Department

Social Work

Date

2014

Degree Name

Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)

Type of Paper/Work

Clinical research paper

Advisor

Lisa R. Kiesel

Abstract

In a survey of religion and public life done by the Pew Forum in 2007, it was found that the ways in which Americans practiced their religion was changing. There has been a trend of moving toward less dogmatic approaches to religion in the United States. It was found that of the twenty percent of Americans who do not practice any type of religion, the majority were ages eighteen to twenty-four. The current study was designed to understand the religious and spiritual behaviors in university students in order to develop methods to better cultivate religious and spiritual growth. The researcher explored the idea of religiosity and spirituality as protective factors and aids to successful development. A sample of undergraduate students was recruited from a small, religiously affiliated university in the Midwest. The researcher used an existing survey called the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality and added demographic questions. The results showed that there was no relationship between religiosity and spiritual and current academic performance. There was a positive correlation between historic religious practices and current religious practices. It was found that there was not a correlation between religiosity and spirituality and resiliency in college students. However, students reported that religiosity and spirituality were a form of strength and comfort. Those who reported religiosity and spirituality as a form of strength and comfort did not participate in a high frequency of private religious practices. Students did report that they participate in infrequent private religious practices.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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