Religious Experiences in Childhood and Adolescence: A Viewpoint of Religious Development Between the Ages of 7 and 20

This study clarified religious experiences of Finnish children and adolescents from two points of view: experiences of God's closeness and guidance. It was part of a larger study that covered other aspects of religiousness aside from religious experiences. Three different substudies were included: the original study, longitudinal study, and replicate study. Altogether, nearly 3,000 Finnish children and adolescents ages 7 to 20 took part in these substudies. This part of the overall study concentrated on three questions: (a) To what extent do children and adolescents of different ages have religious experiences; (b) to what external or internal contexts are their personal religious experiences related; and (c) how do these experiences relate to their other religiousness and to their gender, personality, school, and home backgrounds? The empirical bases of the study were mainly the responses of subjects to direct questions and their own reports of their experiences.