The Impact of Social Work education on Students' Spirituality

Abstract

Previous studies have found that spirituality is an important aspect in the lives of social work students.This study examined changes to the spirituality of 22 Bachelor of Social Work students and a comparison group of 22 undergraduate honours liberal arts students at a small Catholic university.The four-part instrument was completed before students began their formal social work studies and was administered again just prior to completion of the program.Spirituality was observed to be of more importance for the social work students than for members of the comparison groups on both open and close-ended questions. Social work students had a significantly greater score on the JAREL Spirituality Well-Being Scale than did the comparison group. Spirituality was also observed to change over the course of the students’ social work education and more so than for the comparison group.Changes were reported on how spirituality was perceived, how spiritual needs were met, and on those persons who provided significant spiritual influence as well as on the importance of post-secondary education in strengthening spirituality.

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