Using Secondary Students' Views about Influences on Their Spiritual Well-Being to Inform Pastoral Care

Spiritual well-being is reflected in the quality of relationships that each person has in up to four different domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. This study investigated how secondary students perceived relationships with family, friends, school and church community (including God) impacted on their spiritual well-being. This paper reports the views of 1002 secondary school students aged from 12- to 18-years-old in Catholic, Christian community and other independent schools in Victoria, Australia. ANOVA and multiple regression analyses of students' responses on the Quality Of Life Influences Survey developed in this study, and the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure, a spiritual well-being questionnaire for secondary students, revealed significant differences in perceptions students held about influences on their spiritual well-being. A case study illustrates how these instruments can be used to inform pastoral care of young people. (Contains 3 tables.)