Spirituality And Self-Compassion Among College Students

Authors

  • Emily Rose Griffith Bethany College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55632/pwvas.v91i1.468

Keywords:

spirituality, religion, psychology, compassion, self-compassion

Abstract

Relating spirituality to mental health is a difficult task because of the ambiguity of the term spirituality and the many aspects of mental health with which spirituality might interact. The Spiritual Experiences Index aims to measure spiritual maturity across religious and secular forms of spirituality, indicating one’s spiritual openness and if one feels supported by their chosen faith. I used the Spiritual Experiences Index to measure spirituality alongside one strong indicator of good mental health, self-compassion. To measure self-compassion, I used the Self-Compassion Scale, which includes the six subscales Self-Kindness, Self-Judgment, Common Humanity, Isolation, Mindfulness, and Over-Identification. Undergraduate participants completed a survey including the Self-Compassion Scale, the Spiritual Experiences Index, and some demographic information. Spiritual Experience Index scores showed a significantly positive correlation with Self-Compassion Scale scores, and religiously-affiliated participants had significantly higher Spiritual Experiences Index scores than did religiously unaffiliated participants. Female participants scored significantly higher than male participants on the Self-Judgment and Over-Identification subscales of the Self-Compassion Scale, but significantly lower on the Mindfulness subscale. Results confirm the hypothesis about a positive correlation between spirituality scores and level of self-compassion, and further show that those with a religious affiliation scored significantly higher than religiously unaffiliated in spiritual experience. Limitations of this study included its exclusive use of college student participants from a small college in West Virginia. Replications and extensions of this study should include a wider range of participant ages and a more diverse sample.

References

Currier, J. M., McDermott, R. C., Hawkins, D. E., Greer, C. L., & Carpenter, R. (2018). Seeking help for religious and spiritual struggles: Exploring the role of mental health literacy. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 49(1), 90–97.

Genia, V. (1991). The Spiritual Experience Index: A measure of spiritual maturity. Journal of Religion and Health, 30(4), 337-347.

Genia, V. (1997). The Spiritual Experience Index: Revision and reformulation. Review of Religious Research, 38(4), 344-361.

Hackney, C. H., & Sanders, G. S. (2003). Religiosity and mental health: A meta–analysis of recent studies. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 42(1), 43–55.

Harrison, V.S. (2006). The pragmatics of defining religion in a multi-cultural world. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 59(3), 133.

Moore, J. T. (2017). Multicultural and idiosyncratic considerations for measuring the relationship between religious and secular forms of spirituality with positive global mental health. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 9(1), 21–33.

Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self & Identity, 2(3), 223.

Neff, K. D., Tóth-Király, I., Yarnell, L. M., Arimitsu, K., Castilho, P., Ghorbani, N., & Mantzios, M. (2018). Examining the factor structure of the Self-Compassion Scale in 20 diverse samples: Support for use of a total score and six subscale scores. Psychological Assessment Vol 31(1), 27-45.

Portnoff, L., McClintock, C., Lau, E., Choi, S., & Miller, L. (2017). Spirituality cuts in half the relative risk for depression: Findings from the United States, China, and India. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 4(1), 22–31.

Richards, P. S. (1991). Religious devoutness in college students: Relations with emotional adjustment and psychological separation from parents. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 38(2), 189–196.

Spilka, B., Kojetin, B., & McIntosh, D. (1985). Forms and measures of personal faith: Questions, correlates and distinctions. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 24(4), 437.

Downloads

Published

2019-03-20

How to Cite

Griffith, E. R. (2019). Spirituality And Self-Compassion Among College Students. Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science, 91(1). https://doi.org/10.55632/pwvas.v91i1.468

Issue

Section

Meeting Abstracts-Poster