Spirituality in adolescents with a grounded theory approach conceptual and contextual analysis

This research was conducted in order to respond to the need to understand the concept of spirituality in the minds of adolescents within their own cultural codes and the connections between the areas of socialization that begin in childhood and accelerate in adolescence. The study aims to reveal the perception of spirituality of adolescents and to understand the conceptual, operational, traditional, environmental, socio-political codes of spirituality within its context. A qualitative design was preferred based on the predictive paradigm in order to follow the connections of the individual and to interpret the regions experienced and subject to the research in the study. On 09.03.2023, ethics committee permission was obtained and data collection took place between 10.04.2023 - 10.05.2023. The data were obtained through detailed interviews with 11 open-ended and 8 fully structured questions directed to 36 students between the ages of 13 and 18 at Yenimahalle Tevfik İleri AİHL, Mamak Hüseyin Gazi AİHL, Mamak Volkan Gürbüzalp Anatolian High School, which continue formal education in Ankara. The data were analyzed by thematic coding and grounded theory analysis. As a result of the study, the participants' spirituality was shaped through 3 core categories. Relational ties when adolescents position their spirituality; friendship, institutions (religious and national educational institutions), social relations, politics, structural ties; spirituality by feeding on the knowledge gained from family, culture and religious institutions.