af� liation, Religious Practice and Spirituality

Responses to questions about the extent to which spirituality was supported byreligious af� liation and practice, or the extent to which religious af� liation andpractice nurtured spirituality, yielded the following data (see Table 7).

The students were almost evenly divided on whether religion helped them to thinkabout the meaning of life, with 40.8% saying that it did not, and 56.2% saying thatit did. If we take away the students who claimed to have no religion (24 students),we are left with 114 students (33% of the group) who belong to a religious traditionbut who say that the religious tradition does not help them to think about themeaning of life. On the question of whether spirituality was nurtured by Churchattendance, 43.5% (132 of the students who claimed membership of a religioustradition) said that it was not, while 53.3% (180 students) said that it was. Theparish community was seen to have enriched spirituality in 43.8% of cases but notin 31.1% of those who identi� ed as belonging to a religious tradition. The schoolcommunity was seen to have enriched spirituality for 50.3% of students but not for

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46.2%. In all, 40% of the 268 Catholic Year 9 students, who responded to thesequestions on the questionnaire, said that both their religious tradition and theirparish community enriched their spirituality. Sixty-� ve of these students said thatneither their religious tradition nor their parish community enriched their spiritualityand 33 said that their religious tradition did, but not their parish community. In thecase of students from other traditions, the distribution of percentages was approxi-mately the same as for the students who identi� ed as Catholic. To the question ofwhether the students try as far as is possible to base their lives on the teachings ofa religious leader, 60.4% said no while 32.8% said yes.

In this section the results are ambivalent. On the one hand, about half of thestudents who claimed membership of a religious tradition saw positive links betweenthat membership and their ability to re� ect on meaning and to grow in spirituality.Further sizable percentages of the same group did not see these positive links. Thedata suggests that at one level, particularly given the high rates of Church attendanceamong this group, it could be argued that among sections of the Catholic populationthe Church has not lost its in� uence with young people to the extent that it has beenclaimed. On the other hand, signi� cant percentages of young people who claimedmembership of the tradition, saw a gap between their religious af� liation andpractice and their spirituality, with religious af� liation and Church practice andmembership being seen as distinct from spirituality.

Summarized Conclusions from the Data

Across the group there was a high rate of religious practice with an average of about40% attending Church or worship weekly or monthly. This varied greatly fromregion to region. For this group, attendance at the sacrament of Reconciliation wasmostly not part of their religious practice. However, the students surveyed had, tovarying degrees, a de� nite spirituality that incorporated belief in God, belief inthemselves, belief in the loving power of God in relation to themselves and theuniverse. They used and valued times of prayer and quiet, and wondered about themeaning of life. They esteemed and valued themselves, saw life as positive, worth-while and enjoyable and were able to re� ect on the positive bene� ts of suffering.They exhibited a sense of altruism, and of concern and responsibility for others. Ingeneral the young people who responded appeared to have relationships of accept-ance and trust with their parents and family, and with signi� cant other adults. Ofconcern among this group of students was the over 20% who did not feel able toshare thoughts and ideas with signi� cant adults. The peer group was also anextremely important element in the relationships of the Year 9s surveyed. About halfof the students who claimed membership of a religious tradition saw positive linksbetween that membership and their ability to re� ect on meaning and to grow inspirituality. Further sizable percentages of the same group did not see these positivelinks. It could be claimed from the data, particularly given the high rates of Churchattendance recorded for this group, that the Church has not lost its in� uence withyoung people to the extent that it has been claimed. This would need to be testedextensively by other studies and compared with the normal teenage Church attend-

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Expressions of Religiosity and Spirituality 71

ance of 5%. However, signi� cant percentages of young people who claimed mem-bership of the tradition saw a gap between their religious af� liation and practice andtheir spirituality.

Recommendations

While the overall religious practice of the group was high, there was, as stated in anearly section of this article, wide variation in students’ religious practice, with someschools having high rates of religious practice and others very low. Awareness of thesituation in the individual school is necessary if teachers are to adapt their contentand processes accordingly. In addition, the Year 9 students who were surveyedshowed a 60% rate of non-attendance at Church. Teachers need to be extremelyaware of this implication of this for the content they select and the language they usein religious education curricula.

The research indicated that these Catholic secondary students were not using theSacrament of Reconciliation, and this suggested that their families were not. Fruitfuldialogue about this situation needs to occur, with some re-consideration of structureor improved education. However, the positive responses of the students to questionsof spirituality, suggested that they were at ease with belief and spirituality. Teachers,therefore, should not assume that Year 9 students are disinterested in religion andspirituality, and should consciously build on the young peoples’ experiences in orderto further their spiritual development. The young people surveyed displayed strongpersonal, communal and social justice dimensions in their spirituality. They had astrong sense of altruism, justice and concern for others. This aspect of theirspirituality needs to be used and nurtured in middle school curricula. Furthercontent on the social teaching and social justice work of religious traditions could beincluded in middle school religious education curricula. As supported by otherresearch, it is clear that among the Year 9s surveyed there was a tendency toindividualism in spirituality, with the Church not being accepted unquestioningly.There was, however, alongside this, a clear indication that these young peopleexpressed spirituality in terms of relationships, with themselves, with others with theworld around them and with a Supreme Being.

A large group of students who claimed to be regular Church goers, indicated thattheir membership of the religious tradition and/or the parish did not nurture theirspirituality. This fact challenges Church leaders and ministers to carefully researchthe spirituality of the young in order to adapt their practice so that this gap may beclosed.

I have stressed the limitations imposed on this research by the size of the studentgroup, the fact that the respondents were all drawn from Catholic schools, and hadgained the permission of their parents to take part in the research. These factorspredicted the very positive overall response to the survey. The research outlined heremay well suggest further areas and questions that will allow other researchers toextend and deepen it.

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Notes

[1] The work reported on in this paper was carried out in schools in the Archdiocese ofMelbourne, the capital city of the Australian State of Victoria, as well as in a rural dioceseto its west, Ballarat, by three researchers, Dr Kathleen Engebretson, Dr Marian de Souza andMs Linda Salpietro.

[2] Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference. National Catholic Life Survey. Figures provided byMr Bob Dixon of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat, July 2001.

[3] The Sacrament of Reconciliation, also referred to as the Sacrament of Penance or morecolloquially as ‘Confession’, is a distinct and different sacrament from Eucharist or Mass, andinvolves absolution of sins. Therefore it brings the believer to reconciliation with God, selfand others. While traditionally there has been an obligation for weekly Mass in the CatholicChurch, Catholics are expected to attend Reconciliation twice a year, before Easter andChristmas, but encouraged to attend more often.

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BLOMBERY, T. (1998) The Anglicans in Australia (Canberra, Australian Government PublishingService).

BRIENEN, T. (1998) Here today, gone to-morrow. A re� ection on the Church and young peoplefor the twenty-� rst century, International Review of Mission (Geneva, World Council ofChurches).

BRAGGETT, E. (1997) The Middle Years of Schooling: an Australian perspective (Cheltenham,Victoria, Hawker, Brownlow Education).

BURKE, D. & HUGHES, P. (1998) The Presbyterians in Australia (Canberra, Australian GovernmentPublishing Service).

CRAWFORD, M. & ROSSITER, G. (1991) The spirituality of today’s young people: implications forreligious education in Church related schools, Journal of Religious Education, 9(2) pp. 1–8.

CUMMINGS, J. (1996) From Alienation to Engagement: opportunities for reform in the middle years ofschooling, Vols 1, 2 and 3 (Belconnen, ACT, Australian Curriculum Studies).

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