Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being in College Students

Two separate correlational studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between spirituality and psychological mood states in response to life change. In the first study a spiritual well-being index, a spiritual-maturity scale, a life-change index, and a depression scale were administered to 95 freshman nursing students. The spiritual well-being index was composed of two sub-scales; a religious well-being and an existential well-being scale. In the second study a spiritual-outlook scale and the Profile of Mood State index was added to the above tests and administered to 75 randomly selected college students. The results demonstrated a weak positive relationship between life change and depression. Unlike a previous study, spiritual well-being, existential well-being, and spiritual outlook showed strong inverse relationships with negative moods suggesting that spiritual variables may influence psychological well-being