Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 1314 – 1323

International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2012)

Spiritual well-being of INSTED, Relationship with College Adjustment
Norwati Mansora, Nur Syahidah Khalidb a b

Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Institute of Education, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract This study attempts to discover spiritual well-being of INSTED, IIUM students and its relationship between spiritual well-being and college adjustment among them. It tries to determine whether spiritual well being is related to his college adjustment in order to attain good academic achievement. This study employed quantitave method. Sample were derived from three fields of study in Insitute of Education IIUM namely; Guidance and counseling, Teacher English as a second Language and Islamic Education The researcher used descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and ANOVA to analyzed the data.The findings of this study will benefit parents, counselors, teachers and policy maker. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. © 2012 Published by Elsevier under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari ofof Dr. Zafer – Counselling, Research &Counselling, Selection and peer-review Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility Cognitive Bekirogullari of Cognitive Conference Research & Conference Services C-crcs. Services C-crcs.
Keywords: spiritual well-being; college adjustment; quantitative; descriptive; counselor

1. Introduction This study focused on the relationship between spiritual well-being and college adjustments among IIUM students. Spiritual well-being was focused on its effectiveness of influencing students to handle their college life. It purpose, meaning and value to life. Spirituality wellexperiencing a healthy spiritual growth with a purpose of life. Fehring, Miller & Shaw (1997 as cited in Fisher, 1998.) described spiritual well-being as an indic simply an indication of their spiritual health. In this study we were concerned with the relationship between spiritual welland be successful while handling many aspects in life as a student. Study conducted by Ratliff (2005) found that more students left their college or university without completing a degree. Nearly 2.8 million students who entered higher education for the first time, over 1.6 million left their college or university. Thus, it is very important to understand the complex issues that to meet individual goals and the willingness to comply with the academic and social demands of the institution, and interactional factors.

1877-0428 © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Dr. Zafer Bekirogullari of Cognitive – Counselling, Research & Conference Services C-crcs. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.12.068

Norwati Mansor and Nur Syahidah Khalid / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 1314 – 1323

1315

orientati and the world and their distinctive behaviors and habits as they pursue their personal goals (Corey, 1996). Thus, one should know the vital goal in life as a Muslim. The final destination of life journey is to be in Jannah or Heaven of Afterlife. Allah mentioned in surah At-Taghabun verse 9: And whosever believes in Allah and performs righteous good deeds, He will expiate from him his sins, and will admit him to Gardens under which rivers flow dwell there in forever. The greatest aspect of spiritual well-being is being able to give oneself strengths in various aspects of life. Spirituality is one component of faith development. It is one dimension of how one lives faithfully in this world practices and guidance from God. The Islamic belief is based on the spiritual relationship which is ultimately between God and servant. The Muslims who live a life of faith and good deeds justify the purpose of the present life here and attain the fulfillment of their highest hope for the good pleasure of God is the final bliss of salvation. As Allah says in surah AlPrevious studies related to this topic, such as psychological and spiritual well-being in college students (Fehring, Brennan, & Keller, 1987), tried to investigate the relationship between spirituality and psychological mood states in response to life change, suggesting that spiritual variables may influence psychological well-being. Also, Richter (2001) has done a study to find the correlation of psychological well-being and Christian spiritual well-being at a small Christian Liberal Arts College in the Urban Midwest. Moreover, there are some studies which were focusing on religiosity and belief towards college adjustment, such as religiosity and its association with positive and negative emotions among college students from Algeria by AbdelKhalek and Naceur in 2007. The study explored the association between religiosity and both positive and negative emotions and traits. Another study examined the religious belief change and its relationship to religiosity and coping variables (Edmondson & Park, 2009). Furthermore, another study purposely carried out to identify the relationship between spiritual well-being and college adjustments in first year college students at a Southeastern University (Ratliff, 2005). -being and college adjustment. Spirituality was measured by the Spiritual well-being scale and college adjustment was measured by The Students Adaptation to College Questionnaire. Studies on the relationship between spiritual well-being and college adjustment in Malaysia specifically on Muslim students were wanting. Therefore, we embarked on this research project to examine the relationship between spiritual well-being and college adjustments among the IIUM students, in terms of academic adjustment, personal emotional adjustment, social adjustment and attachment. 2. The Samples The main reason Institute of Education of IIUM was chosen as the population of this research was that because we were expecting the students from Institute of Education can represent the dynamic of IIUM students who were unique. Spiritual well-being among the students can be assumed from the development of Islamic values of education they have gained throughout their courses. The total population was 922 undergraduate students who were studying at the Institute of Education; but we only picked 130 students to represent the population. They were chosen through stratified random sampling procedure; 50 students were doing Islamic Education (ISED), 48 students were doing Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) and another 32 from Guidance and Counseling major (GUIDE). This study was intended to see the significance of the Islamic Education students compared to the students from other majors as well. 3. Instrumentations The Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ) that was developed by Baker & Siryk in 1984 was The original questionnaire consists of 70 items but it has been revised into 42; Academic Adjustment (12 items,

1316

Norwati Mansor and Nur Syahidah Khalid / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 1314 – 1323

originally 24 items), Social Adjustment (12 items, originally 20 items), Personal-Emotional Adjustment (11 items, originally 15 items), and Attachment (7 items, originally 8 items). The SACQ was adapted and reduced to 42 items to attune with the students here due to cultural background and norms. A 5-point Likert-type response scale was used in this questionnaire, ranging from not at all true of me to very much true of me. Coefficient alphas ranged between .84 and .88 for the academic adjustment subscale; between .90 and .91 for social adjustment subscale; between .81 and .85 for the personal/emotional adjustment subscale; between .90 and .91 for the attachment subscale; and between .93 and .95 for the full scale (Baker and Siryk, 1986). The Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) developed by Paloutzian and Ellison in 1982 and the adapted Malay version of Spiritual Well Being scale developed by Imam, Karim, Jusoh and Mamad in 1999 was used for this study. Previous studies reported high test-retest reliabilities (r = .73 to .99); internal consistency reliabilities (r = .78 to .94); construct validity and two-factor structure of the scale (Ellison & Smith, 1991, as cited in Imam, et al., 1999). The main conceptualization of spiritual well-being in a religious and existential sense. The scale includes social psychological and religious aspects. The SWBS consists of two subscales with ten items each. The subscales were the religious well-being subscale (RWB) and the existential wellsense of well-being in relation to God. The EWB subscale measured the horizontal dimension to evaluate an -purpose and life-satisfaction. The EWB items contain no specific religious indications -point Likert-type res To determine the reliability coefficient of the scales, the researcher had conducted a pilot test. Table 1 summarizes the result of the pilot test. The Cronbach alpha for spiritual religious r=.769, spiritual existential r=.809, academic adjustment r=.752, social adjustment r=.756, personal adjustment r=.804 and attachment r=.654. There are no much differences compared the standardized items as for spiritual religious r=.775, spiritual existential r=.811, academic adjustment r=.755, social adjustment r=.762, personal adjustment r=.803 and attachment r=.656. Thus, the items for this study were reliable. Table 1 Reliability of the subscales Items Spiritual religious Spiritual existential Academic adjustment Social adjustment Personal adjustment Attachment .769 .809 .752 .756 .804 .654 from pilot study .776 .720 .645 .760 .836 .452 N of items 10 10 12 12 11 7

4. Findings 3.36, which categorized them under The result shows that the total mean for religious group. The findings revealed that 34 ISED students, 22 TESL students and 16 GUIDE students scored under 2-3.3 (lowest level), whereas only 2 ISED students, 1 TESL student and no GUIDE student scored under 6.47.3 (highest level).

Norwati Mansor and Nur Syahidah Khalid / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 1314 – 1323

1317

Table 2 Spirituality level of INSTED students Level of spirituality Total number ISED 34 10 4 0 2 50 TESL 22 17 6 2 1 48 GUIDE 16 13 3 0 0 32

2-3.3 3.4-4.3 4.4-5.3 5.4-6.3 6.4-7.3 Total

To determine whether there was any significant difference in spiritual well-being between students from Islamic Education and other courses, One-way ANOVA was employed to analyse the data. The result revealed that a statistically significant difference was found among three groups of INSTED undergraduate students which are Islamic Education (ISED), Teaching English (TESL) and Guidance and Counseling (GUIDE) on spiritual existential, F(2,127) = 4.27, p=.016, and there was no significant difference on spiritual religious, F(2,127) = .36, p=.70. Table 4.7 shows that the mean spiritual existential is 1.73 for ISED, 2.06 for TESL and 1.81 for GUIDE. Table 3 Means and Standard Deviations comparing three groups of INSTED undergraduate students Spiritual religious N ISED TESL GUIDE Total 50 48 32 130 M 1.4580 1.4833 1.5531 1.4908 SD .53798 .53089 .39756 .50200 Spiritual existential M 1.7320 2.0625 1.8125 1.8738 SD .58709 .66224 .38584 .59030

The finding from the analysis of the data showed statistically significant differences in college adjustment between ISED students and students from TESL and GUIDE. The result on social adjustment, F(2,127) = 3.56, p=.031, and on personal-emotional adjustment, F(2,127) = 4.22, p=.017. However, there were no significant differences on academic and attachment. Table 4 shows that the mean social adjustment was 2.50 for ISED, 2.70 for TESL and 2.40 for GUIDE, whereas the mean personal-emotional adjustment was 2.60 for ISED, 2.94 for TESL and 2.60 for GUIDE

1318

Norwati Mansor and Nur Syahidah Khalid / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 69 (2012) 1314 – 1323

Table 4 Means and Standard Deviations comparing three groups of INSTED undergraduate students Academic N ISED TESL GUIDE Total 50 48 32 130 M 2.3750 2.3681 2.3307 2.3615 SD .61428 .43889 .54109 .53309 Social M 2.4950 2.6840 2.3672 2.5333 SD .54200 .53621 .52699 .54676 Personal Emotional M 2.5891 2.9375 2.5881 2.7175 SD .58837 .77597 .57356 .67712 Attachment M 1.8000 1.7262 1.7232 1.7538 SD .52588 .52785 .70635 .57254

Analysis of the data using Pearson correlation revealed the strongest positive correlation among spiritual wellbeing and college adjustments, which would be considered a large effect size, was between spiritual well-being and emotional adjustment scores, r (127) = .34, p