The field of youth development, long given over to discussions of youth as a time of storm and stress, raging hormones and problem behavior, has increasingly turned to look at the "sunny side" of youth--at their agency, insights, capabilities and contributions. Youth, we are now regularly told, are not problems but resources and assets. In this…

A conceptual model is presented that approaches identity formation of American Indian adolescents according to 3 levels of social contextual influence--local, national, and global--relative to types of identity, dynamics of identity, and sources of influence. Ethnic identity of American Indians is embedded within the local cultural milieu and…

The spiritual well-being of children is often thought to be an important goal and outcome of education. Such spiritual well-being is also implicitly assumed by the Human Rights Act, which includes the right to "freedom of thought, conscience and religion" [Article 18]. I argue that such freedom requires an education that fosters development of…

A total of 157 persons with spinal cord injury completed the "Spirituality and Spinal Cord Injury Survey" in relation to their spiritual and/or religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices in terms of adapting to their disability. Factor analysis accounting for 69% of the variance revealed four factors related to Spiritual Help and Improvement…

This study sought to construct rich accounts of the remembrances of Catholic grade school and high school graduates in the USA related to their school experiences and the continuing impacts of these experiences on their lives. Ten former students (comprised of five males and five females) who graduated from Catholic schools in the 1950s, 1960s,…

This article presents development and informal assessment of a 10-week psychoeducational program designed for 8 adolescent group members experiencing parental divorce in a rural community in Ghana. Group design, cultural considerations, program implementation, and impacts are described. The literature review pertaining to group work as an…

The purpose of this explanatory study was to examine levels of spirituality self-reported by collegiate student-athletes participating in individual and team sports. Student-athletes' levels of spirituality were measured using Astin's (2004) College Students' Beliefs and Values Survey (CSBV). Conceptually, this study was grounded in the works of…

Christian-based youth ministry in many Western countries is being conducted in difficult circumstances. How might denominations, parishes, and youth workers best approach youth ministry? Theologian Arthur Canales (2006) proposes eight different models of youth ministry. Drawing on Canales' typology, this article considers youth ministry among the…

This article presents Smith's response to Elmer John Thiessen's review of his book "Desiring the Kingdom." Before attending to specific concerns, the author first begins with an affirmation that he shares with Thiessen: He, too, found "worldview thinking" to be revolutionary. He said he is a whole-hearted worldview convert, as it were. Smith…

Mental health practitioners are increasingly called on to administer spiritual assessments with Native American clients, in spite of limited training on the topic. To help practitioners better understand the strengths and limitations of various assessment instruments from a Native perspective, this study used a sample of recognized experts in…

The number of international students flocking to North American private Christian schools has continued to grow. The author examined the overall experiences of 67 international high school students studying at a private Christian school in South Carolina. Their frustrations and struggles with academic and spiritual growth in a new cross-cultural…

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to establish among health educators a consensus in the definition of spirituality and health that would ultimately guide effective development of a curriculum or program in spirituality and health for undergraduate programs in college health science departments. Methodology. This mixed-methods research study…

Each year, the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) and the Child and Youth Well-Being Index Project at Duke University issue a comprehensive measure of how children are faring in the United States. The resultant National Child and Youth Well-Being Index (CWI) is based on a composite of "28 Key Indicators of Well-Being," grouped into…

Colleges and universities exist to promote student learning. It is important, therefore, for each institution to identify outcomes consistent with its mission and then to implement a strategy to assess that learning. While this is true for every institution of higher education, it carries special significance for those colleges and universities…

In a recent study, we found that 17-year-old adolescents appreciated most non-formal aspects of spirituality in terms of relational consciousness. Nevertheless, male students expressed a significantly higher self-centeredness than females. By investigating 900 adolescents from Christian academic high schools in the southwest of Germany, the study…