Increasingly adolescents are making unhealthy choices concerning their lifestyle.
Behaviour patterns develop which are often carried into adulthood and become an
established lifestyle pattern. Examples of these are the abuse of drugs, smoking,
alcohol, irresponsible and hazardous sexual behaviour and so forth. It is also reported
that young people increasingly contemplate and attempt suicide. It is important to find
the reasons for such behaviours.
During the last century, spirituality was not regarded as being important in the
everyday lives of people. There are however many voices today calling for a
reintegration of spirituality into education, health and various other areas of life. The
movement of Health Promoting Schools could serve as a basis for reintegrating
spirituality into the curriculum. Spirituality can be described as providing primarily
meaning, relationship with God and people, a feeling of transcendence and the
acquisition of values. These facets of life, neglected and considered unscientific in the
positivistic modem era, are now seen as necessary within our post-modem society.
The aim of this study was to investigate a possible correlation between the lifestyle
choices adolescents make and their spiritual well-being.
Both quantitative and qualitative measures were used to investigate the above
mentioned correlation. Quantitative results indicated a significant positive correlation
between measures of spiritual well-being and risk behaviours. The qualitative analysis
indicated that adolescents believe that spiritual values are important when considering
meaning in life as well as lifestyle choices.
It was concluded that the construct spirituality remains salient in the lives of most
adolescents. A possible rationale for integrating spirituality into the practice of Health
Promoting Schools was proposed. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/964 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Karstens, Anne Christiane |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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