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.