Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure Research Articles

Association of spiritual well-being with quality of life among undergraduate nursing students

Objective: The study was conducted with the aim of determining the spiritual well-being (SWB) of nursing students and its association with quality of life (QOL). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted with a sample size of 504 nursing students collected from January 2023 to March 2023 in the nursing institutes of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, using convenient sampling techniques. A Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) questionnaire for SWB and K-27 QOL (K-27 QOL) instrument were used for data collection that contains three parts. Results: The number of female participants was in the majority (50.4%) compared to male nurses (49.6%). The overall mean score of SWB of the students was 3.79 ± 0.48, while the mean K-27 QOL score was 3.73 ± 0.57. There were significant differences between the groups of gender (P = 0.001), while no significant difference within the groups of semester (P = 0.061) and college status (0.285). In QOL, there were significant differences within the groups of semester (P = 0.000) and college status (P = 0.036) while no significant difference in gender category (P = 0.480). SHALOM score is positively and moderately correlated with QOL score (r = 0.597, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Spiritual practices are one of the important factors that are associated positively with QOL, therefore to enhance the QOL, it will require spiritual practices.

Spirituality and Academic Performance: Exploring the Interplay for Students

This study aimed to explore the association between students' spirituality level at Caraga State University and their academic performance. Spiritual health and life orientation were assessed using the Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed by John Fisher, while academic performance was measured in terms of Grade-Point Average (GPA). A descriptive-correlational research design was employed, involving 366 randomly selected participants through stratified random sampling with colleges as strata. Descriptive statistics, including averages and percentages, were utilized to assess the participants' spirituality level and academic performance. Additionally, Pearson's R Correlation test was applied to investigate the relationship between spirituality and academic performance. The results indicated that the participants at Caraga State University generally exhibited good spirituality, with an average score of 4.23. Most students demonstrated very good academic performance. The study found a positive, yet weak correlation between students' spirituality and academic performance, which was not statistically significant, with a coefficient of 0.049 and a p-value of 0.347. This weak and insignificant relationship can be attributed to the majority of students having a consistently high level of spirituality. The findings suggest that promoting spirituality within the school environment remains beneficial, as it does not adversely impact education. Furthermore, spirituality appears to be non-discriminatory, as both academically-inclined and non-academically-inclined students place equal value and importance on spirituality. Therefore, fostering spirituality in the university setting may contribute positively to students' holistic development.

Pupils’ Participation in Online Eucharistic Celebration During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Covid-19 Pandemic has brought a lot of restrictions, especially on physical gatherings. Despite this crisis, St. Paul University Surigao continues to aid the spiritual nourishment of the students. SPUS has made use of different social media platforms to continue the spiritual well-being of the students by live-streaming the Eucharistic Celebration. Thus, this study aims to understand the spiritual well-being of the students of St. Paul University and how online Eucharistic Celebration helps their spiritual well-being during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) shows whether there is harmony or dissonance in the ideal spiritual well-being and the lived experience of the participants where each person becomes the standard by which they are being measured, rather than being compared to other groups. Results have shown that there was no significant difference between the ideals and lived experiences of the pupils in terms of their spiritual well-being. The online Eucharistic Celebration highly helped the students in their spiritual with a very high level of harmony. Thus, the online Mass helped them cope with their spiritual well-being despite the situation brought on by the Pandemic.

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.

Understanding spiritual health, depression, anxiety, and stress among tertiary students under the impact of COVID-19 in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT This study of tertiary students in Hong Kong compared the association between spiritual health and psychological health, and the prevalence of severe symptoms of psychological distress, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cross-sectional data were collected in two samples of students aged 17–24 in 2018 (N = 500) and 2020 (N = 568). The participants were asked to complete the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) to evaluate their spiritual health and the short form of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to assess their emotional distress. Structural equation modelling showed that the statistically significant negative relationship between spiritual health and psychological distress in 2018 was still significant but weaker in the 2020 sample. In addition, whereas 0% of students suffered from extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in 2018, the rates were 14.1%, 25.4%, and 8.8% respectively in 2020. The weakened role of spirituality in protecting psychological health under COVID-19, and the significantly higher rate of psychological health problems, are caused for concern, with implications for government, education systems, and students.

The Correlation between Spiritual Well-Being and Burnout of Teachers

This study examines the correlation between spiritual well-being and burnout symptoms, including emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA), among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. The data were collected from 427 Chinese secondary school teachers (189 males, 238 females) aged 25–37 from different schools with one to eight years of teaching experience. The participants completed the Spiritual Health and Life-orientation Measure (SHALOM) to evaluate the status of their spiritual well-being in the personal and communal, environmental, and transcendental domains. The Maslach Burnout Inventory—Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) was also used to measure the extent of burnout in the workplace. All domains of spiritual well-being were negatively associated with EE and DP, while the personal and communal domain and the transcendental domain of spiritual well-being were positively associated with PA. Multiple regression analysis revealed that all the specific domains of spiritual well-being explained 68.6% and 54.0% of the variance in teachers’ EE and DP, respectively. Meanwhile, the same analysis found that the personal–communal and transcendental domains explained 74.9% of the variance in teachers’ PA. The personal–communal domain of spiritual well-being was the strongest predictor of burnout.

Spiritual Well-Being and Use of Spiritual Care Interventions of Undergraduate Nursing Students.

A survey of undergraduate nursing students investigated their personal spiritual well-being (SWB), their spiritual care of patients, and where students felt spiritually challenged. The survey utilized the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), the Nursing Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale (NSCTS), and a qualitative extended response question. Findings revealed a positive correlation between high SWB and the spiritual care of patients and a significant improvement in the use of spiritual care therapeutics through the nursing program.

Spiritual and mental health of teenagers in Hong Kong and in mainland China under the impact of COVID-19

PurposeThe rates of emotional distress have risen in many countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the emotional distress of adolescents and young adults in Hong Kong and mainland China in the first year of the pandemic and tested whether spirituality was a protective factor against this emotional distress.Design/methodology/approachCross-sectional data were collected in two samples of students aged 17–25 in Hong Kong (N = 503) and 13–20 in mainland China (N = 649). Participants completed the Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM) to evaluate their spiritual health (personal-communal, environmental and transcendental domains) and the short form of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to assess their emotional distress.FindingsBased on the DASS-21 scores, there was a high rate of adolescents and young adults categorized as showing extremely severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Structural equation modeling showed that in both the Hong Kong and mainland China samples the personal and communal and environmental domains of spiritual health were significantly and negatively correlated with all three forms of emotional distress. However, transcendental spiritual health was uncorrelated with psychological distress in Hong Kong and positively correlated with psychological distress in mainland China.Research limitations/implicationsThe high rate of severe emotional distress in this sample of adolescents and young adults under COVID-19, and the fact that not all aspects of spiritual health protected again psychological distress are cause for concern, with implications for government, education systems and students.Originality/valueHealthy spirituality can be found among youths who are upbeat, self-confident, optimistic and constructive and have also been shown to have a higher quality of life in the form of mental, physical and psychological health. The present study is the first study to examine the spiritual and mental health of high school and university students under the impact of COVID-19 in mainland China and in Hong Kong.

Validation and Utilisation of the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire: SHALOM.

The Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ) was developed from a theoretical understanding that spiritual well-being (SWB) is expressed in the quality of relationships that each person has across one or more of four domains, namely with self, others, environment and/or with a transcendent other. Based on the SWBQ, the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) is unique in that it compares each person's lived experience with their ideals on the 20 items reflecting the four domains of SWB. This paper builds on previous reviews of the SWBQ-SHALOM, by providing breadth and depth of data and their validity, from a wide range of sources, and expressing the instrument's usefulness in a variety of settings. It provides an overview with details from 60 studies that started with the SWBQ-SHALOM. Presented herein are ideas on what can be done withfurther investigations of this vital aspect of life.

Cross-sectional study of the relationship between the spiritual wellbeing and psychological health among university Students.

University students' spiritual wellbeing has been shown to be associated with quality, satisfaction, and joy of life. This study tested the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and symptoms of psychological disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety and stress) among Chinese university students in Hong Kong. Cross-sectional data were collected from N = 500 students (aged 17-24; 279 women). The participants were asked to complete the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) to evaluate the status of their spiritual wellbeing in the personal and communal, environmental, and transcendental domains, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) to assess their emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. All domains of spiritual wellbeing were negatively associated with psychological distress. Hierarchical Multiple Regression showed that together the three domains of spirituality explained 79.9%, 71.3% and 85.5% of the variance in students' depression, anxiety and stress respectively. The personal and communal domain of spiritual wellbeing was the strongest predictor of psychological distress.

Online Eucharistic celebration and the spiritual well-being of the Catholic Faithful of San Isidro Labrador Parish, Cuenca, Batangas during COVID-19 pandemic

Spirituality plays a big role in the life of many people. In this time of COVID-19 pandemic, with all the restrictions in social gatherings for health security purposes, the physical attendance to the celebration of the Eucharist has been impeded, thus, the spiritual nourishment of the people was left unaided. Despite the crisis the world is facing, the Catholic Church made use of different social media platforms to continue the spiritual nourishment of the faithful by live streaming the Eucharistic celebration. This study aims to understand the spiritual well-being of the Catholic faithful of San Isidro Labrador Parish, Cuenca, Batangas, and how online Eucharistic celebrations help their spiritual well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) of John Fisher, results have shown that there is no dissonance between the ideals and lived-experience/feelings of the participants, which may be attributed to the purposive and massive effect/help of the online Eucharistic celebrations provided by the Catholic Church.

Online Eucharistic Celebration and the Spiritual Well-Being of the Catholic Faithful of San Isidro Labrador Parish, Cuenca, Batangas during COVID-19 Pandemic

Spirituality plays a big role in the life of many people. In this time of COVID-19 pandemic, with all the restrictions in social gatherings for health security purposes, the physical attendance to the celebration of the Eucharist has been impeded, thus, the spiritual nourishment of the people was left unaided. Despite the crisis the world is facing, the Catholic Church made use of different social media platforms to continue the spiritual nourishment of the faithful by live streaming the Eucharistic celebration. This study aims to understand the spiritual well-being of the Catholic faithful of San Isidro Labrador Parish, Cuenca, Batangas, and how online Eucharistic celebrations help their spiritual well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) of John Fisher, results have shown that there is no dissonance between the ideals and lived-experience/feelings of the participants, which may be attributed to the purposive and massive effect/help of the online Eucharistic celebrations provided by the Catholic Church.

Spiritual Well-Being and Its Role on the Sociality of Selected Catholic Religious Novices

Religion and spirituality are difficult to define and elusive to capture by standard scientific methods. Despite these challenges, the researchers aim to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the psychology of religion by investigating the religious experience of Catholic novices and their spiritual well-being. Using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) developed by John Fisher, objective data was gathered from selected individuals going through religious formation. The aim was to determine the spiritual well-being of Catholic religious novices and its implication to their sociality. The results show that there was a significant difference in the quality of relationships of each novice with themselves, other people, the environment and God. Thus, there is dissonance between the ideals of the persons in the novitiate and their lived experience.

Assessment of Spiritual Health and Well-Being of Psychiaric Nurses in a Mental Health Hospital

The practice of mental health care performed by nurses in mental hospitals requires nurses to also provide spiritual care. Nurses who have a healthy spiritual state can certainly provide good spiritual care to their patient. Unfortunately, nurses admit that in practice, this spiritual element is often overlooked and not considered important in practice. This study aims to examine the health and spiritual well-being of mental health nurses working in mental health care facilities (hospital based). This research was a pilot study using Mix Method (MM), the design of this study was a sequential research design (Qual-Quant) between quantitative and qualitative study. Data collection was carried out using a self-administered survey and using the SHALOM (Spiritual Health and life orientation measure) instrument from Fisher which had a total of 22 questions. Quantitative data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, while qualitatively, the data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. A total of 22 mental health nurses participated in this research project. This number represents the nurses who work in all wards in mental hospitals. Researchers used the cluster sampling method to select participants who were given questionnaires and the snowball sampling method to find suitable informants to be interviewed. This research shows nurses expressing worship of the Creator (Mean = 4.54, SD = 0.59) as the most important thing in the ideal standard of health and spiritual well-being. Likewise, with daily life and practice (Mean = 3.81, SD = 1.68). Nurses assess their health and spiritual well-being were more determined by the transcendental domain, especially with religious rituals. This study concluded that nurses have a well-distributed state of health and spiritual well-being ranging from the personal domain to transcendence, with dominance in the transcendence domain.

Validating the Chinese-translated version of the Spiritual Health and Life-orientation Measure (SHALOM) amongst the Chinese youth populations in 2010 and 2018

ABSTRACT This cross-sectional study validated the Chinese-translated version of the Spiritual Health and Life-orientation Measure (SHALOM) in two samples of university students in Hong Kong. The first sample comprised 546 Chinese university students who were educated under the old educational system (i.e. 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 scheme) and are known as ‘Generation Y’. Data for this sample were collected in 2010 for Fisher and Wong. The second sample involved 474 Chinese university students educated after educational reform in 2009 (i.e. 3 + 3 + 4 scheme) collected in 2018. Results in both years revealed high internal consistency. Whereas the SHALOM model proposes four domains of spirituality (personal, communal, environmental and transcendental), exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a three-factor model provided the best fit to the data, with the personal and communal domains combined as one domain. This three-factor model was identified in both the 2010 and 2018 samples, and in both males and females. Findings indicated that compared to non-religious participants, religious participants had significantly higher scores in the transcendental domain of spiritual health on both the ideal values and lived experience subscales. The results are discussed in relation to Confucian philosophy. Future research on the spiritual health of youth in Hong Kong is suggested.

Manevi Sağlık ve Hayata Yönelim Ölçeğinin Türk Kültürüne Uyarlanması

Manevi Sağlık ve Hayata Yönelim Ölçeğinin Türk Kültürüne Uyarlanması

A Single Case Narrative of Spirituality Following Aphasia from Traumatic Brain Injury: Findings about Forgiveness and Freedom Using WELLHEAD and SHALOM

Rehabilitation has neglected the spirituality of people with aphasia, a neurogenic impairment of language for communication and thought processes. Aphasia reduces scope for adjustment processes where words are normal currency, such as forgiveness and reconciliation. A single case narrative was generated from a case series exploring the feasibility of spiritual health assessment in aphasia. The individual had traumatic brain injury, with the primary symptom of aphasia, giving the first detailed account of its kind. The WELLHEAD spirituality toolkit provided a structured interview approach, exploring spirituality in terms of ‘meaning and purpose’ within four dimensions, WIDE, LONG, HIGH and DEEP, incorporating patient-reported outcome measures and goal-setting, with feedback interviews. Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM) generated a comparator spiritual health assessment. The quantitative feedback measures and self-reported outcomes were complemented by detailed qualitative interview transcripts subject to systematic thematic analysis in NVivo. The findings were co-constructed and systematically verified. This non-religious narrative evidenced the accessibility, acceptability, and impact of the resources. Self-forgiveness was paramount for freedom to journey into the unknown beyond self with ‘Calm’, towards helping others and accepting help. Religion, Faith and Belief were reconceptualised. Forgiveness of self and others was integral and instrumental in recovery, offering avenues for further investigation and application.

Psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the lived experience component of the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM)

This study had the following aims: (i) to translate the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) into Brazilian Portuguese and adapt it to ensure the semantic/conceptual equivalence and content validity of the Brazilian version and (ii) to analyse the psychometric properties—reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity and factorial validity—of the lived experience component, also called the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ), in a calibration sample and in a validation sample of Brazilian adults. The calibration sample comprised 436 subjects, 159 men and 277 women, aged between 18 and 79 years (mean age = 32.20 years; SD = 11.46); the validation study sample comprised 388 subjects, 253 women and 135 men, aged between 18 and 59 years (mean age = 30.59 years; SD = 9.44). All subjects completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brazilian SWBQ and the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS). The results provide evidence of the reliability and factorial validity of an oblique four-factor model of a reduced 17-item version but revealed some problems with the convergent validity of the communal and personal factors (average variance extracted < .50). Nonetheless, these results provide evidence that the Brazilian version of the lived experience component of SHALOM (or SWBQb) has good psychometric properties and is a valid method of evaluating the spiritual health of Brazilian adults. Further research is required to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of this reduced version.

Selecting the Best Version of SHALOM to Assess Spiritual Well-Being

This paper extends the reporting of contemporary use of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), which provides flexibility to researchers, enabling them to choose the version of the instrument that best suits the cohort under investigation. SHALOM was built on a solid theoretical foundation, provided by the Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health/Well-Being. It comprises 20 items that assess spiritual well-being, as reflected in the quality of relationships that each person has with themselves, others, the environment, and/or with God. Summary results are reported from 30 recent studies. SHALOM provides a unique form of assessment that is statistically stronger than just assessing lived experiences, in that spiritual harmony/dissonance is studied by comparing each person’s “lived experiences” with her/his “ideals” for spiritual well-being. SHALOM has been sought for use with hundreds of studies in 29 languages, in education, healthcare and wider community. A generic form of SHALOM was developed to expand the Transcendental domain to include more than God. However, recent studies have shown that relating with God is most important for spiritual well-being. The best version of SHALOM to assess spiritual well-being depends on the needs of the clients/participants and the project goals of the researcher. This will involve a selection between the original form of Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire-SHALOM for comparison with other measures and investigation of characteristics influencing spiritual well-being; or the dissonance method for spiritual care; and either the original or the generic version of SHALOM for use with non-religious/secular participants.

Gender differences in life satisfaction and spiritual health among the junior immigrant and local Hong Kong secondary students

This article examines differences in life satisfaction and spiritual health (SH) between male and female and between immigrant and local Chinese junior secondary students in Hong Kong. Both the Multi-Dimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) and Spiritual Health and Life Orientation Measure (SHALOM) were employed. The sample comprised 6917 junior secondary students, aged 12–15. Results indicate that gender differences exist in specific domain scores of MSLSS and SHALOM. Overall, girls reported higher levels of life satisfaction and SH than boys. Segmented and differentiated interaction effects were identified. Greater interaction effects with regard to religious affiliation were noted among SA students compared to Hong Kong Chinese and CIS. Religious Chinese immigrant boys scored higher on their personal–communal combined life satisfaction but lower on their transcendental well-being compared to their Hong Kong counterparts. Significant parental education and family income moderation effects were only observed on the SH of local Chinese girls.