Secret wisdom

Abstract

Current models of spiritual development suggest that adolescents have limited capacity for spirituality and spiritual experiences. Adolescents are seen to have immature moral and ethical judgment and be incapable of deep spiritual experience due to lack of cognitive development. This mixed-methods study explored the existence of spiritual intelligence in adolescents using surveys to measure spiritual intelligence and spirituality: the spiritual intelligence self-report inventory (SISRI), the integrated spiritual intelligence scale (ISIS), and the intrinsic spirituality scale (ISS). High scorers were found on every survey, and all surveys were positively correlated. Top scorers were interviewed concerning their lived experience of spirituality. Thematic analysis revealed eight major categories: definition of spirituality, definition of God, importance of family, ways of connecting to the divine, spiritual experiences, role models, spiritual values, and skepticism of spirituality. Some adolescents display high levels of spiritual intelligence, which manifests as having spiritual values (e.g. altruism, compassion, openness), spiritual experiences, and practices to connect to the divine.