The life issues of religious education linked to perceived mental health in young people

This degree project aims to explore how young people reason about the subject of life issues, how they experience their well-being is affected when discussing such topics, and which attitude they express regarding the time that has been devoted to life issue discussions during religious education in lower secondary school. The method used is a questionnaire, and the sample consists of selected ninth-grade students. The background highlights mental health issues in Swedish society and the increasing problem of school absenteeism during secondary school, often rooted in mental illness. Previous research includes scientific publications related to life issues in education and youth mental health. The results show that the surveyed students are generally positive towards discussing life issues. However, many also associate existential questions primarily with religious groups. The analysis indicates that students feel positively affected by these discussions, regardless of religious or secular affiliation, and that they feel enriched by hearing others´ thoughts and perspectives. In the discussion, the authors argue that their result, when considered alongside previous research, suggest that existential well-being among adolescents, and eventually adults, in Sweden could improve if teachers build trusting relationships with student and integrate life issue discussions into religious education. Ideally, this would help shift the perception of such topic from being solely tied to religiosity toward being more connected with individual development and personal acceptance.