igf ir br Discussion This cross national

Discussion This cross-national study examined self-reported perceptions of the importance of spiritual health in the lives of adolescent children in six countries. We explored patterns of children׳s perceptions of the importance of spiritual health, overall and by domain, related to developmental stage, gender, and country. We accomplished this using an abbreviated measure that provides a skeletal view of perceptions of the importance of spiritual health to young people. We also explored relations between the importance of spiritual health measures and self-perceived personal health status. In this discussion, we relate these quantitative findings to existing theories that have been derived in mainly qualitative studies (i.e. Hay & Nye, 1998).
Patterns by age and gender Age-related declines in the rating of spiritual health as being important were observed consistently across countries and by gender. Several possible explanations exist for these declines. For example, qualitative researchers Hay (anthropology) and Nye (psychology) have argued that an inner sense of spiritual health is innate to the biological make-up of children, and attributed declines in spiritual health to the pervasive influence of society and secular culture (Hay & Nye, 1998). Others explanations for these declines may be related to natural changes in cognition and to the emergence of independent thinking that comes with adolescent growth and development (Piaget, 1972; Butterworth & Harris, 2014; Erikson, 1994). Cognitive changes that emerge with age may enhance children׳s capacities for reason and abstract thought. It is normal for young people to critically reassess concepts as they igf ir further become aware of the ideas behind them (Piaget, 1972). The observed gender-related findings were also striking. Relational aspects of spiritual health were generally rated as being more important among girls than boys, irrespective of the age group or country under study. These findings are consistent with other studies (i.e. Benson, Scales, Syvertsen, & Roehlkepartain, 2012; Hendricks-Ferguson, 2006). Speculatively, this is likely reflective of differences in the ways that girls and boys are nurtured during their early years and socialized as they enter adolescence.
Patterns by domain
Potential influences on adolescent health Overall, we observed that while the perceived importance of spiritual health declines by age, for adolescents who maintain a strong sense of the importance of self-perceived spiritual health the possible benefits are striking. This was indicated in our findings of self-perceived personal health status, which is a consistent and powerful measure of many aspects of general well-being (Idler & Benyamini, 1997). This relationship was observed consistently across age, gender and countries (see Fig. 1), and while there remains a great deal we do not understand about the etiology or extent of this relationship, the strength and consistency suggests that they merit serious attention. In a companion article, we explore further the relationship between perceived importance of spiritual health and a diversity of physical and emotional health outcomes. It is perhaps not surprising that the valuing of spiritual health is positive to these health experiences. Past research has focused more specifically on the health-related influences that relate to aspects of the four domains. For example, connection to self (Sinats et al., 2005); connection to peers (Scholte & Van Aken, 2006) and adults (Elgar, Trites, & Boyce, 2010); connection to nature (Louv 2005, 2012) and a connection to the realm of transcendence have all been demonstrated to have positive health benefits.
Strengths and limitations Strengths of our study include our embedding of a (necessarily abbreviated) spiritual health measure in a general adolescent health survey, the size and diversity of the study populations and their cross-national nature. While an emerging body of research explores similar themes, including two studies that offer insight on adolescent health and spiritual development in a multi-nation sample that includes developing countries (see Benson et al., 2012; Scales, Syvertsen, Benson, Roehlkepartain, & Sesma, 2014), our study provides a helpful exploration of this topic within our more general health survey context. We therefore feel that it is complimentary to the wider body of research in this field, including the original studies that led to existing theories of the influence of child development on spiritual health (Hay & Nye, 1998). Our findings strongly support the basic tenets of such theories but provide further empirical evidence that demonstrates their universal nature.