Description:
This paper reports on research which aimed to investigate relationships between meaning and purpose in life and workplace expectations. It provides an overview of the methodology and outcomes of a survey conducted at a regional university. Survey methods included the distribution of two valid and reliable instruments to all employees of that university with data analysed using SPSS procedures. Analysis of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), developed by the principal researcher, and a purpose-designed questionnaire pertaining to meaning and purpose in the workplace, provided interesting findings. Overall, participants classified as administrators, professionals, service workers or labourers reported that they feel good about themselves and their relationships with others and the environment. The relationship with a god-type figure was of lesser importance for the spiritual well-being of the majority of participants. The participants do not expect the workplace to provide a major role in their spiritual well-being. They also reported significantly high levels of feelings of turbulence at work, and trends toward high anxiety and discomfort with autocratic managerial practices characterised by a focus on profits over people. The female staff described the workplace as more friendly, warm and caring than the males. The females also reported greater work satisfaction and were less depressed in doing their job than the males. Interpretation of these results indicates that a somewhat anxious and turbulent work place environment prevails. The personal impact of this unrest appears to be mediated by the support of families and friends of employees. The notion that workplace feelings which are negative (eg., anxiety) emanate from administrative practices, while those which are positive are a function of collegial behaviours, merits further exploration.
Description:
This paper reports on research which aimed to investigate relationships between meaning and purpose in life and workplace expectations. It provides an overview of the methodology and outcomes of a survey conducted at a regional university. Survey methods included the distribution of two valid and reliable instruments to all employees of that university with data analysed using SPSS procedures. Analysis of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), developed by the principal researcher, and a purpose-designed questionnaire pertaining to meaning and purpose in the workplace, provided interesting findings. Overall, participants classified as administrators, professionals, service workers or labourers reported that they feel good about themselves and their relationships with others and the environment. The relationship with a god-type figure was of lesser importance for the spiritual well-being of the majority of participants. The participants do not expect the workplace to provide a major role in their spiritual well-being. They also reported significantly high levels of feelings of turbulence at work, and trends toward high anxiety and discomfort with autocratic managerial practices characterised by a focus on profits over people. The female staff described the workplace as more friendly, warm and caring than the males. The females also reported greater work satisfaction and were less depressed in doing their job than the males. Interpretation of these results indicates that a somewhat anxious and turbulent work place environment prevails. The personal impact of this unrest appears to be mediated by the support of families and friends of employees. The notion that workplace feelings which are negative (eg., anxiety) emanate from administrative practices, while those which are positive are a function of collegial behaviours, merits further exploration.
Description:
How do we set standards in assessing spiritual well-being (SWB)? Most measures provide only scores on arbitrary scales. Therefore, if the questions differ, the scores are likely to as well. This paper reports on two scales developed with 460 Australian secondary school students, with diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, from state, Catholic, Christian Community and independent schools. The four domains model of spiritual health/well-being was the theoretical base from which 12 items were developed to reflect quality of relationships with each of self, others, environment and God/the Divine. The instrument with the five top-scoring items in each domain, known as Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), has been sought for use in over 200 studies in 20 languages. The second-highest sets of five items were extracted and found to form statistically valid factors, for a new instrument called SWBQ2. As would be expected, the mean values for the factor scores varied between SHALOM and SWBQ2, overall and by school type. However, regression analyses of the lived experience scores showed that relating with God provided greatest explanation of variance in SWB, on both measures. A double-response method introduced for SHALOM was also used with SWBQ2 to compare each person's lived experience with their ideals, better reflecting quality of relationships, rather than just the arbitrary scores. There was negligible difference in dissonance scores on the four factors in both measures, that is, in comparing the difference between ideals and lived experiences. This method showed consistency in the quality of relationships reflecting SWB, contrasted with variance shown using only lived experience, as mentioned above. Relating with God was again most influential on SWB. These findings have implications for methods used in assessing SWB as well as outcomes.
Description:
This paper provides a critique of available quantitative measures of spirituality and well-being that have been used with children and youth. These measures range in scope from single-item to complex multiple-item instruments. The four domain model of spiritual health and well-being has been used to classify each item in the spirituality measures to show how they address relationships with self (Personal Spiritual Well-being [SWB]), with others (Communal SWB), with the environment (Environmental SWB) and/or with a Transcendent Other (Transcendental SWB). Each instrument has been analysed to show how well it provides a balanced assessment of spiritual well-being, with the purpose of informing pastoral care.
Description:
Education students in Australian state and Christian universities expressed their views on ideals, lived experience, and help expected from schools in four domains of spiritual well-being (personal, communal, environmental, and transcendental) (SWB), using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM). Students' lived experiences greatly affected their views on help provided by schools to nurture students' SWB. Currently, the more religious students in Christian universities reported support for their SWB from religious activities, whereas students in the state university gained support from more humanistic sources. But is this sufficient? Education students in state universities are likely to maintain the status quo regarding SWB in state schools. They report levels of help for students in line with current teachers' views. Christian university education students have lower expectations of schools than current teachers in Christian schools. However, some positive action is being taken in Christian universities to address the spiritual formation of their students. Further opportunities are needed within teacher education and schools in Australia for staff to address this area of vital concern for their own and students' SWB.
Description:
Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well-being of staff and students in schools.
Description:
Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well-being of staff and students in schools.
Description:
Motivation to inquire into the nature of spirituality and its relatonship to health, especially in education, came from the 1994 Australian curriculum statements at national and state level. The emergent model of spiritual health and well-being posits four domains in which the quality of relationships reflects the underlying spiritual health and well-being of an individual. These relationships are with oneself, with others, with the environment and/or with God. On presentation of this research, people do not question relationships with self, others and nature as having a genuine place in studies of spiritual health and well-being. It is always the God-factor which provokes discussion. .."From abstract".
Description:
The Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health and Well-Being was used as the theoretical base for the development of several spiritual well-being questionnaires, with progressive fine-tuning leading to the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM). SHALOM comprises 20 items with five items reflecting the quality of relationships of each person with themselves, other people, the environment and/or God, in the Personal, Communal, Environmental and Transcendental domains of spiritual well-being. SHALOM has undergone rigorous statistical testing in several languages. SHALOM has been used with school and university students, teachers, nurses, medical doctors, church-attenders, in industry and business settings, with abused women, troubled youth and alcoholics. SHALOM provides a unique way of assessing spiritual well-being as it compares each person’s ideals with their lived experiences, providing a measure of spiritual harmony or dissonance in each of the four domains.
Description:
The Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health and Well-Being was used as the theoretical base for the development of several spiritual well-being questionnaires, with progressive fine-tuning leading to the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM). SHALOM comprises 20 items with five items reflecting the quality of relationships of each person with themselves, other people, the environment and/or God, in the Personal, Communal, Environmental and Transcendental domains of spiritual well-being. SHALOM has undergone rigorous statistical testing in several languages. SHALOM has been used with school and university students, teachers, nurses, medical doctors, church-attenders, in industry and business settings, with abused women, troubled youth and alcoholics. SHALOM provides a unique way of assessing spiritual well-being as it compares each person’s ideals with their lived experiences, providing a measure of spiritual harmony or dissonance in each of the four domains.
Description:
The problem posed in this project was the development of an instrument to give a balanced assessment of young people’s spiritual health. Spiritual health is a dynamic state of being, which can be reflected in how well people relate in up to four domains of human existence, namely with themselves; with others; with the environment; and/or with a Transcendent Other. A convenience sample of 850 secondary students in State, Catholic, Christian Community and other independent schools in Ballarat and western suburbs of Melbourne were surveyed during 1999 to determine how important they considered each of the four sets of relationships to be for an ideal state of spiritual health (called Life-Orientation). They also expressed how each area reflected their personal experience most of the time (called Spiritual Health). Extensive factor analysis enabled the original 60-item instrument to be reduced to a reliable, compact 25-item Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM for short). Analysis of variance and t-tests revealed significant variations between students’ views when compared by school type, gender, and year level. SHALOM has advantages over previous instruments in that it is balanced across the four domains of spiritual well-being, is more sensitive, and it compares people’s stated ideal position, with their lived experience, not others’, in determining the quality of relationships which constitute their spiritual well-being.
Description:
The problem posed in this project was the development of an instrument to give a balanced assessment of young people’s spiritual health. Spiritual health is a dynamic state of being, which can be reflected in how well people relate in up to four domains of human existence, namely with themselves; with others; with the environment; and/or with a Transcendent Other. A convenience sample of 850 secondary students in State, Catholic, Christian Community and other independent schools in Ballarat and western suburbs of Melbourne were surveyed during 1999 to determine how important they considered each of the four sets of relationships to be for an ideal state of spiritual health (called Life-Orientation). They also expressed how each area reflected their personal experience most of the time (called Spiritual Health). Extensive factor analysis enabled the original 60-item instrument to be reduced to a reliable, compact 25-item Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM for short). Analysis of variance and t-tests revealed significant variations between students’ views when compared by school type, gender, and year level. SHALOM has advantages over previous instruments in that it is balanced across the four domains of spiritual well-being, is more sensitive, and it compares people’s stated ideal position, with their lived experience, not others’, in determining the quality of relationships which constitute their spiritual well-being.