There has been little Australian research on the religious and spiritual values of counsellors � one study only, published by Cross and Khan in 1983. However, this issue is an important one, as counsellors' values may influence their clients and the need of clients may require the attention of the counsellor to religious and spiritual issues. This study consisted of two surveys in which the religious and spiritual beliefs and values of Australian counsellors were examined. The first study addressed some root questions concerning the relevance of religion and spirituality to psychologists and therapists in the counselling situation. The queries concerned (a) the recognition and acceptance by counselling practitioners of the religious/spiritual dimension of a person, (b) whether religious issues, values and beliefs were seen as an integral part of psychotherapy and (c) the degree to which these practitioners saw themselves as religious or spiritual. To answer some of these root questions, the initial objective of the field study was to survey psychologists and therapists in Canberra using the Batson and Ventis (1982) Religious Life Inventory, because this was a framework for identifying the ways in which a person was religious. Added to this were some demographic questions and questions regarding the relevance of religion to work. A poor response rate led to the surveys being sent also to Sydney and Melbourne. Results from this first survey were limited. The term "religion" was found to be far more complex than at first realised, and hence objectives were modified for a second survey. The second survey focussed on perceptions of spirituality of Canberra counsellors. The survey questions were based on the studies by Shafranske and Gorsuch (1984) and Shafranske and Malony (1990). Added to these questions were demographic questions and open questions dealing with personal insights, experiences with symbols, rituals and myths. Ideas for questions were also taken from studies on religion in Australia, including Bouma and Dixon (1986) and the Australian Values Study Survey (1983). The data was analysed first by tabling frequencies, then by cross-tabulating selected variables and computing the chi-square statistic for each cross-tabulation to determine whether the relationship was significant at the 0.05 level. Results suggested that the majority of Canberra practitioners not only perceived spirituality as important to their personal life and clinical work, but also regarded themselves as spiritual people and believed in a transcendent Being and Life Force. Most saw their spirituality as entirely personal and had little connection with organised or traditional religions. Within the counselling relationship approximately half of the counsellors were willing to discuss religious issues, and nearly 90% to discuss their clients' spirituality. Female counsellors were much more likely than male to discuss a client's religious beliefs with them; other differences between the sexes were less marked. The high response rate in this study together with the significant findings indicate the value of further research in this area on a broader scale.

Low completion rates have created serious "leakage points" (Astin, 1988) and "severe hemorrhaging" (Lango, 1996) in higher education to a large number of Hispanics. Traditional research on college persistence, which has blamed the students' culture for low performance, is inaccurate. Little research has specifically investigated academic persistence from a cultural perspective. Spirituality is a dynamic dimension among this cultural group. It is an untapped richness that Hispanic students bring with them to higher education. The study focused on six participants' understandings of spirituality from a cultural perspective. The purpose of the study helped participants voice the influence of their cultural spirituality and critically reflect the university's role regarding this cultural dimension. The research question was: What does spirituality, from a cultural aspect, mean in the context of persistence by Mexican American Chicana (o) students who transfer from a community college to a small liberal arts university? Critical theory, emphasizing phenomenology and critical consciousness, was the epistemological perspective. An indigenous methodology was used. Such a critical perspective and indigenous methodology embraced the participants border knowledge. Three data collection methods were used. A 43-Item Likert Survey, twenty-four diaolgos (individual conversations), and three circulos de cultura (group discussions). Data was interpreted with the following findings. The majority of the participants' survey responses indicated that matters of the spirit are important and significant to them. Through the di��logos the participants expressed interpretations and critiques by indigenous modes of language that spirituality did influenced their persistence. In the circulos the participants developed insights interconnecting spirituality and persistence. Spirituality was expressed through various images: "a push," "passion," "a driving force and desire," "an inner force," "La Virgen," and a "quiet inner strength." Most importantly, their persistence was influenced by a family-centered spirituality grounded in their cultural heritage. This qualitative study highlighted the six voices. Each case consisted of an interpretation of the participant's phenomenological understanding and growth in critical consciousness. The co-investigators' enriched the analysis by their cultural intuition and bicultural understanding. The following themes emerged from participants' visual and written summaries: 1) Family. 2) Quien Soy Yo? (Who Am I?) 3) Quiet Inner Strength 4) Recognizing My Background. 5) Encouraging Me to Persist. 6) Critical Consciousness of the Interrelationships of One's Culture. Study concluded with testimonies from the co-investigators. Researcher proclaimed: it is important to listen to students voice why they persisted from strengths within their culture. / Graduation date: 2002

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 283-291). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Brunswick, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2000. / Includes Latin version with English translation of "Consecration to a life of virginity." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-111).

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Parent-adolescent connection is considered a core parenting component influencing adolescent psychosocial development. When the connection is poor, the adolescent has an increased risk of developing depressive symptoms and behavioral problems. Non-family socialization experiences increase in importance as the quality of family experiences decreases and may protect adolescents with low family connectedness from demonstrating depressive symptoms and behavioral problems. The school is one context that may provide socialization experiences to promote continued development for early adolescents. Stronger levels of connection to the school have been related to decreased prevalence of adolescent problem behaviors such as delinquency. The religious community represents another context in which early adolescents may develop important connections. This context is particularly important to study as over half of all adolescents in the U.S. report attending church services weekly and/or are involved in a church youth group and approximately 60% of adolescents report their faith is important to them. Research examining adolescent feelings of connection to their religious group and how this relates to delinquent behaviors and depressive symptoms, however, is lacking. The present study explored the cross-sectional contribution of adolescent connections to the family, school and religious contexts to the depressive symptoms and delinquent behaviors of a sample of 167 middle school students. Three aspects of religious connectedness (i.e., youth leader, congregation member, and spiritual connectedness) were found to uniquely contribute to the occurrence of early adolescent outcomes. Specifically, youth leader and spiritual connectedness uniquely contributed to early adolescent engagement in more serious delinquent behaviors. Congregation member and spiritual connectedness contributed to the occurrence of early adolescent depressive symptoms. Additionally, all three types of religious connectedness buffered the relationship between family connectedness and more serious delinquent behaviors. That is, high levels of religious connectedness protected early adolescents from engaging in the problem behaviors. Unexpectedly, an exacerbating relationship was demonstrated between school connectedness and youth leader connectedness as well as spiritual connectedness on early adolescent less serious delinquent behaviors. Findings are discussed from the perspectives of Social Control Theory and Attachment Theory. / text

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