hen Dr. Richard Lerner, of Tufts University, embarked on his Templeton-funded program “The Role of Spiritual 
Development in Growth of Purpose, Generosity and Psychological Health in Adolescence,” he was determined it should be a “field-building” exercise that would involve multiple scientific disciplines and theology in investigating spiritual development in youth.
He describes as historically unique the breadth of this collaboration, with scholars studying the cultural, genetic, and neurological aspects of adolescent development. “We have data about the brain and spirituality,” he says, “the brain and positive development, the brain and generosity, the physiological functioning that a young person goes through as they’re having a spiritual experience that links physiologically and neurologically with their life narrative. So we have put together in this data set the richest and most complex data that has ever been assembled.”
The focal point of this cross-sectional study of the second decade of life was to investigate the importance of spiritual development in fostering generosity among adolescents. Crucial to this study was the echelon Lerner describes as spiritually-gifted youth. These are youngsters who have been identified by spiritual or community service leaders as exemplars of spirituality. “To us, spirituality means transcendence, to go beyond the self in time or place.”
This transcendence can be achieved through the medium of religious institutions or through transcending to make a difference in society—either a vertical or horizontal commitment, in Lerner’s terms. The project examined the brains of young Christians, Muslims, and Jews and reached the striking conclusion that youngsters showing extraordinary levels of generosity exhibited different brain patterns from those not showing generosity.
One of the objectives was to develop state-of-the-art measures to assess the nature of spiritual growth and psychological health, generosity, and purpose across the adolescent years. Other scholars had already developed such measures. “But,” says Lerner, “what we did was try to make certain that our measures were both quantitatively and qualitatively sensitive to differences across age, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds.”
Another aim was to attract, besides senior researchers, stellar young scholars. To demonstrate the success of this Lerner cites, among his team, such rising stars as Marina Bers, one of 20 recipients last year of the White House Young Scientist award; Linda Juang, from San Francisco State University, a prominent scholar in the Asian development community on spirituality; and Guerda Nicolas, at Boston College, who is interested in the protective role of spirituality among socio-economically challenged Afro-American and Latino youth. This cross-cultural perspective is enhanced by the participation of Selcuk Sirin, who is the best known scholar studying Muslim adolescence in the United States.
The program will result in two books. The first, Positive Youth Development and Spirituality: From Theory to Research, published by Templeton Foundation Press in spring 2008, derived from a conference on spirituality in childhood and adolescence which attracted participation by major scholars. The second book, which features data assembled for presentation by researchers at a conference at Tufts University in April 2008, is being written in spring-summer 2008, with chapters contributed by eminent scholars, and is designed to produce evidence to support a further longitudinal study.
“Where the first book talked about the potential of this area of work, the second book will say here’s some actuality that we found,” explains Lerner. “That book will not only be the first ever report of these findings across the adolescent decade, but also it will substantiate the value of taking this work and moving it into a longitudinal framework.” He says they have six or seven presentations of “very provocative data coming from these collaborators, not only from across the United States, but also internationally.”
Besides these books, Lerner and his Tufts University colleagues, Robert Roeser, Erin Phelps, Heather Urry, and their students have made six presentations of their data on links between the brain and positive youth development at scientific conferences in Europe and India as well as the U.S. He has also discussed the subject widely in magazines and on radio and television programs across America, along with contributions to scientific publications.
What are the big questions in this discipline? “To me the biggest question in the field of adolescent development is: What are the fundamental bases of a young person’s moving through the adolescent years in a positive, healthy way?” On the evidence of his research, Lerner believes spirituality provides the fuel for transporting young people successfully across this difficult terrain.
“And the big question then becomes: To what extent can we understand the enormous potential of spirituality and spiritual development to be the driving force of healthy, positive development across the adolescent years?” He hopes to find the answer to that question by expanding his research into a further, longitudinal study.
