SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE AS A PREDICTOR OF SELF-EFFICACY AND MENTAL DISTRESS

Abstract

“Nothing in this world can torment you as much as your own mental health”. Mental health is the foremost concern for society in the present era of stiff competitive struggle. To do a regular hard work is never a problem or concern but work demand that go beyond the capacity of a common person is always a matter of concern. In the society, everyone has resisted with the problems of mental distress. The situation of mental distress is more visible in case of younger generation. In the recent report by Asian Journal of Psychiatry, almost 53% students suffer from depression. The mental morbidity is more evident among the students above 18 years of age, reported by national mental health survey 2015-16. The manifestation of mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, severe stress, suicidal behavior, substance dependence etc. are life-long problem among younger generation. Anand Prakash, head at department of psychology, Delhi university pointed out that the main causes of mental stress are (1) academic stress (2) competitive exams (3) poor relationship with self (4) denial from society (5) heightened aspirations of self and parents (6) career uncertainties and (7) financial constraints. He has expressed his views on ‘why students are suffering mental health problems’ in an interview with Times of India, on 24 Sep 2018. One recent study, published in the “International Journal of Adolescence and Youth” by A.s. Negi et.al, (2019). These studies have observed top 10 stressors, frequently and always influence the life of students. These stressors are Academics, Finance, Health, Future, Priorities, Relationship with family members, relationship with supervisor/mentor, lack of sports, excessive use of computers, high expectation. Mental health concerns are manifold that arises due to long working hours, strain to work overtime, less number of breaks, over expectation of achievements and pressure to accomplish them in a restricted time and with limited resources. It might occur due to internal or external dimensions of the physical system. As external dimensions of stress arise due to outside circumstances. A strong internal ability is prerequisite to face the external circumstances or events happening in one’s life. Stress is precisely expressed by Dr. Shivani as a function of pressure over resilience. It means that strong resilience is required to face the tough challenges of day to day life. The core components of spirituality are belief system. These spirituality beliefs are motivated by innate humanistic needs for seeking meaning and purpose in one’s life (Frankl, 1967; Maslow, 1968). According to Bandura (1999, 2001), the agentic perspective of social cognitive theory, social modeling operates within a larger set of distinctly human traits that provides the capacity for becoming a spiritual being. Social cognitive theory takes on an agent- like perspective to change, development and adaptation (bandura, 2005). Bandura describes an agent as someone who intentionally influences one’s functioning and life circumstances, underpinned by social cognitive theory, originated from human agency model in which, it is believed that an individual’s behavior is influenced by external and internal cues. “In this view, people are self-organizing, proactive, self-regulating. They are contributors to their life circumstances not just product of them” (Bandura, 2005, P.1). Self-efficacy and spiritual intelligence act as a resilience to meet the difficult situations of life. Self- efficacy is self-belief or self-confidence in one’s own ability and competence to face challenging situations of one’s life. Spirituality is the realization of one’s own inner self and spiritual intelligence is the ability to live life consciously. In this state of inner realization, a person has no external struggle or no forceful influence from external situations. It is the state of inner soul-consciousness, which is instrumental in spreading peace, love, hope, contentment, acceptance, meaning and purpose in life. The main objective of the study is to identify the impact of spiritual intelligence on self efficacy and mental health of the students. The data collection in the present study was conducted using convenience sampling method. Primary and secondary data source is used for the study. Primary data is collected by distribution of questionnaire and by face to face interaction with the students. Secondary data is collected through previous literatures and published books. The total sample size in the study is 914 students of different disciplines i.e. B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.D. The formulation of self-administered questionnaire on spiritual intelligence is worthwhile in providing wide-range of dimensions. The study developed an empirically tested hypothesized model to understand the dimensions of spiritual intelligence and its relationship with self-efficacy and mental health problems of the students. This study also determines, the impact of demographic factors, low and high self-efficacy and performance on spiritual intelligence, self-efficacy and mental health among engineering students of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Statistical package for social science (SPSS), version 20.0, is used to analyze the data. Data is attained from the survey through distribution of questionnaire. Firstly, exploratory factor analysis is used for the extraction of important variables from principal component analysis, rooted component matrix and communalities. The reliability of the data is checked by employing Cronbach’s alpha. Jarque-bera test is used to check the normality of the dependent variable i.e. mental distress. Multi-collinearity among the variables was tested by applying variance inflation factor and tolerance value. Correlation is used to identify the relationship between spiritual intelligence, self-efficacy and mental distress. Goodness of fit was measured by employing linear regression model to find the association between spiritual intelligence, self-efficacy and mental distress. Independent t-test is used to identify the mean difference between spiritual intelligence, self efficacy and metal distress of male and female, high and low self-efficacy of students whereas ANOVA test is used to identify the mean difference between spiritual intelligence, self-efficacy and mental distress of different age categories and high-medium-low performance of the students. The finding of the study reveals that the spiritual intelligence is positively and significantly associated to self-efficacy and negatively associated to mental health issues such as stress, anxiety, depression among students. It means that high spirituality improves self-efficacy and improves mental health of a person. Specifically, self-love, benevolence, mindfulness and contentment are the stronger resilient factors against mental distress. These variables produce a relevant impact in the life-style of younger generation, if operationalized efficiently. In the current study only one of the five dimensions of spiritual intelligence which is positively and significantly associated with anxiety is universal consciousness. It reveals that the younger generation is searching for real “existential questions” of their life. Exploration of these abstract questions leads to unsatisfactory responses to their desire for deeper knowledge which lead to anxiety. While all other dimensions of spiritual intelligence is useful in providing the “meaning and purpose” in one’s life and thereby reducing the mental distress. The spiritual intelligence of female students is higher as comparison to male students. Spiritual intelligence of students belonging to higher age category is higher. High self efficacious student’s spiritual intelligence is higher and mental distress is lower. Spiritual intelligence of high performing students is higher than those who perform poorly. The present thesis is comprised of four sections: First section comprises of two chapters (1) Introduction of the study (2) Literature review. Second section comprises of two chapters (3) Research design (4) Development of questionnaire. Third section comprises of findings and discussions which is divided into three chapters (5) Spiritual intelligence as predictor of self-efficacy, Chapter (6) Spiritual intelligence and self-efficacy as predictor of mental distress, Chapter (7) Demographic effects on spiritual intelligence, self-efficacy and mental distress. Fourth section comprises of one chapter (8) Conclusive observation: this chapter includes implications of the study, limitations, future scope and conclusion of the study.