Spiritual Abuse and Neglect of Youth: Reconceptualizing What Is Known Through an Investigation of Practitioners' Experiences

Spiritual abuse and neglect of youth are experiences or environments that detrimentally affect the development of meaning, purpose, connection/belonging, faith, or moral and ethical guidelines. This national study expands our knowledge about the abuse and neglect of children and adolescents in the spiritual domain by examining the frequency in which social workers' encountered ten forms of this type of maltreatment. Findings reveal that maltreatment of this nature may be occurring often enough to be an issue that needs to be explored and addressed. Implications for practitioners, program developers, child advocates, and the need for further research are discussed.