Spiritual and religious experiences of adolescent psychiatric inpatients versus healthy peers.
Daniel H Grossoehme, Sian Cotton, Anthony Leonard
Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling 2007 DOI: 10.1177/154230500706100304 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional comparison Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 202 |
| Population | 122 adolescent psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders and 80 healthy adolescent peers |
| Measures | INSPIRIT |
| Key findings | Healthy adolescents reported more frequent spiritual experiences and a more positive impact on belief in God than inpatient peers, while inpatients reported more frequent experiences of angels, demons, God or guiding spirits, unity with the earth and other living things, and near-death or life-after-death themes. Females reported higher frequency of spiritual experiences and greater impact on belief in God than males. The authors conclude the INSPIRIT is a feasible spiritual assessment tool for adolescents. |
Abstract
One hundred twenty-two adolescent psychiatric inpatients with depressive disorders and 80 healthy peers were administered the INSPIRIT, a measure of core spiritual experiences. Healthy adolescents reported a greater frequency of spiritual experiences and a more positive impact of such experiences on their belief in God than did their inpatient peers. Adolescent inpatients reported higher frequencies of experiencing angels, demons, God or guiding spirits; feeling unity with the earth and other living things; and with near death or life after death as compared to healthy peers. Overall, females reported higher frequency of spiritual experiences and higher impact of the experience on their belief in God than did males. It was concluded that the INSPIRIT is a feasible spiritual assessment tool for adolescent populations and may be used by chaplains as a means for guiding clinical conversations with adolescents.