The Effectiveness of Spiritual Competence Training on the Psychological Well-being of Preschool Teachers

Abstract

Background: Spiritual competence means understanding the difference between spirituality and religion; and between spirituality, religion, and culture.
 Objectives: This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of spiritual competence training on the psychological well-being of preschool teachers.
 Methods: This is a quantitative, semi-experimental, pre-test-post-test study with a control group. The statistical population included all preschool teachers in Birjand city in the academic year 2019 - 2020. Using the purposeful sampling method and following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 40 participants were randomly selected and divided into two experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the educational package of spiritual competence in 12 sessions, and the control group did not receive any intervention. In order to analyze the data, the analysis of variance test was used with repeated measures after observing the statistical assumption.
 Results: The mean age of the participants was 37.38 ± 7.39 years. All of the participants were female (100%). The results of the present study showed that the educational package of spiritual competence was effective for the psychological well-being of preschool teachers. The results of the test of simple effects between groups in three stages of measurement showed that there is no significant difference between the two experimental and control groups in the pre-test. Post-test and follow-up, there is a significant difference between the two experimental and control groups, and the average of the experimental group is higher in the two stages of post-test and follow-up.
 Conclusions: According to the findings, it can be said that the educational package of spiritual competence evaluated in the present study can help in increasing the mental health and psychological well-being of preschool teachers.