Adults with care experiences serve as some of our most important allies in the journey to care for vulnerable children and families.
They know what it’s like to be separated from their parents. They can tell us about the things that helped and harmed while they were in foster care or residential care. They have information and experience that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
And rather than making our best guess about what we can do to improve the lives of vulnerable children, they can tell us with certainty.
The incredible earned wisdom of adults with care experience led our team at the CAFO Research Center to undertake a study of more than 1,100 individuals across 60 nations on the relationship between spirituality and resilience and well-being for care leavers.
As the data collection process was a significant undertaking, we maximized our efficiency by embedding multiple research questions into one survey. The results were fascinating, but one of the most meaningful results came from a question we hadn’t actually asked at all.
The surprise we should have expected to find
Originally, we were most interested in questions about resilience, health, and life satisfaction. The idea behind the study is that finding what worked for adults with care experience points us in the right direction regarding what will work for children currently in care.
But as we combed through the data, we saw mention after mention of words like “God,” “prayer,” “church,” and “Bible.” In the end, we were able to identify spontaneous mentions of spiritual, religious, and faith concepts, and see how they related to our original constructs of physical and mental health, resilience, and life satisfaction.
The results spoke loudly about the ways in which spirituality is likely linked to overall health and well-being. Those with more spontaneous faith references also reported higher life satisfaction, better mental health, better physical health, and greater resilience. This is all really good news!! Amidst the backdrop of research on vulnerable populations, which is typically discouraging, this finding is a joyful outlier.
Spirituality played an important role as a protective factor in care leavers. Greater emphasis on spirituality was related to increased life satisfaction, increased mental health, increased physical health, and increased resilience.
Science catching up with faith
Many Christians know these things already.
We see guidance for better health and well-being throughout Scripture.
- Physical health: “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones,” (Proverbs 3:7-9).
- Mental health: “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you,” (1 Peter 5:7).
- Resilience: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us,” (Romans 8:37).
- Life satisfaction: “Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have,” (Philippians 4:11).
But as in so many situations, this is science affirming biblical truths and making discoveries about creation.
- Gratitude is correlated with greater life satisfaction.
- Communing with creation is linked to better physical and mental health.
- Attending religious services is associated with greater resilience.
- And now, as a result of this recent study, spirituality is related to higher life satisfaction, better mental health, better physical health and greater resilience in adults with care experience.
Of course, this is a research study, so we tend to use “may” and “could” and “associated with.” We cannot – as a result of this study alone – definitively say that spirituality leads to or causes better health, increased resilience, and greater life satisfaction.
However, this is an excellent signpost in the journey of learning what can help vulnerable children thrive, and it is cause for more research to explore this concept further.
Spirituality is related to higher life satisfaction
Most research about children and adults who were separated from parental care is discouraging.
It often highlights poor outcomes and can seem to indicate there is no hope for these individuals. However, that’s not the whole story. We see many individuals with care experience thriving. The question is, how can we help more children with care experience to do so well?
From our findings, it seems possible that spirituality plays a key role in better outcomes.
There is stilla need for further research, but it is a hopeful initial research confirmation of what many of us have suspected: faith and spirituality help us to do better and to overcome difficulties in our lives.
This is very useful information for those of us who love and care for vulnerable people.
Of course, this is not to say that every person of faith will avoid difficult health or well-being issues. That certainly wasn’t true for the sample that was part of our study, and it certainly isn’t true in Scripture. Nor can we force someone to be a person of faith as some sort of treatment.
Rather, we can provide access to Scripture and educational materials. We can create opportunities to attend church services or events. We can introduce the practice of prayer and ideas like grace and faith. And we can support children and adults who express interest in or commitment to faith.
Each child, including those in care, is made in the very image of God and is of inestimable value. We must continue as the CAFO community to discover and implement supports that allow vulnerable children to thrive.
This is all good news for children and families, and there is more to come.
– Dr. Nicole Wilke is the Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children and Families.
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Interested in exploring other aspects of the study? Check out the full infographic on the Relationship Between Spirituality and Resilience and Well-being which highlights the study findings and implications!