Spirituality is a major contributor to a child’s overall happiness–even more so than for adults–according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.
The study tested 315 children aged 9 to 12, measuring spirituality and other factors such as temperament and social relations that can affect an individual’s sense of happiness.
“Our goal was to see whether there’s a relation between spirituality and happiness,” said Mark Holder, associate professor of psychology and the study’s co-author. “We knew going in that there was such a relation in adults, so we took multiple measures of spirituality and happiness in children.”