Table 4.

Frequencies, percentages, and descriptions of spirituality themes (n = 205)

Theme	F	%	Description
Relationship to God	131	63.9	The importance of a personal relationship with God and how this relationship empowered and supported the participants. Included how they felt the supportive presence of God, that they felt listened to and connected with God, and that their spiritual relationship with God was transformative in their lives
Spiritual support	79	38.5	The impact of spiritual communities in their lives. Included the value of social and emotional support from congregation members, spiritual leaders, and studying spiritual scriptures
Higher purpose	57	27.8	Finding a sense of higher purpose in their spirituality and relationships to God. This included a belief that God had a specific, designed purpose for them or someone close to them, and that their experienced adversity would serve a higher purpose
Spiritual teachings/teachers	50	24.4	The importance of the role of spiritual instruction and spiritual instructors. Included many kinds of spiritual instruction (i.e., reading religious text) or learning from an different of spiritual instructors (i.e., listening to priests)
Spiritual identity development	46	22.4	The idea that spirituality was a core component of their identity. Included notions of “finding themselves” and defining their adult identities within the context of their spirituality, positively developing identities through a relationship with God, and centering identity around spirituality
Spirituality-based servanthood	35	14.6	Value of spirituality-based servanthood as a motivator to serve others or to serve God by serving others. Included evangelistic undertones, such as being motivated to serve others in order to encourage that individual toward faith/religion/spirituality