Stress and satisfaction in religious life of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (SABS) India

This is an investigation on the correlation between the levels of stress from various sources and the levels of satisfaction in the religious life of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (SABS).The descriptive correlational research design was used. Data were collected by the use of two instruments--Sources of Stress Inventory for Religious (SSIR) and Questionnaire on Level of Satisfaction (QLS). The research participants (N=120) were drawn from about 12 communities of the SABS in India. Of the total respondents, 90 belonged to the educational field while 30 came from the medical field. They were within the age bracket of 28-59 years. Means and standard deviations were computed. Pearson r was computed to find out the relationship. The t-test was applied to determine the difference between the sisters in the educational field and those in the medical field. The results showed that the sisters experienced an average level of stress and a high level of satisfaction in religious life. The community dimension of satisfaction in religious life was significantly related to four of the five sources of stress: physical, occupational, societal, familial, and environmental sources. A significant relationship was also observed between environmental stress and apostolate. As regards prayer life, no significant relationship was detected with any of the sources of stress. A significant difference was observed between the sisters engaged in the educational field and those in the medical field. Such significant difference was noted on environmental stress and occupational stress. Also, the respondents registered significant differences on the dimensions of religious satisfaction: apostolate, prayer life, and community life. The study arrived at the following conclusions: (1) Stress was felt by those in religious life (2) Environment was a common major stressor (3) Stress was not a criterion for satisfaction with regard to prayer life and, (4) One\u27s satisfaction in the apostolic life may be related to some extent on the environmental dimension of stress