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Drawing back the veil: the socio-psychological correlates of paranormal belief among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents

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Francis, Leslie J. and Williams, Emyr. (2007) Drawing back the veil: the socio-psychological correlates of paranormal belief among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents. Christian Parapsychologist, Vol.17 . pp. 170-185. ISSN 0308-6194

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Abstract

This study examines the socio-psychological profile of young people who believe that it is possible to contact the spirits of the dead. Data provided by 33,982 13- to 15-year-old pupils throughout England and Wales demonstrated that almost one in three young people (31%) held this particular belief in the paranormal. The level of belief was higher among females than among males, among year-ten pupils than among year-nine pupils, among pupils of lower academic expectations, among pupils who had experienced the death of a parent or whose parents had separated or divorced, among pupils from lower social class backgrounds, and among those who watched more than four hours television in a day. The level of belief was higher among pupils who had had a religious experience, but lower among pupils who attended church most weeks.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Institute of Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Spirituality -- Great Britain, Adolescent psychology -- Great Britain, Teenagers -- Religious life -- Great Britain, Television and teenagers -- Great Britain
Journal or Publication Title: Christian Parapsychologist
Publisher: Churches' Fellowship for Psychical & Spiritual Studies
ISSN: 0308-6194
Date: 2007
Volume: Vol.17
Page Range: pp. 170-185
Status: Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
References: Bibby, R.W. (2001), Canada’s youth: today, yesterday and tomorrow, Toronto, Stoddart. Boyd A. (1996), Dangerous Obsessions: teenagers and the occult, London, HarperCollins. Fox, J.W. (1992), The structure, stability, and social antecedents of reported paranormal experiences, Sociological Analysis, 53, 417-431. Francis, L.J. (1997), The socio-psychological profile of the teenage television addict, Muslim Education Quarterly, 15, 4-19. Franics, L.J. (2001), The Values Debate, London, Woburn Press. Francis L.J. and Kay, W.K. (1995), Teenage Religion and Values, Leominster, Gracewing. Francis, L.J., Robbins, M and Williams, E. (in press), Believing and implicit religion beyond the churches: religion, superstition, luck and fear among 13-15 year old girls in Wales, Implicit Religion. Kinnaman, D. (2006), Teens and the Supernatural, Carlifornia, The Barna Group. MacDonald, W.L. (1992), Idionecrophanies: the social construction of perceived contact with the dead, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 215-223. MacDonald, W.L. (1995), The effects of religiosity and structural strain on reported paranormal experiences, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34, 366-376. Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1980), Classification of Occupations 1980, London, HMSO. Preece P.F.W. and Baxter, J.H. (2000), Scepticism and gullibility: the superstitious and pseudo-scientific beliefs of secondary school students, International Journal of Science Education, 22, 1147-1156. Quesnell, M.D. (2000), An analysis of selected beliefs and values among Czech 14- and 15-year-old public school students, Unpublished PhD dissertation, Trinity College, University of Wales. Sjödin, U. (2002). The Swedes and the paranormal. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 17, 75-85. Smith, A.G.C. (2002), The nature and significance of religion among adolescents in the metropolitan borough of Walsall, Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wales, Bangor. Smith, C. (2005), Soul Searching: the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers, New York, Oxford University Press. Thompson, P.N. (2004), The Religious Beliefs of Young People (in light of the New Age Movement), Unpublished M.Phil dissertation, University of Wales, Bangor. Williams, E., Francis, L.J., and Robbins, M. (2006), Attitude toward Christianity and Paranormal Belief among 13- to 16-year-old students, Psychological Reports, 99, 266 Williams, E., Robbins, M and Picton, L. (2006), Adolescent Television Viewing and Belief in Vampires, Journal of Beliefs and Values, 27, 229-231. Wolfradt, U. (1997), Dissociative experiences, trait anxiety and paranormal beliefs, Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 15-19.
URI: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/2971

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