Motywy kontaktu młodzieży z duszpasterstwem akademickim

Abstract

The aim of this article is a psychological analysis of the choices of positive and negative motives inducing university students to contact groups of religious character. The author seeks to answer the following questions: 1) what motivates the academic youth to get in touch and keep in touch with centres of spiritual guidance, 2) which of the 24 positive and 16 negatives do young people consider „important” and „the most important”, 3) what are the directions of changes in the motivation depending on the length of time of membership in a centre? The empirical material was collected by means of 2 questionaries: 1. the inventory of positive motives (24); 2. the inventory of negative motives (16). The survey was taken between December 1973 and March 1974 in six centres of spiritual guidance for the academic youth (Wrocław, Katowice, Łódź, Warszawa). Two groups of students were examined: a group of members of such centres (ODA) ‒ 175 people, and a group of non-members (NDA) ‒ 175 people, men and women. The analysis showed that in the ODA group the highest rank was attached to the following groups of motives i(iin order of importance attached to them): 1. to deepen one’s religious knowledge (2nd category); 2. to become a mature Christian (1st category); 3. to get involved in the life of the Church; 4. recreative-emotional motives. In the NDA group the highest rank was attached to the motives of the 3rd category (external obstacles), and to the motives resulting from „indifference to religion and the Church” (34 per cent and 31 per cent respectively).