A Transpersonal Understanding of Youth Spirituality: Implications for an Expanded View of Youth Work

This article draws on interdisciplinary literature to identify the spiritual capacities and experiences of children and youth. Several major theorists who describe the process of spiritual development in the context of stage-like models and non-stage developmental experiential perspectives are discussed in order to provide a transpersonal understanding of children and youth spirituality. Although transpersonal theorists hold many different views on children’s capacities, all recognize the existence and importance of children’s spirituality. Implications for youth work are presented, including application of spirituality to therapeutic treatments fostering resilience, spiritual education, outdoor activities, and other practices that expand the transpersonal potential of social work and positive youth development