Developing Interiority in Children and Teenagers: Difficulties Perceived by Workers and Strategies to Address Them

• Main Authors: Enric Benavent-Vallès, Oscar Martínez-Rivera, Lisette Navarro-Segura
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Religions
• Subjects: interiority; spirituality; childhood; education; social work
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/9/715

Educating interiority is a fundamental aspect of development and is of the utmost importance in childhood and adolescence because it helps to develop the faculties that allow them to experience life to the fullest. In this project, we aimed to analyze the difficulties that social workers perceive when educating interiority and identify the main strategies that they use to face these difficulties. A mixed questionnaire, with quantitative and qualitative data, was designed to this end, and answered by 128 professionals who work with children and teenagers. The results showed that educators have restrictive beliefs regarding difficulties, which do not always correspond to the real difficulties, which limit their attempts to educate the interior dimension. The difficulties found include those related to the characteristics of the group of children and teenagers and others linked to the low level of education on interiority, the absence of a personal inner life, and the lack of methodological tools to approach this matter.