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In this report, spiritual health is conceived as well-being in the relationship that the individual has with himself, with nature, with others and with God, a subject that has increasingly occupied the interest of researchers and educators during the last three decades. This research has estimated the validity and reliability of the Spiritual Well-being Scale, Romanian children’s version. The instrument consists of 27 statements to assess spiritual well-being in children and adolescents, on a five-point Likert scale. For content validity, six experts participated evaluating the clarity and relevance of the statements. For construct validity, 503 students from primary and middle school level attending Romanian schools from different regions participated. An exploratory factor analysis was performed using the principal axis method, with an oblimin rotation. It is concluded that the resulting instrument has the appropriate psychometric properties and can be useful for the assessment of the spiritual wellbeing of minors in clinical and educational contexts.

The significant increase in the use of new technologies by the younger generation has prompted many research studies that have related the problematic use of new technologies to various aspects of adolescent life. This article attempted to determine if there was a significant negative correlation between the level of spiritual well-being and problematic Internet use in a group of gymnasium participants, aged 10 to 14 years, attending two educational institutions in Romania. Two questionnaires were used: the Spiritual Well-being Scale and the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were obtained for the two main study constructs and the correlation was calculated using Spearman’s rho coefficient. Adolescents maintain a relatively strong belief in the existence of God, but they have a low level of interest in reading spiritual books and they are concerned about spending too much time online. The results reveal the need to improve the spiritual well-being of adolescents and make them responsible users of new technologies.

Despite the easy accessibility of information and its widespread availability, there is a growing concern about the rise of functional illiteracy in various regions across the globe. This issue extends beyond just the realm of education and impacts the society at large, as individuals who struggle to grasp information and lack the skills to effectively choose and process it face direct consequences on their current well-being and future opportunities. To enhance reading comprehension levels among both children and adults, a multitude of research studies have been carried out. These investigations have highlighted that the implementation of metacognitive strategies, which are recognized and utilized by students and educators alike, has the potential to enhance reading comprehension abilities in individuals, whether they are dealing with their native language or a foreign one, irrespective of their age. The findings suggest that by incorporating such strategies into teaching practices and learning approaches, significant improvements can be made in the overall literacy levels of populations, thereby addressing the issue of functional illiteracy in a comprehensive manner. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyze the factors influencing reading comprehension, as well as the relationship with metacognitive strategies.

Certain studies identify spiritual health and family functioning as predictors of a healthy lifestyle. Both constructs influence the presence of symptoms of depression and anxiety. To obtain more empirical evidence on this relationship, 128 adults from Northeast Mexico were administered the Spiritual Health Scale (ESE-UM), the Assessment of Family Functioning questionnaire, the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. Significant effects of spiritual health and family functioning on depression and subjective anxiety were found. It is inferred that spiritual health and family functioning are protective factors for emotional problems.