The Relationship Between Spirituality, Resilience and Anxiety Among Baccalaureate Nursing Students

Abstract

Anxiety is the number one mental health concern on college campuses today and nursing students are at great risk of anxiety due to the academic demands of their chosen major. This anxiety can cause significant academic and health difficulties. Spirituality and resilience may be protective factors that contribute to overall mental well-being for nursing students. Thus, this descriptive, correlational study examined two indicators of spirituality (Intra/Interpersonal Relatedness and Transpersonal Relatedness), Resilience, and selected student demographics, as potential correlates of Anxiety. One-hundred undergraduate nursing students completed a demographics questionnaire, the Intra/Interpersonal Relatedness and Transpersonal Relatedness Scales developed by the investigator, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the PROMIS Anxiety-Adult measure. All instruments demonstrated acceptable reliability and established validity or preliminary construct validity. The results indicated that neither Intra/Interrelatedness nor Transpersonal Relatedness scores were significantly related to Anxiety in the sample. However, the Spirituality variables were significantly and positively related to Resilience. Resilience was negatively related to Anxiety. Demographic variables were correlated with each of the four scales. Bivariate correlations were analyzed between selected student demographics and the study variables. In particular, number of student credit hours was positively related to Anxiety and accelerated student status was negatively related to Anxiety. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the best predictive model for Anxiety based on all variables that were significantly associated with Anxiety: Two variables, Resilience and credit hours together explained 18% of the variance in Anxiety. In conclusion, the results suggest that Spirituality may have a role in undergraduate nursing student Anxiety but indirectly. While no interaction was found between Spirituality and Resilience in relationship to Anxiety, Spirituality was clearly related to Resilience, and is likely related to other variables that decrease Anxiety. The role of Spirituality in Anxiety is complex and there is need for further research into how Spirituality variables interact not only with Resilience but with specific academic factors known to influence Anxiety. A future goal of this investigator is to pursue more focused work on the concept and measurement of ‘Spiritual Resilience,’ as it may lead to refining a theoretical framework of well-being among college students.