The impact of adolescent spirituality on depressive symptoms and health risk behaviors.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine spirituality as a meaningful construct in adolescents' lives, and to examine the contribution of spirituality above and beyond that of religiosity to depressive symptoms and health-risk behaviors.

METHOD

A total of 134 adolescents from a suburban high school completed a questionnaire assessing spirituality, religiosity, depressive symptoms, and health-risk behaviors. Spirituality was measured with 2 subscales: (1) religious well-being ("I believe that God loves/cares about me") and (2) existential well-being ("Life doesn't have much meaning"). Religiosity was assessed via belief in God/Higher Power and importance of religion. The Children's Depression Inventory-Short Form and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) were used to assess depressive symptoms and health-risk behaviors.

RESULTS

The majority of the sample was Caucasian, with a mean age of 16.2 years. Eighty-nine percent reported a belief in God/Higher Power and 77% stated that religion was important in their lives. After controlling for demographics and religiosity, existential well-being and religious well-being accounted for an additional 29% of the variability in depressive symptoms and 17% of the variability in risk behaviors. Existential well-being was the only predictor significant in both final models (p < .01).

CONCLUSIONS

Most of these adolescents reported some connection with religious and spiritual concepts, and those with higher levels of spiritual well-being, in particular, existential well-being, had fewer depressive symptoms and fewer risk-taking behaviors. This supports the inclusion of these concepts in our efforts to help promote resilience and healthy adolescent development, and in expanding our investigations beyond religious identification or attendance at religious services to broader concepts of spirituality.