Spirituality is a major contributor to a child\u2019s overall happiness — even more so than for adults — according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
The study tested 315 children ages 9 to 12, measuring spirituality and other factors such as temperament and social relations that can affect an individual\u2019s sense of happiness.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was to see whether there\u2019s a relation between spirituality and happiness,\u201d said Mark Holder, associate professor of psychology and the study\u2019s coauthor. \u201cWe knew going in that there was such a relation in adults, so we took multiple measures of spirituality and happiness in children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Past studies have shown that in adults, spiritual feelings and higher levels of religious behavior typically account for about 5 percent of a person\u2019s overall happiness, said a statement from the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n
The results of the study came as a surprise: 6.5 to 16.5 percent of children\u2019s happiness can be accounted for by spirituality.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our perspective, it\u2019s a whopping big effect,\u201d said Holder. \u201cI expected it to be much less — I thought their spirituality would be too immature to account for their well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Children in the study were asked to rate statements such as \u201cI feel a higher power\u2019s presence,\u201d and answer questions including, \u201cHow often do you pray or meditate privately outside of church or other places of worship?\u201d<\/p>\n
Parents were also asked to describe each child\u2019s apparent happiness and spirituality, and teachers rated each child\u2019s happiness level.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s authors plan to conduct the same research in India to see whether children score similar results in a country not dominated by Christianity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What helps make kids happy? A Canadian study says it’s the same for them as it is for the rest of us — it’s all about what’s inside, not outside: Spirituality is a major contributor to a child\u2019s overall happiness — even more so than for adults — according to a new study from the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-and-that"],"yoast_head":"\n
Study reveals that spirituality makes children happy - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/04\/study-reveals-that-spirituality-makes-children-happy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Study reveals that spirituality makes children happy - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What helps make kids happy? 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}