Spirituality/Medicine Interface Project

Spirituality, Health and Medical Care of Children and Adolescents

Authors: Lisa Miller, PHD

Abstract

A personal connection to the Creator, often termed personal devotion, is the most robust protective factor identified to date in the research field of adolescent health and mental health. Adolescents who turn to God for guidance and direction in making daily choices have lower rates of morbidity with respect to the most prevalent forms of mental illness and physical risk taking behavior: substance use and abuse, depression, conduct disorder, drunk-driving, exposure to sexually transmitted disease, weapon-carrying, poor nutrition and lack of exercise.1 Personal devotion is more robustly protective than the well-established secular protective factors of social support, parental bonding style, and school attendance, as well as the most frequently researched religious variables of religious denomination, attendance at services, and close adherence to creed. Intertwined with personal devotion are the widely researched concepts of spiritual coping and daily spiritual experience, also shown to be associated with health and well-being and protective against depression in adolescents.2

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References

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2. Cotton S, Zebracki K, Rosenthal SL. Religion/spirituality and adolescent health outcomes: a review. J Adolesc Health 2006;38:472–480.
 
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7. Miller L, Weissman M, Gur M, et al. Adult religiousness and history of childhood depression: eleven-year follow-up study. J Nerv Ment Dis 2002;190:86–93.
 
8. Miller L, Weissman M, Gur M, et al. Religiousness and substance use in children of opiate addicts. J Substance Abuse 2001;13:323–336.
 
9. Miller L, Kelley B. Spiritually oriented psychotherapy with youth: a child-centered approach. In: The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. London, Sage, 2006.
 
10. Houskamp BM, Fisher LA, Stuber ML. Spirituality in children and adolescents: research findings and implications for clinicians and researchers. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2004;13:221–230.