Spiritual Practices Among American Adults: Prevalence and Spiritual/Religious Salience as Predictors of Specific Activities

Abstract

Practitioners are called to administer spiritual assessments to—in part—identify spiritual practices or activities that can potentially be leveraged to help clients deal with problems. This study assists practitioners to conduct spiritual assessments by positioning them to identify common spiritual practices. Nationally representative data are used to determine the prevalence of 17 different spiritual practices, and the relationship between self-reported importance of spirituality and religion and each practice. The results reveal most Americans participate in spiritual practices. Spiritual salience predicted engagement in activities inside and outside traditional religious venues, whereas religious salience was a stronger predictor of practices customary in religious settings. The results support initiating spiritual assessments by exploring the importance clients ascribe to spirituality and religion.

Keywords

spirituality religion strengths perspective assessment

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