Looking around the neighborhood playground you will see a spectrum of temperaments. Outgoing kids, shy kids, whiners and those who get right back on the horse. Sometimes, you will see all of this rolled into one pig-tailed princess.
When your kid cycles through all her personality traits like a little Cybil, you just want to know you are doing your due diligence to raise a happy kid.
With the goal of discovering the secrets to a happier child, Mark Holder from the University of British Columbia in Canada and his colleagues Ben Coleman and Judi Wallace, explored the nature of the relationship between spirituality, religiousness, temperament and happiness in children ages 8 to 12 years.
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A total of 320 children, from four public schools and two faith-based schools, completed six different questionnaires to rate their happiness, spirituality, religiousness and temperament. Knowing you can't trust a child's assessment of their own temperament and happiness, parents were also asked to weigh in on those.
It was found that aspects of spirituality are strong predictors of children's happiness. The study shows that children who show aspects of spirituality such as, feeling their lives have meaning and value and having deep, quality relationships, are happier.
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A child's temperament also played a large role in their happiness. It may come as no surprise, happier children were more outgoing. However, whether the child was shy or the class clown, the relationship between spirituality and happiness remained strong.
On the other hand, perhaps because religious practices sometimes have little to do with spirituality, they were shown to have little effect on children's happiness. It looks like personal meaning may be the aspect of spirituality linking it to happiness. Maybe collecting cans for the food drive or volunteering at a homeless shelter could do more than teach your kid a lesson. It could put a more permanent smile on his or her face.
Studies often leave parents with the chicken or the egg question. Is my child happy because he or she is spiritual or vice-versa? I don't know, I don't really care, just so they are happy and spiritual.
At this moment, all signs are pointing toward split-personality disorder with a dab of bi-polar topped off by sadism. Guess we will be ringing some bells outside of Kroger this Holiday season.