Spiritual Struggles and Life Purpose Barriers as Mediators of General Life Purpose and Well-being Among College Students

Namele Gutierrez, Dr. Miller-Perrin and Dr. Thompson Pepperdine University

Namele Gutierreznamele.gutierrez@pepperdine.edu

Cindy Miller-Perrincindy.perrin@pepperdine.edu

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In the midst of a critical and transformative stage of development, college students are increasingly relating their life purpose and sense of well-being in relation to their faith and spirituality (Smith & Denton, 2005).

Although empirical evidence has been establishing general life purpose as a significant predictor of well-being, few have examined the mediators of said relationship among the college age population (Byron & Miller-Perrin, 2009).

Perceived barriers and spiritual struggles have been suggested to inhibit life purpose and well-being because both may call into question a person’s belief in oneself or in one’s foundational faith (Lent et al., 1994; Lipshits-Braziler & Tatar, 2012).

It was therefore hypothesized that general life purpose would positively influence well-being, unless life purpose barriers or spiritual struggles negatively mediated the relationship.

Introduction

Correlations were conducted between general life purpose, well-being, spiritual struggles, life purpose barriers and its three subscales (personal, interpersonal, and environmental). Significant correlations were found between all dependent variables, except between general life purpose and interpersonal barriers or environmental barriers (see Table 1). Two linear regressions were conducted, which determined that personal barriers, environmental barriers, and spiritual struggles significantly predicted well-being (see Tables 2 and 3).

Mediation regression analyses were run in order to examine life purpose barriers and spiritual struggles as mediators between general life purpose and well-being (see Tables 4 and 5). Total general life purpose scores significantly predicted total well-being scores with personal barriers (R2 = .45) and total spiritual struggles (R2 = .37) as significant mediators.

Objectives

Method Participants included 219 (17% male, 33% female) undergraduate students Students were emailed and asked to participate by completing all measures through a web-based survey Participants received convocation credit for participating

Materials The General Life Purpose Scale is an 18-item scale that assesses general sense of life purpose, operationalized as attempts to

pursue one’s life goals, based on Emmons’ (2005) reasoning that life purpose is expressed through goals. The Modified Negative RCOPE (NRCOPE) is an 23-item survey assessing spiritual struggles, which includes feelings that

individuals may experience concerning their faith, their relationship with God, and their relationship with other people. The Perceived Wellness Scale, a 36-item questionnaire, is designed to assess an individual’s self perceptions of well-being

(Adams, 1995) and its six dimensions of perceived well-being: psychological, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and intellectual.

The Life Purpose Barriers scale is a 21-item scale measuring barriers to life purpose. It has three subscales: personal, interpersonal, and environmental.

Methods and Materials

Findings were consistent with previous findings that having a sense of general life purpose positively predicted well-being in college students (Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley & Whalen, 2005).

Life purpose barriers and spiritual struggles were found to decrease the relationship between general life purpose and well-being, which was consistent with past research (Lipshits-Braziler & Tatar, 2012; Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001).

The best predictors of well-being were personal and circumstantial barriers, divine and intrapersonal spiritual struggles.

Conclusions

Byron, K., & Miller-Perrin, C. (2009). The value of life purpose: Purpose as a mediator of faith and well-being. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(1), 64-70. doi:10.1080/17439760802357867

Dusselier, L., Dunn, B., Wang, Y., Shelley, M., & Whalen, D. F. (2005). Personal, Health, Academic, and Environmental Predictors of Stress for Residence Hall Students. Journal of American College Health, 54(1), 15-24. doi:10.3200/JACH.54.1.15-24

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79–122.

Lipshits-Braziler, Y., & Tatar, M. (2012). Perceived career barriers and coping among youth in Israel: Ethnic and gender differences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(2), 545-554. doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2011.08.010

Luzzo, D., & McWhirter, E. (2001). Sex and ethnic differences in the perception of educational and career-related barriers and levels of coping efficacy. Journal of Counseling & Development, 79(1), 61-67. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01944.x

Smith, C., & Denton, M. (2005). Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. New York: Oxford University Press.

References

To examine the relationship between general life purpose and well-being

To examine how spiritual struggles mediate the relationship between general life purpose and well-being

To examine how life purpose barriers mediate the relationship between general life purpose and well-being

Results

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