{"id":469,"date":"2009-01-12T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-12T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/01\/religion-and-spiritual-beliefs-do-not-make-happy-children-friends-and-values-do.html"},"modified":"2014-12-07T05:56:53","modified_gmt":"2014-12-07T04:56:53","slug":"religion-and-spiritual-beliefs-do-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/epiphenom\/2009\/01\/religion-and-spiritual-beliefs-do-not.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion and spiritual beliefs do not make happy children: friends and values do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s a study that\u2019s been reported badly in the press (e.g. Washington Times<\/a>), because what psychologists mean by the term spirituality is not the same as what ordinary people mean by it. It doesn\u2019t mean quite what most people think it does.<\/p>\n

So when a study reports that children\u2019s happiness is linked to their spirituality, it only begs the question \u2018what do they mean?\u2019 And here\u2019s where it gets interesting.<\/p>\n

In the study in question, by Mark Holder and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, they used a standard questionnaire-based measure of spirituality, the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ). This has four components:<\/p>\n