Stress level among male religious and single lay mid-lifers: the role of personality variables

This investigation determines the stress levels of male religious and lay single midlifers and to compare if there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of their stress levels. Further, this study also aims to draw up a personality profile of these two groups and to examine the correlation between stress levels of male religious and single lay midlifers on their personality variables, viz. Ascendancy (A), Responsibility (R), Emotional Stability (E), and Personal Relations (P).The subjects of this study were 40 male Religious and 40 Lay Single midlifers, purposively selected from a sample taken from Metro Manila. They were all college graduates who had an overall mean age of 39. To gather the data, Stress Level Inventory (SLI), Gordon Personal Profile (GPP), and Gordon Personal Inventory (GPI) were the instruments used in this descriptive, comparative, and correlational study. For data analysis, means and standard deviations were computed to determine stress level and t test (two tail) for independent samples was employed at .05 level of significance to compare and determine the significant difference between the male religious and lay single midlifers in terms of their stress levels. Pearson r was computed at .05 level of significance to examine the significant correlation between the male religious and lay single midlifers on their personality variables: ascendancy, responsibility, emotional stability, and personal relations. The study yielded the following results: both the religious and the lay single midlifers have a moderate stress level. No significant diffence between the two groups was found in terms of their stress levels. Moderately high scores were obtained on the GPP and GPI which indicated that the two groups reported to be possessing moderately high capacity on their personality traits of ascendancy, responsibility, emotional stability, and personal relations measured in this study. These findings also established the existence of significant correlation between the stress levels and personality variables of male religious and single lay midlifers. The study recommended that similar research may be initiated in the future to establish further validity and conclusive findings on a larger sample of male religious and lay single midlifers