College Students' Artistic Exploration of their Spiritual Experience: A Phenomenological Study

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore college students’ lived experience of spirituality as expressed through the artistic creation of a mandala. This study sought to address two problems: 1) A lack of qualitative research in the area of understanding the spirituality of college students and 2) The inconclusiveness of data from quantitative studies regarding the role of spirituality in the college student’s life. A phenomenological design was used in the data collection and data analysis procedures for this qualitative study. Three participants were recruited, then signed informed consent and completed the data collection processes of creating a mandala of their understanding of spirituality followed by an open ended responsive interview. Four essential structures resulted from the data analysis process that spoke to the role of spirituality in their lives which was expressed both visually and verbally. The participants reflected the experiences of moving away from religion toward spirituality, experiencing struggle in spirituality, individuating from parental religious ideals, and gaining a fuller understanding of spirituality artistically in their mandalas. Derived from these essential structures was the recommendation for the inclusion of art therapy interventions into the college culture. This study’s major findings suggested possible opportunities for future research to further expound upon the experience of the collegiate understanding of spirituality through visual and verbal expression.%%%%M.A., Creative Arts in Therapy – Drexel University, 2009