The Influence of Parents and Sunday School Teachers on the Spiritual Well-Being of Preteens in Selected Southern Baptist Churches

Preteens, children in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, are perhaps the most overlooked and unnoticed group today in both homes and churches alike. However, due to their cognitive, emotional and social, bioecological, and spiritual development, the preteen years are the most influential years in a young person’s life. The problem of this study is to determine the influence of attachment to parents and Sunday School teachers on the spiritual well-being of preteens in selected Southern Baptist churches in the southwestern and southeastern parts of the continental United States. The purpose of the dissertation was to determine the correlation between attachment to parents and the spiritual well-being of preteens as well as the correlation between attachment to Sunday School teachers and the spiritual well-being of preteens. Preteens (N = 301) from twenty selected Southern Baptist churches completed a five-part, self-reporting survey that included the Background Information Questionnaire (BIQ); Inventory of Parent Attachment (IParA); Inventory of Sunday School Teacher Attachment (ISSTA); Feeling Good, Living Life (FGLL) instrument; and Quality of Life Influences Survey (QOLIS). According to the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r), statistically significant positive correlations were found between parents and the spiritual well-being of preteens as well as between Sunday School teachers and the spiritual well-being of preteens. According to the multiple linear regression test, relationships to parents and Sunday School teachers predicted the spiritual well-being of preteens. Furthermore, the relationship to the father contributed the most to the regression model, the relationship to mother contributed almost the same amount to the regression model, and the relationship to the Sunday School teacher contributed the least to the regression model