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Spirituality for Wellbeing of Bereaved Children in Residential Care: Insights for Spiritually Sensitive Child-Centred Social Work Across Country Contexts

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Abstract

This experimental study examines the effect of spiritual intervention programmes. Data include pre and post-tests from 1689 bereaved children in residential homes across 13 countries. Post-treatment scores of bereaved children were higher on outcome measures of psychological wellbeing, self-concept, health, happiness, resilience and academic performance. Post-treatment scores on measures such as depression and discrepancy between perceived and preferred self were markedly lower. Children from South Asian and African countries, boys and Christians scored higher on the self-concept scale, health questionnaire and resilience scale, and lower on the depression and discrepancy measures vis-à-vis their counterparts from European countries, US and Canada, girls and non-Christians. Children who underwent the customized spiritual intervention programme vis-à-vis open-ended sessions on centering and meditation and those who regularly self-practiced, were more likely report higher scores on the wellbeing measure. The results suggest that spiritual intervention programmes work for institutionalized bereaved children and further propose that they should be customized and focused, incorporate diversity, emphasize on positive thinking, futuristic attitude and self-practice.

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Funding

There is no funding information to report for this study. The author wishes to thank the generous donations made by patrons of spiritual organizations to support various components of this research on grounds of anonymity.

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  1. Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, 400088, India

    Samta P. Pandya

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  1. Samta P. Pandya
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Correspondence to Samta P. Pandya.

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Ethics Statement

The study has been approved by the independent review board of the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Research, India and all the procedures have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments and other comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Pandya, S.P. Spirituality for Wellbeing of Bereaved Children in Residential Care: Insights for Spiritually Sensitive Child-Centred Social Work Across Country Contexts. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 35, 181–195 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-017-0509-1

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