Our exploration of the role of spirituality in higher education began in 1998 when a group of

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1 Invited Featured Article Journal of College & Character VOLUME 11, No. 3, September 2010 Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students 1 Alexander W. Astin, University of California, Los Angeles Helen S. Astin, University of California, Los Angeles 2 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. Our exploration of the role of spirituality in higher education began in 1998 when a group of colleagues gathered together at the Fetzer Institute to engage in a series of dialogues about sustaining authenticity, wholeness, and self-renewal in higher education. The Fetzer dialogues helped to persuade many of us that we needed to continue these conversations within the larger higher education community. Subsequently, a small group of Fetzer dialogue participants initiated a series of similar conversations on the topics of spirituality, authenticity, and renewal at national conferences of several higher education associations. These conference sessions were not only well attended, but generated a good deal of enthusiasm among the participants and hope for the future of higher education. These continuing dialogues convinced us that a hunger exists within the higher education community for more conversation around issues of spirituality, meaning, and purpose in work and life. At the same time, the two of us decided that we needed to begin addressing the topic of spirituality in higher education in our own research and writing. In short, we became convinced that if we indeed cared about higher education and its impact on the education and development of our students, then we needed to learn much more about their spiritual journeys, and about how their spiritual life interfaces with other aspects of their academic life, personal development, and well-being. 1 Talk presented at the 20 th Anniversary Meeting of the Jon C. Dalton Institute on College Student Values, Tallahassee, FL, February 4 6, A more detailed account of this study will appear as a book, Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students Inner Lives (by A. W. Astin, H. S. Astin, and J. A. Lindholm), to be released by Jossey-Bass, Inc., in fall Alexander W. Astin is Allan M. Cartter Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, and founding director of UCLA s Higher Education Research Institute. Helen S. Astin is Distinguished Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles, and senior scholar at UCLA s Higher Education Research Institute.

2 2 Journal of College and Character VOLUME 11, No. 3, September 2010 So when Arthur Schwartz on behalf of the John Templeton Foundation approached us in 2003 to consider initiating a national study of college students spirituality, we welcomed the opportunity and began by forming our project research team, creating a project website ( and identifying a group of expert advisors who have, we might add, proved to be invaluable to the project. Our first major challenge was to create a study design that could address questions such as the following: What role does spirituality play in the lives of today s college students? How do students spiritual qualities change during the college years? How many students are actively engaged in a spiritual quest? And what are colleges and universities doing that either encourages or inhibits students in this quest? Part of our motivation for undertaking this project came from the realization that the relative amount of attention that colleges and universities devote to the exterior and interior aspects of the student s development has gotten out of balance. That is, as we academics have come to focus more of our attention on programs, pedagogical methods, curricula, test scores, credits, and degrees, we have increasingly come to neglect students inner development the sphere of values and beliefs, emotional maturity, spirituality, and self-understanding. And academic work has become disconnected from students values, making students hesitant to discuss issues of meaning and purpose while in college. This problem is dramatically reflected in Pascarella and Terenzini s (2005) most recent review of 2,500 studies of college students, which contains only two references to religion and no references to spirituality. In other words, we saw a large gap in our understanding of college students inner lives and a corresponding lack of appreciation on the part of colleges and universities of the need to address this gap. We have chosen to label this gap as the students spiritual life. Defining Spirituality Before getting to the specifics of our study, it is important to understand the perspective on spirituality and spiritual development that guides our work. We define these terms very broadly: We believe that spirituality has to do with our interior, subjective life. It has to do with the values that we hold most dear, our sense of who we are and where we come from, our beliefs about why we are here the meaning and purpose that we see in our work and our life and our sense of connectedness to each other and to the world around us. Measuring College Students Spirituality and Religiousness Once we agreed to undertake this study, the first major challenge for the project team was to devise measures of students spirituality and religiousness. To this end we developed a new instrument, the College Students Beliefs and Values (CSPV) survey, which included approximately 160 items dealing with questions of beliefs, values, and the search for meaning and purpose. These items were the product of many months of reading, reflection, and collective brainstorming by our project team together with our Technical Advisory Panel. We first administered this survey in 2003 to a sample of 3,700 college juniors attending 46 diverse colleges and universities. Their responses were then used to develop 10 scales, 5 measuring different dimensions of spirituality and 5 measuring different aspects of religiousness. These scales were subsequently administered to a sample of 112,000 freshmen as they were entering 236 colleges in the fall of About 15,000 of the 112,000 students at 136 of these colleges were followed up three years later in spring 2007 as they were completing their junior year. We also conducted a number of individual interviews and focus groups with students doi: / NASPA 2010 JCC

3 Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students 3 from diverse colleges and universities around the country, a survey of the faculty in the students institutions during the academic year, as well as faculty interviews. And, we might add, around the mid-point of our data collection activities we were greatly encouraged by the release of Chickering, Dalton, and Stamm s (2005) pathbreaking book, Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education. Interest in Spirituality and Religion College students report high levels of spiritual interest and involvement. For example, four in five students tell us that they have an interest in spirituality and that they believe in the sacredness of life, and two-thirds say that their spirituality is a source of joy. Many students are also actively engaged in a spiritual quest, with nearly half reporting that they consider it essential or very important to seek opportunities to help them grow spiritually. Moreover, three-fourths of the students say that they are searching for meaning/purpose in life, and similar numbers report that they have discussions about the meaning of life with friends. Also, more than three in five college students report having had a spiritual experience while witnessing the beauty and harmony of nature, and over half say they have had such an experience while listening to beautiful music. Entering college students also show a high degree of involvement in religion. About four in five report that they attended religious services within the previous year and that they discussed religion/spirituality with friends and family. More than three-fourths indicate that they believe in God, and two in three say that their religious/spiritual beliefs provide them with strength, support, and guidance. Four in 10 also consider it essential or very important to follow religious teachings in their everyday life. Additionally, among the two-thirds of the students who say they pray, they report that they most frequently pray for loved ones, to express gratitude, for forgiveness, and for help in solving problems. Despite their high levels of religiousness, many students express doubts and reservations about their faith and beliefs. Nearly two-thirds report that they have felt distant from God, and over half tell us that they have questioned their religious beliefs or that they have felt angry with God. Given the religious tension that we see today both domestically and globally, it is reassuring to find that students show a high level of religious tolerance and acceptance. For example, most students say that they believe that non-religious people can lead lives that are just as moral as those of religious believers and that most people can grow spiritually without being religious. Also, the majority of the students indicate that they disagree with the statement that people who don t believe in God will be punished. Expectations about College What do beginning college students expect from college when it comes to issues of spirituality? Nearly half say that it is essential or very important that their college encourage their personal expression of spirituality. And about two-thirds report that they consider it essential or very important that their college enhance their self-understanding, prepare them for responsible citizenship, develop their personal values, and provide for their emotional development. Clearly, students have high expectations that the college experience will help them with their inner growth and development.

4 4 Journal of College and Character VOLUME 11, No. 3, September 2010 Measures of Spirituality We worked with the pilot data for over a year to develop five measures of religiousness and five measures of spirituality. These scales were developed from a long series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of 150 items from the survey. In this paper we focus on the five spiritual measures. Spiritual Quest assesses the student s interest in searching for meaning/purpose in life, finding answers to the mysteries of life, and developing a meaningful philosophy of life. The notion of a spiritual quest is clearly reflected in the scale items, all of which include words such as finding, attaining, seeking, developing, searching, and becoming. Equanimity indicates the extent to which the student feels centered/at peace, is able to find meaning in times of hardship, and feels good about the direction of her/his life. We believe that equanimity may well be the prototypic defining quality of a spiritual person. The last three spiritual measures reflect the student s sense of relatedness to others. Charitable Involvement is a behavioral measure that includes activities such as participating in community service, donating money to charity, and helping friends with personal problems. Ethic of Caring, an internal measure, assesses the student s degree of commitment to values such as helping others in difficulty, reducing pain and suffering in the world, and making the world a better place. And finally, Ecumenical Worldview indicates the extent to which the student is interested in different religious traditions, seeks to understand other countries and cultures, feels a strong connection to all humanity, and believes that love is at the root of all the great religions. If one were to develop a definition of spirituality based on these five qualities, that definition would read something like this: Spirituality is a multifaceted quality that involves an active quest for answers to life s big questions (Spiritual Quest), a global worldview that transcends egocentrism and ethnocentrism (Ecumenical Worldview), a sense of caring and compassion for others (Ethic of Caring), coupled with a lifestyle that includes service to others (Charitable Involvement), and a capacity to maintain one s sense of calm and centeredness, especially in times of stress (Equanimity). Changes in Spiritual Qualities In the spring of 2007 we collected longitudinal follow-up data from 14,527 of the students for whom we had freshman data. These repeated measurements have enabled us not only to determine how students spiritual and religious qualities change and develop during the first three years of college, but also to explore what role various college experiences play in these changes. While our longitudinal data show that there is a decline in students religious engagement during the first three years of college, there is a good deal of positive growth in most spiritual qualities during the same period. Thus, compared to when they started college as freshmen, the juniors scored higher not only on Spiritual Quest, but also on three of the other four spiritual qualities: Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, and Ecumenical Worldview. Spiritual Quest items that show the largest growth include Searching for meaning/purpose in life, Attaining wisdom, and Developing a meaningful philosophy of life. doi: / NASPA 2010 JCC

5 Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students 5 Typical items from the Equanimity scale that showed positive growth during the first three years of college include Being able to find meaning in times of hardship, feeling centered/at peace, and Seeing each day, good or bad, as a gift. Observing this growth in students is particularly heart-warming, since students are telling us that they are feeling more at peace and more centered, and are expressing more optimism and gratitude about the direction of their lives. In the past decade the field of positive psychology has expanded our understanding of human development by focusing our attention on human strengths and psychologically healthy functioning in general. This field has flourished in recent years, and research has shown that persons who exemplify positive psychological traits also demonstrate high levels of psychological and physical health. One of the key indicators of healthy psychological functioning is a sense of transcendence that encompasses traits such as optimism and generosity. We believe that similar traits are reflected in several of our scales, but especially in Equanimity, which incorporates items such as feeling good about the direction in which my life is headed, being thankful for all that has happened to me, and seeing each day, good or bad, as a gift. These modest increases in equanimity are especially interesting in light of the fact that other evidence from our survey indicates that students are experiencing a considerable increase in stress during their first three years of college. Apparently, their capacity to deal with such stress grows during the same period. Another spiritually related quality that shows significant growth during college is what we call Ecumenical Worldview. Some of the items in that scale that show the largest increases during college include students interest in improving understanding of other countries and cultures, feeling a stronger connection to all humanity, and interest in improving the human condition. Students are also growing in their degree of religious tolerance, as evidenced by increased endorsement of the notions that non-religious people can lead lives that are just as moral as those of religious believers and most people can grow spiritually without being religious, together with increasing disagreement with the statement that people who don t believe in God will be punished. Hand in hand with this growth and expansion of ecumenical understanding, our data reveal a parallel increase in the students Ethic of Caring. Here we see students becoming much more interested in helping others who are in difficulty, in reducing pain and suffering in the world, and in helping to clean up the environment and promoting racial understanding. We have recently been examining these last two measures Ecumenical Worldview and Ethic of Caring in greater depth, and our results suggest that certain elements in both qualities can be combined to yield a measure that we have tentatively called Global Citizenship. We believe that Global Citizenship reflects a personal quality that should be central to our discussions about preparing students to be citizens of the global community. We feel strongly that the overall pattern of spiritual change and growth that we have just described speaks well for what we can expect of this next generation of professionals and leaders. If colleges and universities can strengthen their capacity to promote the development of personal qualities like those we have been discussing, as we look to the future we can envision an educated workforce that will be more inclusive, more accepting of differences, more caring, less individualistic, more community-centered, and more collaborative. If indeed these findings suggest that many students can accumulate spiritual capital as they progress through college, then we should expect to see our organizations and institutions of the future more self-aware and more humane.

6 6 Journal of College and Character VOLUME 11, No. 3, September 2010 To paraphrase the words of Zohar and Marshall (2004), [Institutions] rich in spiritual capital are self aware... They know what they believe in, what and whom they affect, and what they want to achieve. [They are] value led... The values of spiritual capital are deep human values... [Institutions] that build spiritual capital... feel a part of and responsible to the community, the planet, life itself. (p. 29) We foresee that the greater the spiritual capital of individuals, the greater the spiritual capital of future organizations and institutions. If we look once more at the findings we have summarized thus far, we have to acknowledge that a key question still remains: Is this growth in students spiritual capital accounted for by their experiences in college, and if so, what are the types of institutions, faculty qualities, and college experiences that can help to promote in students a greater Ethic of Caring, Ecumenical Worldview, and a sense of personal Equanimity and overall spirituality? The Role of College in the Development of Spirituality To examine how and why spirituality and spiritual qualities such as equanimity, ethic of caring, and ecumenical worldview change and grow over time, we have undertaken a number of longitudinal multivariate analyses where we first take into account the students characteristics as they begin college: their initial scores on our spirituality measures as well as their backgrounds and experiences prior to college entry. For these analyses our primary interest is in identifying factors in the undergraduate experience that promote or detract from the development of these spiritual qualities during the college years. We have identified a number of college experiences that play an important role in students spiritual development. Let s start first with the faculty: Can faculty influence the development of spirituality and related qualities? The answer would seem to be a clear-cut yes. Basically what we find is that students are most likely to show positive growth in their spirituality when their faculty actively encourages them either to explore questions of meaning and purpose or to engage them in discussions of religious and spiritual matters. And, not surprisingly, this kind of encouragement is most likely to occur when faculty members personally believe that it is important for undergraduate education to enhance students spiritual development and to facilitate students search for meaning and purpose. The faculty s specific pedagogical practices also play a significant role in students spiritual development. Practices that appear to enhance students spiritual growth include reflective writing and journaling, the use of collaborative group projects, and the use of contemplation and meditation in the classroom. Perhaps the best way to illustrate how we are able to assess the effects of environmental experiences on students spiritual development is to take a specific example such as the positive effect of faculty encouragement on the student s Ecumenical Worldview. Overall we observe a positive change in Ecumenical Worldview between the freshman and junior years, with the number of high scorers increasing from 13% among entering freshmen in 2004 to 18% by 2007 at the end of their junior year. What does this look like if we break down the students in terms of how much their professors encouraged them to explore questions of meaning and purpose? If we look only at those students who received no encouragement, we observe no growth among these students in their Ecumenical Worldview; in fact, there is actually a slight decline (from 12% to 11% high scorers). By contrast, we see a steep increase of 7% (from 11% to 18%) among those doi: / NASPA 2010 JCC

7 Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students 7 who received occasional encouragement and an even steeper increase of 9% (from 20% to 29%) among those receiving frequent encouragement. Of particular interest here is the fact that the occasional encouragement and the no encouragement groups started with almost identical levels of freshman scores (11% and 12%, respectively), but then they show a substantial divergence during the first three years of college. In addition to these faculty influences, we also find that the students fields of study have differential effects on students spirituality. That is, students are much more likely to show positive growth in Spirituality, Equanimity, Ethic of Caring, and Ecumenical Worldview if they major in education, fine arts, health professions, biological sciences, or social sciences. By contrast, we find negative growth in these same qualities when the student majors in engineering, mathematics/statistics, physical science, or other technical fields. Several other curricular and co-curricular experiences are also found to play a critical role in how these spiritual qualities develop. Some of the strongest positive effects occur when students engage in service learning, take interdisciplinary courses, or participate in study abroad programs. And when it comes to co-curricular experiences, leadership training has an especially positive effect; we also find positive effects associated with participation in intercollegiate athletics and being an active member of student organizations. When it comes to the development of an Ethic of Caring and an Ecumenical Worldview, it also appears to matter where students live and what their peer interactions are like. Living in a campus residence hall has a positive effect on their Ethic of Caring, while students Ecumenical Worldview is positively affected when they interact frequently with people of different races. These two findings speak to the overall value of the college experience as a time when students are provided with an opportunity to encounter new ideas, interact with different kinds of people, and be exposed to different cultures. It is also important to note that certain other college activities and experiences have negative effects on spirituality and related qualities. Specifically, we find that watching a lot of television, spending a lot of time playing video games, and frequent drinking and partying are all activities that detract from growth in qualities such as Ethic of Caring, Ecumenical Worldview, and Equanimity. The fact that the college experience can facilitate growth in student qualities such as Equanimity, Ecumenical Worldview, and Ethic of Caring makes us optimistic about the potential of our colleges and universities to produce graduates who will become more effective and more humane parents and partners, citizens of the larger community, and participants in the workforce. Given the growing political, racial, religious, and ethnic tensions that we are witnessing today, these personal qualities are critical to creating a more effective global citizenry. At the same time, our data also suggest that there is much more that institutions can be doing to facilitate students in their spiritual quest. Despite their increasing interest in spiritual matters during college, most students (60%) report that their professors never encouraged discussions of religious/spiritual matters, and only 20% report that their professors frequently encouraged exploration of questions of meaning and purpose (52% occasionally encouraged such exploration, and 28% never encouraged it). These findings show that while today s students are showing significant spiritual growth, the full potential of colleges and universities to facilitate that growth is still to be realized. So far we have been looking at the effect of various college experiences on students spiritual development. We would like to close by looking very briefly at our data from a different perspective, namely, how does spiritual development during college affect other aspects of the student s development? Basically, what we are finding is that positive growth in the student s spiritual qualities is associated with a wide range of other positive outcomes, including

8 8 Journal of College and Character VOLUME 11, No. 3, September 2010 leadership, psychological well-being, intellectual self-esteem, academic performance, satisfaction with college, and commitment to diversity. During the college years, growth in the qualities of Equanimity and Global Citizenship has positive effects on virtually all of these traditional outcomes. Specifically, growth in Equanimity enhances students grade point average, leadership skills, psychological well-being, self-rated ability to get along with other races and cultures, and satisfaction with college. Growth in Global Citizenship enhances students interest in postgraduate study, selfrated ability to get along with other races and cultures, and commitment to promoting racial understanding. In the fall of 2006 we hosted a National Institute at UCLA that brought together about 50 representatives from 10 of our participating institutions (including FSU). We were interested in what campuses were doing to engage students in exploring their inner lives, and also in brainstorming new ideas for strengthening and expanding such practices. The results of this Institute, together with data we have been collecting from other colleges and universities about promising practices, make us optimistic that the higher education community can become more responsive to students holistic development by paying greater attention to their inner lives. We d like to share briefly with you just a sampling of campus activities and recommendations that have emerged from those who attended the Institute:. Offering opportunities for spiritual reflection and discussion during activities such as student orientation and programs targeting students during their first year and sophomore years;. Using new faculty orientation as an opportunity to discuss ways to attend to students spiritual development in the classroom and beyond;. Creating professional development programs to prepare staff, faculty, and peer leaders to participate in and facilitate discussions on spiritual issues;. Creating places for reflection and quiet dialogue on campus;. Creating inter-faith forums on spirituality and religious diversity;. Developing guiding principles to facilitate conversations on spirituality;. Integrating discussions of spirituality in living/learning communities and residence halls;. Hosting guest speakers and forums to encourage discussions on spirituality; and. Incorporating spirituality into campus mission and vision statements Conclusion In recent years most colleges and universities have intensified efforts to provide students with educational experiences that engage them with diverse peoples and cultures through the use of study abroad and foreign language programs, workshops, speakers, and seminars. Institutions have also seen the power of service learning and other forms of civic engagement, and the importance of interdisciplinary coursework in helping students to appreciate the value of multiple perspectives as they confront the complex social, economic, and political problems of our times. Our study has shown that most of these initiatives are also contributing in significant ways to students spiritual development. One form of pedagogy that has so far been employed by very few higher education institutions is contemplative practice such as meditation and self-reflection. Our data suggest that these practices are among the most powerful tools that we have at our disposal for enhancing students spiritual development. doi: / NASPA 2010 JCC

9 Exploring and Nurturing the Spiritual Life of College Students 9 Our findings also show that providing students with more opportunities to touch base with their inner selves will facilitate growth in their academic and leadership skills, contribute to their intellectual self-confidence and psychological well-being, and enhance their satisfaction with the college experience. In short, we believe that the findings of this study constitute a powerful argument in support of the proposition that higher education should attend more to students spiritual development. Assisting more students to grow spiritually will help to create a new generation of young adults who are more caring, more globally aware, and more committed to social justice than previous generations and who are able to employ greater equanimity in responding to the many stresses and tensions of our rapidly changing technological society. References Chickering, A.W., Dalton, J.C., & Stamm, L. (2005). Encouraging authenticity and spirituality in higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How college affects students (Vol. 2): A third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Zohar, D., & Marshall, I. (2004). Spiritual capital: Wealth we can live by. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.