Impact of Spirituality on Depression, Anxiety and Stress of Students Preparing for Competitive Exams

Abstract

Background: Gradually over the years trend towards education system in our country has changed, it has become highly competitive. On the basis of one’s grades admissions to various “top colleges” is provided, which further leads to “high packaged placements”. On the basis of one’s job status and college ranking their self worth is measured and all this puts lot of burden on students who have to continuously strive to achieve better than their batch mates, their siblings, relatives, neighbors etc. Aim: The aim of the study was to see whether spirituality would have any impact on depression, anxiety and stress in male and female students preparing for competitive exams. Methods: Participants were 60 students (30 males and 30 females) from areas of Rajasthan and Delhi, India, in the age range of 16-25 years, with no history of any psychiatric illness. They gave their consent to participate in the study. Spirituality was assessed using the daily spiritual experience scale by Underwood & Teresi, (2002), depression, anxiety, and stress levels through Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scales (DASS by Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Sample was purposive and the data were collected in individual situations. Results: There was difference between male and female students with regard to spirituality, depression, anxiety and stress, however only on the dimension of anxiety the results were significant, where female students had significantly more anxiety than that of male students (t = 2.87, p = .01). With regard to correlation between spirituality, depression, anxiety and stress there was significant inverse correlation for male and female students. However only for anxiety scores in females, there was a significant inverse correlation (r=-.417, p= .01). Conclusion: It can be concluded that spirituality to some extent helps in reducing anxiety. At the same time it is essential for us to realize that spirituality is not the only way to help the young stressed students to cope with this life challenge, the family simultaneously needs to be supportive and not over pressurize the students and should stop comparing them to one or the other. However due to the small sample size the result findings cannot be generalized.