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2010•Journal of College and CharacterRequires access

Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students

Alexander W. Astin, Helen S. Astin

Open publisher page 32 citations

Abstract

A new national study of college students’ spiritual development is described. Measures of five spiritual qualities–Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Charitable Involvement, and Ecumenical Worldview–were developed from pilot data collected from 3,700 juniors attending 46 diverse colleges and universities. These measures were subsequently administered longitudinally to 14,527 entering freshmen at 136 institutions and again to these same students at the end of their junior year. Students show significant spiritual growth during the first three years of college, and spiritual growth appears to enhance other college outcomes such as academic performance and satisfaction with college. A number of specific college experiences were found to enhance spiritual growth.

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What this paper is about

A new national study of college students’ spiritual development is described. Measures of five spiritual qualities–Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Charitable Involvement, and Ecumenical Worldview–were developed from pilot data collected from 3,700 juniors attending 46 diverse colleges and universities. These measures were subsequently administered longitudinally to 14,527 entering freshmen at 136 institutions and again to these same students at the end of their junior year. Students show significant spiritual growth during the first three years of college, and spiritual growth appears to enhance other college outcomes such as academic performance and satisfaction with college. A number of specific college experiences were found to enhance spiritual growth.

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OpenAlex reports 32 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

A new national study of college students’ spiritual development is described. Measures of five spiritual qualities–Spiritual Quest, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, Charitable Involvement, and Ecumenical Worldview–were developed from pilot data collected from 3,700 juniors attending 46 diverse colleges and universities. These measures were subsequently administered longitudinally to 14,527 entering freshmen at 136 institutions and again to these same students at the end of their junior year. Students show significant spiritual growth during the first three years of college, and spiritual growth appears to enhance other college outcomes such as academic performance and satisfaction with college. A number of specific college experiences were found to enhance spiritual growth.

Key concepts: Spiritual growth, Spiritual development, Psychology, Higher education, Pedagogy, Spirituality, Social psychology, Medical education

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