Spiritual Intelligence as a Correlate of Mental Health of Male and Female University Students

Abstract

This study aimed to observe the effect of spiritual intelligence on mental health among university students. The sample comprised o f200 university students (100 males & 100 females) doing post-graduation with the age range of 19-27 years. The tools used for data collection were The Spiritual Intelligence Scale (King, 2008) and The Mental Health Inventory (MHI-38) (The RAND Corporation, 1983). Pearson's Product Moment Correlation was applied to find out the effect of four dimensions of spiritual intelligence (i.e.. Critical Existential Thinking, Personal Meaning Production, Transcendental Awareness & Conscious State Expansion) on the six component of mental health (i.e.. Anxiety, Depression, Loss of Behavioral/Emotional Control, General Positive Affect, Emotional Ties & Life Satisfaction). The results depicted that among male students: Anxiety had a negative and a significant correlation with personal meaning production, transcendental awareness and conscious state of expansion. Depression had a negative and a significant correlation with personal meaning production and transcendental awareness. Loss of behavioral/emotional control had a negative and a significant correlation with personal meaning production and transcendental awareness. General positive affect was positively and significantly correlated with conscious state of expansion. Whereas, the result revealed that among female students: Loss of behavioral/emotional control was significantly and a negatively correlation with personal meaning production and consciousness state of expansion. General positive affect had a significant and positive correlation with conscious state of expansion. Life satisfaction was significantly and positively correlated with personal meaning production and conscious state of expansion. Thus, it can be concluded that spiritual intelligence had a positive effect on mental health of the selected sample.