Aims: First year for the undergraduate students is not only a time for increased stress, but a time of increased risk for the development of physical, social, academic, and psychological health problems due to the toll this stress can take Spiritual health is considered as an important aspect of human health. The aim of the present study was to examine moderating effects of spiritual health on negative life events and psychological distress in freshmen.
Instruments & Methods: This descriptive correlational study was conducted between 2016 and 2017. We sampled 277 freshmen in Lorestan University, Iran, based on the simple random sampling method. The students completed the Adolescent Life Events Questionnaire (ALEQ), Spiritual Health Scale, and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS). Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the moderating role of spiritual health, using SPSS 24.0 software.
Findings: Negative life events was positively correlated with stress (r=0.45; p<0.01), anxiety (r=0.52; p<0.01), and depression (r=0.48; p<0.01). Also, spiritual health was negatively correlated with negative life events (r=-0.47; p<0.01), stress (r=-0.39; p<0.01), anxiety (r=-0.43; p<0.01), and depression (r=-0.37; p<0.01). Spiritual health was also a moderator in the relationship between negative life events and psychological distress.
Conclusion: Spiritual health is an important moderator of student’s negative life events on psychological distress. Higher levels of spiritual health is associated with lower levels of psychological distress.