NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, NO. 118, SUMMER 2008 © WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) • DOI: 10.1002/yd.265 115

Spiritual concepts can play a unique role in address-ing key issues for vulnerable youth.

13Spiritual development with marginalized youth: A status report

Melanie Wilson, Kristal S. Nicholson

in the past several years, social service agencies that work withmarginalized youth have reported increased interest in using spir-itual activities as one tool in a more standard array of therapeuticinterventions. (“Marginalized youth” are defined here as adoles-cents or young adults who are in foster care, homeless, in familycrisis, involved with the juvenile justice system, or in treatment formild to moderate mental or behavioral health issues.) Where it hasoccurred, the use of spirituality in such settings tends to reflect theagencies’ belief that spiritual concepts have a unique role to play inaddressing issues of key importance to their clients: belonging,community, forgiveness, meaning, purpose, and acknowledgmentof a universal moral or ethical code.

A 2002 study asked social service providers about the number andkinds of spiritually oriented activities they used in their work withadolescents.1 Of the 191 agencies interviewed, more than halfreported using one or more nonreligious spiritual activities withtheir clients, and over a third offered religious activities. A majorityof providers expressed interest in developing or expanding their

spiritual programming, with secular providers expressing particularenthusiasm for introducing meditative or “mindfulness” practices.

Secular spiritual practicesAmong the most popular such practices in social service settingsare meditation, yoga, and guided visualization, which are meant topromote a sense of calm, connectedness, and even transcendence.Musical and artistic expression, traditional martial arts, and rites-of-passage programs are also common. Usually such activities arevoluntary and performed in group settings.

Due to the difficulty of obtaining large sample sizes, relativelyfew rigorous outcome evaluations have been conducted on theimpact of these activities on troubled youth. Yet emerging researchsuggests that mindfulness practices are promising tools in reduc-ing depression, anxiety, anger, and other problems typical in ado-lescent clients.2 Because of these perceived benefits, several nationaland regional organizations have formed in the past decade to teachmindfulness techniques to at-risk youth, particularly in the juvenilejustice system.

Religious involvement

The influence of religion on youth has been widely researched.Although the precise mechanisms are unclear, religiosity and activereligious participation are well-documented protective factors foryoung people, delaying or reducing the likelihood of teen pregnancy,substance abuse, delinquency, and other destructive behaviors. Socialscientists have suggested that involvement in organized religion pro-vides youth with opportunities to acquire cross-generational con-nections, leadership skills, and “cultural capital.”3

Religious activities, when they are offered in agency settings,include religious education classes, pastoral counseling, worshipservices, and faith-motivated community service projects.

Some characteristics of positive spiritual programming for youthin agency settings (religious and secular) have been proposed.4 Agen-

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cies developing such programs for adolescent clients should considerspiritual exploration and growth a core part of treatment, involveyouth as decision makers, allow youth to participate in spiritual pro-gramming as much or as little as they wish, and match spiritual programming to youth’s cultural backgrounds.

Obstacles to development of spiritual programmingOngoing debate over the definition of spirituality, and uncertain-ties about the appropriateness and legal permissibility of certainspiritual activities, are serious obstacles to the development of thisarea of practice.

Efforts to clarify the appropriate uses of spirituality in child wel-fare practice are under way. In one 2005 initiative, the NationalResource Center for Youth Services developed and implemented atraining curriculum, Integrating Spirituality with Youth Work. Thecurriculum, used to train state child welfare workers, is meant to helpsocial service providers see spirituality as a potential missing link inthe healing process for marginalized youth and to underscore therelationship of spirituality to permanency.5 As part of the curriculum,providers are asked to examine their own spiritual beliefs and valuesand to ask themselves whether personal biases for or against spiritu-ality are interfering with their ethical commitment to their youngclients. The training introduces tools to enhance current treatmentinterventions and spiritual development of youth and offers profes-sionals the opportunity to receive training in spirituality and religiousculture to better address adolescents’ development needs in context.

Other attempts to bolster and legitimize spiritual programmingfor marginalized youth can be found in relatively new college-levelcourses that address the integration of spirituality into clinical prac-tice (see the article by Elisabeth M. Kimball in this volume);increased interest among academic and practitioners in research onspirituality; and new partnerships, encouraged in the past decadeby the federal government, between faith-based and secular groupsthat work with young people.

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As momentum builds toward adoption of spiritual practice inagency settings, questions about the precise benefits of specificactivities, and the ongoing tension regarding appropriateness, willbecome even more urgent. Organized efforts must be made toresolve these questions if spiritual programming for vulnerableyouth is to continue to develop.

Notes1. Wilson, M. (2002). Practice unbound: A study of secular spiritual and reli-

gious activities in work with adolescents. Boxborough, MA: New England Net-work for Child, Youth and Family Services.

2. Wilson. (2002).3. Larson, D., & Johnson, B. (1998). Religion: The forgotten factor in cutting

youth crime and saving at-risk urban youth. Manhattan Institute for Policy Re-search. Retrieved August 20, 2007, from http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/jpr-98–2.htm. Bridges, L. J., & Moore, K. A. (2002). Religiousinvolvement and children’s well-being: What research tells us (and what it doesn’t).Washington, DC: Child Trends. Smith, C. (2003). Theorizing religious effectsamong American adolescents. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(1),17–30.

4. Wilson, M. (2005). Adolescent heart and soul: Achieving spiritual competencein youth-serving agencies. Burlington, VT: New England Network for Child,Youth and Family Services.

5. Nicholson, K. (2005). Integrating spirituality with youth work. [Workshoppresentation]. Tulsa: University of Oklahoma National Resource Center forYouth Services.

MELANIE WILSON is the director of research at New England Networkfor Child, Youth and Family Services in Burlington, Vermont.

kristal s. nicholson is a program development specialist with the Uni-versity of Oklahoma National Resource Center for Youth Services.

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