RESUMEN

Spiritual health is a topic of emergent interest; however, lack of a clear distinction between spiritual health and religious involvement makes it difficult to understand the potential role of spiritual health as a determinant of health. Analyses of such relationships that cross countries and cultures are rare. We therefore assessed whether differences exist between spiritual health and religious involvement and their respective associations with general indicators adolescent health. The study was based on the 2013/2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in Canada (n = 10 761) and the Czech Republic (n = 4411). In both countries, we failed to identify strong or statistically significant associations between self-reported religiosity and adolescent health. In contrast, adolescents with higher spiritual health scores consistently reported enhanced levels of general health status. Study findings point to the importance of a strong sense of spiritual health as a protective determinant of adolescent health, and raise questions about religious involvement as protective to adolescent health outcomes.

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RESUMEN

The current study examined how screen-based activity is related to spiritual well-being and life satisfaction among Czech adolescents, age ranged between 11 and 15 years. Results indicated that spending time on screen-based activities was predictive for spiritual well-being, but did not have a decisive effect on life satisfaction. We also found that spiritual well-being was significantly related to life satisfaction. Findings suggest that we ought to pay more attention to the influence of time spending on screen-based activities on spiritual well-being among adolescents to promote positive youth development.

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RESUMEN

Careful conceptualization and differentiation of both spirituality and religiosity is a necessary precondition for understanding the potential role they play in health, whether physical or mental. The aim of this study was to explore the associations of spirituality with self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction of adolescents with the moderating role of religiosity. Data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in 2014 in Slovakia were used. The final sample consisted of 658 adolescents (mean age = 15.37; 50.6% boys). Data regarding spirituality, religiosity, self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction were obtained. Binary logistic models revealed spirituality to be associated with self-rated health, health complaints, and life satisfaction. A moderating role of religiosity was not confirmed. The presented findings indicate the need to distinguish between the concepts of religiosity and spirituality in connection with subjective health and life satisfaction.

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RESUMEN

This paper focuses on a phenomenon known as spiritual health. Although the scientific literature defines the concept of this health component (in relation to other dimensions, i.e. physical, mental and social health), there is no agreement concerning its relation to religiousness. The aim of this research is to find out the views of citizens (n = 1810) and physicians (n = 1200) in the Czech Republic on the potential dimension of health in its spiritual mode, and on the understanding of its content by those who acknowledge its existence. One of the main research findings is that physicians in the Czech Republic acknowledge the existence of spiritual health (47.0%) to a significantly greater extent than citizens of the country (26.4%). In both groups of respondents, the understanding varies in the discourse of psychology (psychiatry), theology, in the preference for harmony, and in medical care. The acknowledgement of spiritual health depends strongly on gender (women acknowledge the existence of this phenomenon more than men), religious belief (religious physicians, as well as religious citizens and members and non-members of churches and religious societies, acknowledge the existence of spiritual health significantly more compared with atheists) and education (with increasing education the proportion of citizens who acknowledge the existence of spiritual health rises considerably-the highest proportion is found in university graduates). Spiritual health is shown to be an important public health issue, even in a strongly secularized society.

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RESUMEN

The spiritual health of adolescents is a topic of emerging contemporary importance. Limited numbers of international studies provide evidence about developmental patterns of this aspect of health during the adolescent years. Using multidimensional indicators of spiritual health that have been adapted for use within younger adolescent populations, we therefore: (1) describe aspects of the perceptions of the importance of spiritual health of adolescents by developmental stage and within genders; (2) conduct similar analyses across measures related to specific domains of adolescent spiritual health; (3) relate perceptions of spiritual health to self-perceived personal health status. Cross-sectional surveys were administered to adolescent populations in school settings during 2013-2014. Participants (n=45,967) included eligible and consenting students aged 11-15 years in sampled schools from six European and North American countries. Our primary measures of spiritual health consisted of eight questions in four domains (perceived importance of connections to: self, others, nature, and the transcendent). Socio-demographic factors included age, gender, and country of origin. Self-perceived personal health status was assessed using a simple composite measure. Self-rated importance of spiritual health, both overall and within most questions and domains, declined as young people aged. This declining pattern persisted for both genders and in all countries, and was most notable for the domains of "connections with nature" and "connections with the transcendent". Girls consistently rated their perceptions of the importance of spiritual health higher than boys. Spiritual health and its domains related strongly and consistently with self-perceived personal health status. While limited by the 8-item measure of perceived spiritual health employed, study findings confirm developmental theories proposed from qualitative observation, provide foundational evidence for the planning and targeting of interventions centered on adolescent spiritual health practices, and direction for the study of spiritual health in a general population health survey context.