Impacts of Spiritual and Religious Involvement to the Youth’s

Values and Character Formation

A Concept Paper Submitted to

Miss La-ao

By
Ker-v Genesis B Valeriano
INTRODUCTION

Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop.
They reflect our sense of right and wrong. Every individual and every
organization is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day. The
decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are
always directed towards a specific purpose. Learners are not exempt from this
truth, and in this paper I will focus on the relationship between spiritual or
religious involvement to the value formation of the youth, specifically ranging
from ages 14 to 18.

BACKGROUND

In today’s fast modernizing times, heightening globalization rates, and

the fast paced spread of woke and liberal ideas, it is not a far stretch to say
that values and character formation are beginning to lose it firm conviction of
people, especially the youth.

According to an article from Gradesfixer (2021), one of the biggest

problems of today's society is that it lacks or does not want to respect the
moral values, which represent the guide or the code of rules that are necessary
for the best collective coexistence. Consequently, if we do not try to conduct
ourselves in our daily life, taking these moral or behavioral rules as a reference,
we will be living in the same conditions as in those stages of human history,
where violence, immorality, and debauchery prevailed as a form of life, without
measuring the results of such actions. In recent years, there has been a great
reduction in social and moral values. These behaviors are antisocial and
dehumanized, but unfortunately, every day that passes are being installed
more within the current society. Behaviors full of hatred, selfishness, violence
and indifference to others, are our day to day.
 These types of behaviors are not uncommon to see from the youth these
days. In fact, it is a shocking reality how the younger generation seems to be
more adept to manifest such tendencies in their everyday dealings with life.

Sinha (2018) further elaborates this in these words. Self-Discipline and

moral values were very prominent in the generations, in the past. The essence
of one’s moral values used to ooze out of the persona of the young generation.
Majority of the youth tend to learn courtesy, honesty, timeliness, respecting
elders and having a self-respect intact with a selfless attitude towards their
elders. Unfortunately, these moral values have been diminishing slowly and
gradually from the youth and might extinct no time sooner. The moment
puberty hits the teenagers with young men having a budding mustache and
hoarse voice and the young ladies with their tight blouses and menses on, they
think them to be mature enough to deal with life the way they want to be. They
don't feel the need of a torchbearer in their lives.

The youth instead of spending quality time with their family, opt to
spend time with their friends who unfortunately are undergoing the same
phase as they are. The conjoint way of thinking and lack of decisiveness can
end up being disastrous. The common thing amongst all the adolescents at
that point of time happens to be "Curiosity" Following our friends leads to self-
destruction in ideas of how to act right, causing an extremely
terrible effect to our (community of people/all good people in the
world) and country.

Technology is indeed a boon to mankind but at the same time can be a

cause of its destruction. Tech Savy babies are not something our generation
should be very proud of. However, it adds on to our responsibilities as adults to
screen the information they derive. Use of internet, mobile phones, tablets and
what not are within hands reach to them and everything today is just a click
away. This can be indeed fruitful but ironically can be unpropitious for them.
 Time management, Money Management, Resource Management and Self-
Management is something which some of our teenagers seriously lack and
satirically they are indeed few virtues one can never afford to do away with.
Youth are more likely to experience to get clear and violent information, &
ruining their innocent minds. As nobody is there to
provide proper guidance, youth will make full use of his or
her freedom on the Net, buying
(owning) violent videos, and eagerly trying out on other people, expressing their
frustration with their lives, ending up in immature/youth-
related centers, destroying their lives.

Further, a study Allen (2000) argued that belief in an immanent God

would promote moral development because of the additional perspective-taking
opportunities inherent in the relational nature of that belief. That this positive
effect had not been established earlier was considered more a reflection of the
inadequacy of moral judgment measures than the effect of a religious
perspective. The results of this measure found that all of the subjects
expressed belief in a personal God and 58% justified their belief with concern
for God's feelings and wishes rather than fear of authority or punishment,
suggesting that the relationship component of a personal belief appears to have
a perspective-taking quality.

OBJECTIVES

In light of all these, the goal of this concept paper is to discover whether
spiritual and religious involvement has an impact in restoring the youths
reverence for values and renew their desire for wholesome character
development. As a youth myself who has experienced a significant impact of
the said involvements towards my view of values, I intend to discover whether
this experience can be generalized.

Specifically, my objectives are as follows;

 1. To find out what is the relationship between spiritual and religious
involvement and values and character formation.

2. To determine if these involvements are effective in renewing the youth’s

regard for values and conviction for good character development.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the relationship between spiritual and religious involvement and

values and character formation?

2. Are these involvements effective in renewing the youth’s regard for values
and conviction for good character development?

METHODOLOGY

To gather the data needed to answer this query, I will employ an infield
observation method, where I will be observing learners who are involved in
spiritual and religious activities and comparing their behavior with those who
are not. My respondents will be the Grade 11 ABM students, who conduct
Bible Studies during their Homeroom Period, and Grade 12 HUMSS. I will
gather results based on the behavior specifically treating towards Elders and
Fellow Learners, Language, and Capacity to follow rules when inside the school
campus.