Spirituality, self-transcendence, fatigue, and health status as correlates of well-being in sheltered homeless persons

Abstract

The relationships surrounding well-being, spiritual perspective, self-transcendence, health status, and fatigue in homeless persons have not been studied from a nursing perspective. This original descriptive study explored relationships among well-being, spiritual perspective, self-transcendence, health status, and fatigue in a sample of 61 homeless men and women in two shelters. A conceptual model based upon Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings and Reed's Theory of Self-Transcendence was constructed and tested. Multiple significant correlations were calculated between the study variables indicating that health status and spiritually-related variables correlate positively with well-being. Additionally, sell-transcendence and health status were significant predictors of well-being in this sample. Significant differences were also found between the long-term and short-term housed participants on spiritual perspective, self-transcendence and well-being. Clinical implications and research recommendations are provided.