Conceptions of spirituality among Israeli Arab and Jewish late adolescents

Considerable research has demonstrated that spirituality is generally a positive force in human functioning. Reasoning that one's perceptions of spirituality are based on particular cultural, religious, and social contexts and that adult and adolescent conceptions may differ meaningfully, the authors examine understandings of spirituality among Arab and Jewish Israeli late adolescents. Participants are 36 high school students or college freshmen, Arab and Jewish, male and female, and religious and secular. The authors use semistructured interviews to collect data and the consensual qualitative research method to analyze them. Results indicate broad agreement regarding transcendence as the essential component of spirituality and show that religious and humanistic modes of spirituality exist. Religious and cultural groups develop divergent conceptions of spirituality with overlapping and contrasting features. Gender yielded few differences. Finally, limited correspondence appears between components of spirituality in this study and those found among adults in earlier research.