Spiritual individuation is a protective factor mitigating problematic behaviors.
More than any skill or asset, spiritual individuation will set up the teen for a much healthier, more meaningful, purposeful, and thriving adult life. Lacking spiritual resources, teens search for the transcendent experience wherever they can find it: risky behaviors, including reckless driving or casual or unprotected sex, and substance use.
Miller, Dr. Lisa. The Spiritual Child (p. 226). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Having the vocabulary to describe one’s interior spiritual life, and values about what really matters for the good life, and principles to guide decision making, and a teacher or other people to turn to with existential questions and dilemmas are keys to spiritual individuation.
It is an extremely intimate question which teens are rarely asked, “What is your interior spiritual life like?” Try it and see what kind of response you get. You might start with the adults in your life before you move on to the adolescents.
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