Spirituality is an important but often overlooked area in mental health. This study aimed to examine individual meanings regarding the concepts of religion and spirituality for adolescents attending a mental health out-patient service. Participants were 53 adolescent out-patients of the Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, drawn from the early stage of larger study examining adolescent resilience. Adolescents were found to express eclectic and individual views surrounding the topic, with each response being uniquely representative of their beliefs. Themes commonly found included religion and God with many showing some degree of change. Some of these changes involved abandoning one religion in favor of another or changes in ideas about God. There was no significant relationship between those with a diagnosis and those without regarding their religious and spiritual beliefs; however, there were differences between groups in using beliefs to cope, beliefs about a spiritual force and its influence on day-to-day and world affairs. Spiritual and religious ideas are important for adolescents and those in the study showed a great diversity in ideas about this topic. It would be of further interest to research how these beliefs and ideas about religion and spiritual change over time and learn about how adolescents without a diagnosis use their beliefs to assist in coping.
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