Buddhist adolescents’ religiosity: how are its core dimensions correlated with each other and with demographic factors?

ABSTRACT

Buddhism is popular worldwide. It has been taught both inside and outside schools to enhance teenagers’ attitudes and behaviour. To evaluate how it works, identifying teenagers’ religiosity and the factors that influence it is essential. This study surveyed 140 teenagers attending retreats at three Zen monasteries belonging to the Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen sect in Vietnam, using a questionnaire to examine how the core dimensions constituting their religiosity associated with each other and with the demographics. Twelve in-depth interviews with teens were also conducted to explore how religious they were. The conclusion was that the religiosity of teenagers involved three core dimensions: religious understanding, faith and practice, which correlated with each other. Furthermore, age and gender had a considerable association with the teens’ religiousness. These findings may help in expanding religious education.

KEYWORDS:

• Religiosity
• adolescence
• demographics
• Buddhist education

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the retreat organizers and the monks and nuns at the Truc Lam Zen monasteries of Vien Chieu, Chinh Phap, and Ham Rong for supporting this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Research approval

Decision 222/QD-VTNT dated 14 November 2018 by Tran Nhan Tong Institute, Vietnam National University.

Notes

1. Pāli: Pāṭaliya–sutta, (SN 42.13).

2. See Mahayana Sutra of previous lives and contemplation of the mind-ground (Giebel 2021).

3. See Samagama Sutra (Thich Tue Sy 2019b, 1914–1915); Pali: Sāmagāma Sutta (M. 104).

4. In Vietnamese context, this refers to actions which are harmful to society and the national traditions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Loc Tan Le

Loc Tan Le, PhD student in Buddhist Studies at Tran Nhan Tong Institute, Vietnam National University, Vietnam. My research interests are about Buddhism for educating adolescents, meditation and ethical behaviour, and Buddhist teachings and youth’s morality.