Psycho-spiritual Well-being Research Articles

Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing among Priests after Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing among Priests after Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Prayer Addiction and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing among the Selected Female Religious Congregation in Nigeria.

Prayer Addiction and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing among the Selected Female Religious Congregation in Nigeria.

User Manual for Coping Strategies Inventory Short Form (CSI-SF)-The Jackson Heart Study.

Researchers have asserted that patients who generally rely on powerful external sources to control their disorders can benefit from examining their coping mechanisms, which can potentially lead to a better understanding of the initiation and progression of some chronic diseases. By trusting their own internal powers and virtues, it is possible for some people to discover and navigate available strategies to balance and enhance their psycho-spiritual well-being and possibly their treatment and recovery. This review serves as a user manual for investigators who choose to use the CSI-SF to conduct their research on coping behaviors. The CSI-SF, which measures four coping strategies based on 16 items, was first assessed using the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) cohort in 2007. The reliability and construct validity of the CSI-SF was also later assessed among hemodialysis patients across 13 countries. In this study, the CSI-SF was assessed to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring coping strategies. The CSI-SF serves the purpose of developing an inner voice that can assist with understanding how people cope with everyday life. The information gathered from the administration of the CSI-SF can inform investigators about environmental cues and triggers that can also impact individual health.

Development, Reliability, and Validity of Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (P-SWBS)

Until recently, researchers have been combining the Ryft’s Psychological Wellbeing Scale (PWBS) and Ellison and Paloutzian’s Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (SWBS) in an attempt to measure what can be considered psycho-spiritual wellbeing. This attempt makes psycho-spiritual wellbeing appear fragmented. This necessitated the development of the Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (P-SWBS) which measures psycho-spiritual wellbeing on the five domains: Self-Awareness, Connectedness, Meaningfulness, Compassion, and Self-Transcendence. The purpose of the study is to ascertain the psychometric properties of the P-SWBS. P-SWBS is found to be highly reliable (25 items; Spearman Brown Coefficient = .876; Guttman Split-Half coefficient = .850; at Cronbach’s Alpha = .916). The P-SWBS is valid on face, content, and criterion levels. Also, validity was based on the significant value obtained by the Sig. (2-tailed) of 0.000<0.05 on score total of each item of the scale.

Secular Music and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing: A Case of Youths, St. John The Evangelist Catholic Parish Karen, Nairobi-Kenya

Secular music is common in every society and those who listen to it mostly are youths. Lyrical contents of many secular music today seem to have caused damage than good among youths. In our society today there is a widespread concern about the use of illicit drugs, increase violence which has become a public health problem with lifelong impact on the physical, social, psychological, and even spiritual life of many in the society. The rate of criminality seems to be on the increase, illicit sex is rampant in the society which often results in unwanted pregnancies, unprepared marriage, hence violent relationship. The research aimed at looking at secular music and psycho-spiritual wellbeing: A case of youths, St. John’s the Evangelist Catholic parish Karen, Nairobi-Kenya. The embedded mixed method design was deployed by the researcher. Responding to Likert-type survey creature for the research, 105 participants provided vital information (quantitative and qualitative) that were used for the research. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) helped in analyzing the data collected from the participants. The findings of this research may help the youths at different levels in the Church and beyond to evaluate themselves to see the negative influence of secular music on their psycho-spiritual well-being and how to manage them. The findings of the research showed that listening to secular music had both positive and negative effects on the lives of the youths of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church Karen-Nairobi, Kenya. Psychologically, the findings showed that secular music help the youths as it relaxes the mind, while spiritually, listening to secular music does not help the youths improve in their spiritual wellbeing as it affects their time.

A Causal-Comparative Study of Religious Activities and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing of Senior Secondary School Students of Marist Comprehensive Academy and Uturu Secondary School, Abia State, Nigeria

There have been a good number of research studies linking religious beliefs and practices to wellbeing. These studies, in a way, allude to human beings longing to have a transcendental experience as part of their nature given that religion is not epiphenomena. This explains why religious beliefs and practices are a global phenomenon. The enigma is still not adequately tackled as to the relationship and the extent to which religious activities influence wellbeing. Thus, this study hypothesized that there is no significant difference between the psycho-spiritual wellbeing of a private school, Marist Comprehensive Academy (MCA) and a public one, Uturu Secondary School (USS) with regards to religious activities. Using a casual-comparative (retrospective type) design, a structured online survey questionnaire was developed using the standardized scales of Viejo et al (2018) – Brief Psychological Wellbeing Scale for Adolescents (BSPWB-A), and Fisher (2010) – Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM). A sample size of 193 respondents (79 boys and 114 girls), senior secondary (II & III) students of MCA and USS participated in the study. The data collected were computed, analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistic measures in tables and frequencies. Findings confirmed the hypothesis that there was no significant difference between the psycho-spiritual wellbeing of the students of MCA and those of USS with respect to religious activities (at p = 0.01). Although MCA students showed more effects in their psycho-spiritual wellbeing when compared to USS students, the chi-square result indicated that both variables are independent of each other.

A Causal-Comparative Study of Religious Activities and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing of Senior Secondary School Students of Marist Comprehensive Academy and Uturu Secondary School, Abia State, Nigeria

A Causal-Comparative Study of Religious Activities and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing of Senior Secondary School Students of Marist Comprehensive Academy and Uturu Secondary School, Abia State, Nigeria

Psilocybin-assisted therapy improves psycho-social-spiritual well-being in cancer patients

BackgroundWhile psychedelics have been shown to improve psycho-spiritual well-being, the underlying elements of this change are not well-characterized. The NIH-HEALS posits that psycho-social-spiritual change occurs through the factors of Connection, Reflection & Introspection, and Trust & Acceptance. This study aimed to evaluate the changes in NIH-HEALS scores in a cancer population with major depressive disorder undergoing psilocybin-assisted therapy. MethodsIn this Phase II, single-center, open label trial, 30 cancer patients with major depressive disorder received a fixed dose of 25 mg of psilocybin. Participants underwent group preparation sessions, simultaneous psilocybin treatment administered in adjacent rooms, and group integration sessions, along with individual care. The NIH-HEALS, a self-administered, 35-item measure of psycho-social spiritual healing was completed at baseline and post-treatment at day 1, week 1, week 3, and week 8 following psilocybin therapy. ResultsNIH-HEALS scores, representing psycho-social-spiritual wellbeing, improved in response to psilocybin treatment (p < 0.001). All three factors of the NIH-HEALS (Connection, Reflection & Introspection, and Trust & Acceptance) demonstrated positive change by 12.7 %, 7.7 %, and 22.4 %, respectively. These effects were apparent at all study time points and were sustained up to the last study interval at 8 weeks (p < 0.001). LimitationsThe study lacks a control group, relies on a self-report measure, and uses a relatively small sample size with limited diversity that restricts generalizability. ConclusionsFindings suggest that psilocybin-assisted therapy facilitates psycho-social-spiritual growth as measured by the NIH-HEALS and its three factors. This supports the factors of Connection, Reflection & Introspection, and Trust & Acceptance as underlying elements for psycho-social-spiritual healing in cancer patients, and validates the use of the NIH-HEALS within psychedelic research.

Effects of a WeChat-Based Life Review Program for Patients With Digestive System Cancer: 3-Arm Parallel Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundPatients with digestive system cancer often experience psychospiritual distress. Life review is an evidence-based psychological intervention for patients with cancer, but the effects of digital life review programs are unclear, especially for patients with digestive system cancer.ObjectiveWe examined the effects of a WeChat-based life review program on the psychospiritual well-being of patients with digestive system cancer.MethodsThis study was a 3-arm parallel randomized controlled trial. Eligible patients with digestive system cancer were recruited from a university hospital in Fujian, China. They were randomized to a life review group and 2 control groups. All participants received routine care, and the life review group also received the 4-week WeChat-based life review program. Control group 1 also received a 4-week program of friendly visiting. Anxiety, depression, hope, and self-transcendence were measured at baseline and 2 days, 1 month, and 6 months after the intervention.ResultsA total of 150 participants were randomly allocated to the WeChat-based life review group (n=50), control group 1 (n=50), or control group 2 (n=50). The overall dropout rate was 10% (15/150), and 92% (46/50) of participants in the the life review group completed the intervention. Significant interaction effects for time and group membership were found for anxiety (P<.001), depression (P<.001), hope (P<.001), and self-transcendence (P<.001) at all follow-up time points. For anxiety and depression, the scores did not differ significantly between the life review group and control group 1 on day 2 (P=.80 for anxiety, P=.51 for depression), but the scores were significantly lower in the life review group at month 1 and month 6 (P=.02 for anxiety at both months 1 and 6; P=.003 and P<.001 for depression at months 1 and 6, respectively). Significant increases in hope and self-transcendence were revealed in the life review group compared to control group participants at all follow-up sessions.ConclusionsThe WeChat-based life review program was effective in reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms and in improving the level of hope and self-transcendence among patients with digestive system cancer. Though friendly visiting can also help to relieve anxiety, its effects are short-term.Trial RegistrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR-IOR-17011998; https://tinyurl.com/5acycpd4

Placing Spirituality in the Contemporary World: The Islamic Spirituality Vs. Secularized Spirituality

This article argues that secular humanists’ scholars like postmodernists are developing great interest in spirituality as though they are beginning to have a positive approach towards religion and as though they are beginning to abandon their secular humanistic beliefs. Despite such positive approach towards spiritualism, they have not changed their position against religion. In fact, in the spiritual practices of Eastern religions such as the transcendental meditation of Buddhism and Hinduism in healing Western troubled souls has however no clear relationship with religiosity. In the same vein, Postmodern preaches that mental growth, development, inner peace and contentment are gained on a personal and individual level instead of developing a relationship with God. This kind of secularization to spirituality is absurd and confusing to Muslims who do not differentiate between the Western conceptions of spirituality and religiosity. Hence, the objective of this paper is to address the issue of spirituality brought forth by secular humanism and postmodern, by drawing the distinction between western secular conception of spirituality and Islamic spirituality, the nature and the significant of spirituality and the relationship between spirituality and religiosity and spiritual intelligence. This paper concludes there is a necessary and positive relationship between religious and spiritual practices and psycho-spiritual wellbeing and life as a whole. From Islamic perspective, no spirituality without religiosity. Spirituality is the essence of religiosity and they are undoubtedly of equal important and significant to understand the role of religion which is revealed from God, as a way of life. Hence, there is no good without God.

Correlating the Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being of Junior High School Students in Selected Catholic Schools in Central Philippines

This descriptive-correlational study assesses the psycho-spiritual well-being of junior high school students at Catholic Schools in Central Philippines. Also, it determines the relationship between the said constructs, and at the same, their association between the variables of sex, family structure, birth order, religious affiliation, and church involvement. The data are gathered using Ryff’s Psychological Well-being and Ellison and Paloutzian’s Spiritual Well-being Scale. The findings reveal moderate levels of psychological and spiritual well-being among the respondents. Point biserial shows that a significant relationship existed between the demographics of family structure and psychological well-being and between church involvement and psychological well-being. Rank biserial shows, on the other hand, that there is a significant relationship between family structure and spiritual well-being and between church involvement and spiritual well-being. Also, Spearman Rank Correlation results indicated that there is a relationship between psychological well-being and spiritual well-being.

Who benefits from Two Way Prayer Meditation? Treatment effect moderators in a pilot randomized controlled trial of a spiritual intervention for people with substance use disorders

Background: Two Way Prayer Meditation (TWPM) is a spiritual intervention that holds promise for improving the psychospiritual well-being of individuals in recovery from substance use disorders (SUD). This study aimed to identify moderators of TWPM’s treatment effects. Moderators tested included gender, race/ethnicity, age, education, religious/spiritual affiliation, and most often used substance. Methods: This study employed a randomized controlled trial design with pretest and posttest. In total, 134 adults in four residential recovery programs participated in the study and were randomly assigned to the TWPM group or the treatment as usual control group. Linear mixed modeling was used to assess the moderating effect of each hypothesized moderator in the form of interaction tests. Sensitivity analyses were conducted by excluding cases with more than a minimum number of missing items. Results: There were no significant moderators for psychological distress, self-esteem, and most of the spiritual well-being outcomes. Both the primary and sensitivity analyses showed education significantly moderated TWPM’s effect on overall spirituality self-ranking. Specifically, TWPM’s positive effect on overall spirituality self-ranking was greater in the master’s degree subgroup than in the less than high school subgroup. Conclusion: TWPM’s treatment effects on most outcomes were not found to vary by the tested participant characteristics. The only statistically significant finding suggests clinicians may need to adjust TWPM workshop/teaching content, delivery style, or language used to reach clients with lower levels of education. Future better-powered studies are recommended to continue exploring the potential moderating effects of race/ethnicity, education, spiritual/religious affiliation, and most often used substance.

Efficacy of two-way prayer meditation in improving the psychospiritual well-being of people with substance use disorders: A pilot randomized controlled trial

Background: The study goal was to conduct a preliminary evaluation of a spiritual intervention called Two Way Prayer Meditation’s (TWPM) effectiveness on the psychological distress, self-esteem, and spiritual well-being of people with substance use disorders. Methods: This study employed a randomized controlled trial design with pretest and posttest. In total, 134 adults in four residential recovery programs participated in the study and were randomly assigned to either the TWPM group or the treatment as usual group. Primary and sensitivity analyses were conducted using linear mixed modeling. Hedges’s g was used to estimate treatment effect sizes. Results: Both primary and sensitivity analyses found significant treatment effects on daily spiritual experiences (Hedges’s g = 0.62), reliance on God (g = 0.49), private religious practice (g = 0.36), and positive religious/spiritual coping (g = 0.68). Treatment effects on psychological distress (g = 0.33), self-esteem (g = 0.41), and overall spirituality self-ranking (g = 0.32) reached significance in the primary analysis but not in the sensitivity analysis. Conclusions: This study found evidence of TWPM’s effectiveness in improving some aspects of the spiritual well-being of adults with substance use disorders. TWPM was also found to be promising in decreasing psychological distress and increasing self-esteem.

Dignity therapy, psycho-spiritual well-being and quality of life in the terminally ill: systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivesDignity therapy (DT) is a brief, individualised psychotherapy that aims to alleviate psychosocial and spiritual distress in the final stages of life. It is unknown yet whether DT can enhance...

Impact of yama and niyama on psychospiritual factors in young adults: A randomized controlled trial

Background: The ethical principles of yoga enunciated in yama and niyama are not well known and are not usually presented to students of yoga. Aim: The goal of this study was to evaluate the benefits of yama and niyama in psychospiritual well-being in young adults. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 participants were randomly assigned to the yama-niyama group and control group. Yama-niyama group underwent three months intervention and one-month follow-up assessment. Control group attended regular classes during intervention time. Participants completed baseline and post-intervention of Vedic Personality Inventory questionnaire and cakra alignment measures. Results: The outcome measures in the yama-niyama group showed a signifi'cant difference in sattva (P<0.001), rajas (P<0.001), tamas (P<0.001) and cakrās (P<0.001) after intervention compared to the control group. In the follow-up, sattva (P=0.018) and rajas (P=0.018) showed a significant difference compared to the control group. Further, in yama-niyama group showed a significant increase in sattva (P<0.001) and cakrās were significantly better aligned (P<0.001), whereas rajas (P<0.001) and tamas (P<0.001) showed a significant decrease after intervention. In the follow-up, sattva (P<0.001) showed a significant increase and cakrās were significantly better aligned (P<0.001), whereas rajas (P<0.001) and tamas (P<0.001) showed a significant decrease. Conclusion: The findings show that young adults may advance in psychospiritual growth with proper introduction to yama and niyama in their practices. The study also fills a gap in yoga research which often neglects this foundation of psychospiritual practices in yoga.

The Effect of Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on the Psycho-Spiritual Well-Being of People Living with HIV

This study determined the effect of Religiously Integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RCBT) on the psycho-spiritual well-being of people living with HIV (PLHIV). A one-group pretest-posttest design was employed to determine the effect of RCBT on the psycho-spiritual well-being of PLHIV. The Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI) and the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) were used to measure psychological well-being and spiritual well-being, respectively. The intervention was a single session RCBT. The participants were PLHIV from the Philippine Catholic HIV/AIDS Network (PhilCHAN) Western Visayas group. The results of the study revealed a statistically significant increase in the psychological well-being of the PLHIV before and after the RCBT. Although there was an increase in the spiritual well-being of the PLHIV after the RCBT, it was not statistically significant. The findings suggest implications for the inclusion of RCBT in the services provided for PLHIV to improve their psycho-spiritual well-being.

Life review on psycho-spiritual outcomes among older adults with life-threatening illness: A systematic review

Life review has been widely conducted to help older adults enhance well-being and cope with burdens. Spirituality is an important part of an older adult’s overall well-being, especially for those with life-threatening illnesses. However, there is no review study examining the effectiveness of life review interventions on psycho-spiritual outcomes among this population. The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of life review on psycho-spiritual well-being among older adults with life-threatening illnesses. A systematic review with meta-analysis consistent with the recommendations of the Cochrane Collaboration was conducted. Database searches included PubMed, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, the Campbell Library, EBSCO, CNKI, and the Airiti Library up to March 2020. Grey literature and reference lists from relevant articles were also searched and reviewed. 34 studies were included in the systematic review and 33 were included in the meta-analysis for outcomes of anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Other psycho-spiritual outcome measures that were not included in the meta-analysis due to the small number of studies included mood, apathy, life satisfaction, meaning in life, spiritual well-being, and some multi-dimensional instruments. The studies greatly varied in program design, content, format, length, interventionist, and more. The meta-analyses demonstrated standardized mean differences in favor of life review compared with the control with small to moderate effect sizes. The reviewers call for including more psycho-spiritual well-being measures among interventions for older adults with life-limiting illnesses, as well as studies with adequate sample size and rigorous designs in future research.

Transcending the Suffering in Cancer: Impact of a Spiritual Life Review Intervention on Spiritual Re-Evaluation, Spiritual Growth and Psycho-Spiritual Wellbeing

In the confrontation with cancer, spiritual re-evaluation may help people to transform all-encompassing suffering into spiritual growth and psycho-spiritual wellbeing. The aim of this study was to examine whether spiritual life review (SLR), a semi-structured group narrative intervention that supports people with cancer to write and present their spiritual life story, is effective for the improvement of spiritual re-evaluation, spiritual growth, and psycho-spiritual wellbeing. In this mixed methods study, 57 cancer patients participated. Quantitative data were collected by means of patient reported outcomes (SAIL, Dutch Ryff, and NEIS) at baseline, post-intervention, and three and nine months follow-up (44 participants completed up to 9 months post-intervention). Changes over time were assessed via linear mixed model analysis (LMM). Qualitative data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with 33 participants nine months post-intervention, and were coded in a two-stage process. Participating in SLR facilitated spiritual re-evaluation, and improved the course of spiritual growth, psycho-spiritual wellbeing, and ego-integrity. This study provides evidence that SLR is likely to improve spiritual re-evaluation, spiritual growth, and psycho-spiritual wellbeing after confrontation with cancer; it also suggests the importance of self-affirmation and ego-integrity for spirituality; and underscores the relevance of narrative spiritual interventions in the oncology setting.

Motives for religious sacrifice: Classification, measurement, and longitudinal association with psychospiritual well-being.

Motives for religious sacrifice: Classification, measurement, and longitudinal association with psychospiritual well-being.

Evaluation of a WeChat-based life review programme for cancer patients: A quasi-experimental study.

To evaluate the feasibility and effects of the WeChat-based life review programme on anxiety, depression, self-transcendence, meaning in life and hope among cancer patients. Life review is effective in improving the psychospiritual well-being of palliative patients. However, traditional life review programmes are limitedly applied in clinical practice. A non-concurrent controlled quasi-experimental design. Ninety-two cancer patients were recruited from April 2017 - February 2018, with 44 patients in the control group receiving routine care and 48 in the experimental group receiving a 6-week WeChat-based life review programme plus routine care. Compliance with the programme, difficulty in participation and satisfaction with the programme were used to explore its feasibility. Anxiety, depression, self-transcendence, meaning in life and hope were measured at baseline and immediately after the programme. All experimental participants who completed the programme used the WeChat platform; 39 participants had no difficulties in operating the platform and 40 were satisfied with the programme. Statistically significant effects were identified on anxiety, depression and self-transcendence. An increase in the levels of meaning in life and hope was observed in the experimental group after the programme. The innovative WeChat-based life review programme is an effective non-pharmacological intervention in improving psychospiritual well-being of community-dwelling cancer patients. It could be integrated into transitional care for cancer patients. Future research with rigorous design is necessary to test the effects online life reviews among cancer patients. This study was registered on the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (Registration No: ChiCTR-IOR-17011998).