Clinical & Counselling Psychology Review (CCPR)

Volume 5 Issue 1, Spring 2023

ISSN(P): 2412-5253 ISSN(E): 2706-8676
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Article QR

Spiritual Intelligence, Resilience, and Mental Health: A Comparative

Title:
Study among University Students with Different Academic Degrees

Author (s): Shahzad Hussain1, Ziasma Haneef Khan1, Rahila Amin1, Uzma Kanwal2
1
University of Karachi, Pakistan
Affiliation (s): 2
DHQ Hospital Jhelum, Pakistan
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32350/ccpr.51.02

History Received: April 16, 2022, Revised: April 29, 2023, Accepted: May 25, 2023

Hussain, S., Khan, Z. H., Amin, R., & Kanwal, U. (2023). Spiritual
Citation: intelligence, resilience, and mental health: A comparative study
among university students with different academic degrees. Clinical
and Counselling Psychology Review, 5(1), 17–34.
https://doi.org/10.32350/ccpr.51.02
Copyright: © The Authors
Licensing: This article is open access and is distributed under the terms of
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Conflict of
Interest: Author(s) declared no conflict of interest

A publication of
Department of Clinical Psychology
University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Spiritual Intelligence, Resilience, and Mental Health: A Comparative
Study among University Students with Different Academic Degrees
Shahzad Hussain1*, Ziasma Haneef Khan1, Rahila Amin2, and Uzma Kanwal3
1
Department of Psychology, University of Karachi, Pakistan
2
Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi, Pakistan
3
Department of Psychiatry, DHQ Hospital Jhelum, Pakistan
Abstract
The present study aimed to compare the spiritual intelligence, resilience,
and mental health of university students majoring in Islamic studies with
those who are not majoring in Islamic studies. The sample consisted of
200 university students enrolled using purposive sampling (100 Major in
Islamic studies & 100 Non-majors in Islamic studies) with age ranging
between 20 - 25 years (M = 22.59; SD = 2.56). The study participants were
selected from various departments of a public university in Karachi,
Pakistan. To collect data from the participants a demographic form and
three standardized instruments including Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report
Inventory (SISRI -24), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS-6), and Depression
Anxiety Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) were used. Descriptive statistics and t-
test were applied to analyze the collected data. Results showed a
significant difference on spiritual intelligence between those having
Islamic studies as major and non – majors, with a higher mean score for
the group majoring in Islamic studies. The group with non-major in
Islamic Studies showed a higher mean score on depression, anxiety, and
stress. However, no significant group differences were observed based on
resilience. In conclusion, study suggested that a comprehensive curriculum
based on Islamic teachings have a positive influence on the spiritual
intelligence and mental health of the students. The results hold significant
implications for curriculum development and support services to enhance
overall wellbeing of university students.
Keywords: mental health, resilience, spiritual intelligence
Introduction
To understand the construct of spiritual intelligence many researchers
have conducted intensive work. The term spiritual intelligence is defined
as a mean to attain internal peace of mind and soul, find answers to our
*
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
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existence, and develop insight at various levels of consciousness

(Vaughan, 2002).
Spiritual intelligence is an experience-based ability to understand
the world and ourselves through God-centeredness, to realize and
know God, to recognize and choose the way towards Him in all
circumstances, as well as to detect self-centeredness and
manifestations of the ego in various situations to adapt the life
accordingly. (Ronel, 2008, p. 105)
While some scholars have emphasized God- entered aspect, others
adopted a more secular perspective and defined it as the highest form of
intelligence. This provokes characteristics and capabilities of true self that
are expressed in terms of wisdom, compassion, integrity creativity and
peace (Griffiths, 2017).
Emmons (2000) has outlined five characteristics of a spiritually
intelligent individual, which include being virtuous, the ability to
transcend, entering into heightened spiritual states of consciousness,
devoting everyday activities, events, and relationships with heightened
power, and the capacity to utilize spiritual resources to solve everyday
problems. To elaborate on this, some researchers have divided spiritual
intelligence in various components (King & DeCicco, 2009) and
dimensions (Amram, 2007). For instance, King (2008) described spiritual
intelligence as a set of four adoptive mental abilities: Critical existential
thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness and
conscious state expansion. According to King (2008), people higher in
spiritual intelligence demonstrate a higher degree of resilience which gives
them an internal strength to cope with stressors. Likewise, it may help an
individual to cope with difficulties of life, pain, despair (Peerzadah et al.,
2018), and serve as a coping mechanism during negative life
circumstances (Lazarus & Folkman, 1995). Emmons (2000) reported that
spiritual intelligence consists of integrated abilities which are helpful in
adaptability, problem-solving, coping, finding meaning as well as internal
and external peace. Mishra and Vashist (2014), study concluded
significant role of spiritual intelligence in success and quality of life of
adolescence in twenty first century. Darvishzadeh & Bozorgi, 2016),
explored the relationship between spiritual intelligence, Hardiness and
resilience among 200 female students They concluded that spiritual
intelligence and resilience are significantly positively correlated, which
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helps individuals to cope with hardships after a serious loss. It appears that
spiritual intelligence provides one with an optimistic view of life which
makes them more flexible, tolerant, hopeful, and resilient in the face of
difficulties (Srivastava, 2016).
Resilience concerns the capacity to 'bounce back' at the time of
adversities and continuous stressful events (Perkins, & Jones, 2004). It is
the compatibility in facing these challenges (Garmezy & Masten, 1991;
Luthar, 1991), and adapting and recuperating in times of extreme stress
(Rutter, 1979). Resilience is multidimensional; an individual may be more
resilient in one aspect of his/her life but less resilient in others (Luthar et
al., 1993). Recent met analysis have identified religious/ spiritual practices
to be moderately correlated with resilience (Schwalm et al., 2022). A
number of well-conceived studies have shown a positive relationship
between spiritual intelligence and resilience (Darvishzadeh & Bozorgi,
2016; Ebrahimi et al., 2012). The relationship of spirituality with
resilience has been observed as a facilitating agent or a coping mechanism,
where it helps to build a strong association that aids social support
seeking, guides one’s conduct and moral values, and provides
opportunities for personal growth and development. Researchers have
described spirituality as a protective practice that help in adjustment
during crises period and coping with physical and psychological stress
(Sharma et al., 2017). Thus, it seems that spiritual intelligence and
resilience play a vital role in an individual’s life.
Literature Review
Evidence suggest that spiritual intelligence has a positive impact on the
mental health of individuals in terms of personal meaning - creation,
development of self-awareness, transcendental awareness, and existential
thinking as reported by Farahmand et al. (2014) in their study with
employees in Saveh city of Iran. Another study confirmed that spiritual
intelligence is significantly associated with psychological well-being and
satisfaction with life among nurses (Sahebalzamani et al., 2013).
Kalantarkousheh et al. (2014) also reported that spiritual intelligence is a
significant predictor of life satisfaction. Although the evidence exist which
suggests an association between spiritual well-being and mental health,
there are a very few studies which explore this association between
correlates of mental health and spirituality (Ebrahimi et al., 2012).
Findings from the study have shown that specific spiritual convictions and
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 Hussain et al.

practices may be linked to physical and emotional well-being (Salman &

Lee, 2019). They found a mediated role of spiritual intelligence for
psychological wellbeing, depression and perceived health. (Pant &
Srivastava, 2019), study result reveal that there was a significant
relationship between mental health and spiritual intelligence among
science and arts students enrolled in different colleges in India.
Additionally, in the indigenous context, a study by Anwar and Rana
(2023) found a direct association between spiritual intelligence and
psychological wellbeing among Pakistani university students.
Role of Spiritual Intelligence and Resilience in Life Stressors
Numerous research studies have supported the fact that spirituality is
closely related to mental health, psychological well-being, and resilience
(Anwar & Rana, 2023; Partovi & Boland, 2016). In terms of psychological
disturbance, spirituality has been reported to decrease psychological
distress and increase resilience in the face of distressing life events
(Khosravi & Nikmanesh, 2014). Similarly, findings indicate that higher
spiritual intelligence led to lower anxiety and depression among students
(Karimzadeh et al., 2021).
Scope of Present Research
In the discipline of spirituality, the betterment of human living and
seeking the meaning of life has always been of major interest.
Furthermore, spiritual intelligence has a prominent impact on an
individual’s vision of dealing with life challenges and sufferings as well as
finding ways to ameliorate distress which indirectly influence their coping
and resilience. Until now, there appear to be numerous reasons to explore
spirituality and resilience within the area of psychology. Keeping in view
the importance of spirituality and resilience in the context of mental
health, the existing indigenous studies, though limited in number, only
report the association between spirituality, resilience, and mental health.
Additionally, in the Pakistani context, lack of evidence exists that
specifically address spiritual intelligence and resilience in the context of
mental health of individuals which encourages research in this area.
Furthermore, considering the role of religion, it seems compelling that the
differences may exist among those who are with or without in a closer
connection to the religion or religious teachings. Considering the nature
of comparison, the students specializing in religion focused and non-

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religion focused disciplines seem subjects of interest. Moreover, it has

been already established that spiritual teachings promote resilience among
students (Bagheri, 2015). Therefore, this study enrolled students from
religion focused and non-religion focused disciplines and look for any
difference between these groups in terms of their spiritual intelligence and
its impact on their resilience and mental health. The study aims to provide
valuable insight that can help understand spiritual intelligence in the
context of the Pakistani population and ways to modify teaching
methodologies in a manner that enhances students’ spiritual intelligence,
thereby promoting resilience and mental health of the students.
Hypotheses
There would be a significant difference in group of students with or
without majors in Islamic studies in terms of spiritual intelligence,
resilience and mental health.
Method
Sample
In the present study, the sample comprised 200 university students.
Among 200 students, 137 (68%) were women and 63 (32%) were men.
The age of the participants ranged between 20-25 years (M = 22.59; SD =
2.56). The sample was selected using the purposive sampling method
where 100 students with majors in Islamic studies (Islamic Learning,
Islamic History, & Usool-ud-Din) and 100 non-majors in Islamic studies
(Social Work, Computer Sciences, Biological Sciences, English
Literature, Criminology, Urdu, Educational Studies, Business Studies),
were selected from the University of Karachi. Most of these students were
in their final year of bachelor and belonged middle socio-economic class.
Assessment Measures
Personal Information Form
Personal information form focused on the background information that
comprised of participant’s age, gender, education and socio-economic
status.

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The Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory (SISRI -24, King, 2008;

King & DeCicco, 2009)
The SISRI is a 24-items measure of spiritual intelligence. Its
components include existential thinking; personal meaning production;
transcendental awareness, and conscious state expansion. The sum of all
item responses ranges from 0 to 96. A high score represents higher levels
of spiritual intelligence. The SISRI has shown adequate reliability of .89
(King, 2008). For the present study, the Urdu translated version of the
scale yielded a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .92, and for its subscales,
the reliability values were: .73 = Critical Existential Thinking; .65 =
Personal Meaning; .65 = Transcendental Thinking, and .75 = Conscious
State Expansion.
The Brief Resilience Scale (BRS-6, Smith et al., 2008)
The BRS is a 6-items scale which was developed to assess a unitary
construct of “bounce back” after a stressful situation. Its items are
responded on a Likert scale with response options ranging from strongly
disagree to strongly agree. The scale has been recommended as the best
measure of resilience (Windle et al., 2011). It has shown good internal
consistency (Smith, et al., 2008). For the present study, the Urdu translated
version of the scale demonstrated Cronbach’s alpha reliability value of .64.
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21, Lovibond &
Lovibond, 1995)
The DASS is used to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, and
stress. Depression sub scale consists of items that capture symptoms of
dysphonia and hopelessness. Anxiety scale assesses symptoms of personal
arousal, agitation, fears, and panic, while Stress scale deals with signs and
symptoms tension and over reactivity. The Chronbach’s alpha values for
the scales are reported to be ranged between .87- .94 (Antony et al., 1998).
For the current study, the Chronbach alpha reliability values for the scales
of the Urdu version of DASS-21 were as Depression = .86; Anxiety= .86,
and Stress= .83.
Procedure
For data collection, permission was sought from the concerned
departments. After getting permission, students were approached in
classroom settings during the designated timeslots. They were explained
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with the objectives of the study and their role and rights as research
participants. In order to ensure their voluntary participation, they also
filled in an informed consent form before their participation in the study.
In addition, they were thoroughly instructed to fill the questionnaire to
ensure they understood the process and the assessment measures.
Statistical Analysis
All analyses were carried out using SPSS version 16.0 to explore the
variables across the groups. The analyses included descriptive statistics,
(mean, standard deviation, range) and t-test.
Results
The results obtained from the sample data are given below. Table 1
provides an overview of descriptive statistics.
Table 1
Descriptive Statistics and Psychometric Properties of Studied Variables
(N=200)
Variable M SD α
Spiritual Intelligence 53.62 16.58 .90
Critical Existential Thinking 15.99 5.64 .73
Personal Meaning Production 11.40 4.08 .65
Transcendental Awareness 14.68 5.05 .67
Conscious State Expansion 11.56 4.05 .75
Resilience 18.64 3.26 .64
Depression 5.59 4.83 .86
Anxiety 4.92 4.74 .86
Stress 7.56 4.70 .83
The results in above Table 1 revealed that all the scales showed
acceptable values of Cronbach’s alpha reliability.
The results in Table (2) showed a significant difference in spiritual
intelligence of the students having majors in Islamic studies and those
with non-majors in Islamic studies. The data showed that the student
group with majors in Islamic studies scored higher on the all the
dimensions of spiritual intelligence. However, on resilience, there were no
observable differences. Similarly, on the depression, anxiety, and stress

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scales the mean scored remained higher for those with non-major in
Islamic studies as compared to the group with majors in Islamic studies.
Table 2
Independent Sample t-test Used for Comparison between Islamic Studies
and Non-Islamic Academic for all variables (N=200)
Major in- Non-Major in
Islamic Studies Islamic Studies
Cohen’s
Variable (n = 100) (n = 100) t p
d
M SD M SD
Spiritual Intelligence 60.13 14.18 47.12 16.30 6.021 .000 .852
Critical Existential
18.22 4.74 13.76 5.61 6.074 .000 .859
Thinking
Personal Meaning
12.62 3.68 10.17 4.11 4.446 .000 .628
Production
Transcendental
16.26 4.44 13.09 5.15 4.663 .000 .659
Awareness
Conscious State
13.03 3.49 10.10 4.05 5.478 .000 .775
Expansion
Resilience 18.48 3.65 18.89 2.84 -0.727 .470 .125
Depression 4.39 3.79 6.79 5.44 -3.618 .000 .512
Anxiety 3.80 3.91 6.05 5.22 -3.448 .000 .488
Stress 6.52 4.44 8.59 4.75 -3.182 .000 .450

Discussion
The current study sought to compare two group of students who are with
or without majors in Islamic studies in terms of examine spiritual
intelligence, resilience, and mental health. Overall, the findings indicate
that differences exist in the spiritual intelligence and mental health
between two groups. However, study data could not find any significant
difference in level of resilience between two academic majors.
Evidence from the present findings showed that spiritual intelligence
was higher among students with majors in Islamic studies. The
participants displayed spiritual intelligence in terms of critical existential
patterns of thinking, personal meaning, transcendental awareness, and
conscious state expansion. These results verify the proposed hypothesis
where Islamic studies participants appeared to be extensively involved in
reading and comprehending religious teachings, as compared to those
from non-Islamic academic disciplines wherein in teachings are usually
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based on specific disciplines. This is in line with the existing literature

which states that studying in a specific discipline affects overall thinking
pattern where students integrate these thoughts in their daily functions. In
contradiction to the present study, Agrawal and Khan (2015) reported,
while investigating differences in the spiritual intelligence between
arts and science students, no significant difference between the arts and
science group. However, the mean score was higher for the art group.
They concluded that the differences may be due to the overall religious
environment and prevailing religious teaching in the two groups.
The findings of the study can be explained in terms of the thinking and
experiences of the students as the students from the religion focused
disciplines are likely to engage in critical thinking, thoughtful
understanding of the meaning of their existence and origin of life and
death, the creation of the universe, and other similar issues. Through their
experience and knowledge, they may remain centered around reading
literature on existential topics through their designed academic curriculum
like Islamic philosophy, mysticism, Quran’s tafseer (Rusdi, 2019).
Another possible explanation can be the association between spiritual
intelligence and religion as it has been suggested that religious beliefs and
teaching may answer to the “why” question of existence (Anastoos, 1998;
Vaughan, 2002). So, it seems that academic disciplines based on Islamic
teachings such as of Holy Quran may enhance their spiritual intelligence
by promoting their critical thinking that integrate in their character
building and in evaluating fundamental reason of existence (Khan et al.,
2018).
Similarly, Abdullah (2012) states that one’s emotional spiritual
quotient builds on the framework of islām, īmān, and iÍsān. This suggests
that the students from Islamic majors, through Islamic teachings, may
develop a strong understanding of their purpose in life. As mentioned
earlier, religion builds a sense of meaning among its followers (Hood et.
al., 1996) which is reported to be significantly associated with an
individual’s religious inclination (Huta, 2013; Sillick & Cathcart, 2014).
Krause (2010), in his longitudinal study revealed that a strong sense of
God-mediated control is associated with meaning in an individual’s life.
The students with higher scores on transcedent awareness showed that
they were able to go beyond the physical world and could search,
recognize, became aware, and connect with the divine force referred to as
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 Hussain et al.

“transcendent awareness” in their daily life experiences. One method to

obtain transcendent awareness is through meditation which is often a part
of spiritual orientation (Shapiro, 1992). Wachholtz and Pargament (2005)
in a comparison study of with college students found that between
spiritual and non-spiritual transcendental meditation groups (in which no
connection is created with the divine force during meditation) spiritual
meditation group had greater spiritual experience and reported decreased
level of anxiety as compared to non-spiritual. This evidence from
literature suggests that students with majors in Islamic studies experience
increased transcendental awareness which is a fundamental of Islamic
spirituality and is described as Tafakkur on God meaning “contemplation”,
“spiritual reflection”, or “meditation”, whereas tadthakkur is
“remembrance” of God, “recollection”, “evocation” or “invocation” of His
most Beautiful Names (al-Daghistani, 2018).
The higher score of the students with majors in Islamic studies on the
domain of conscious state expansion suggests that these students were able
to attain higher spiritual consciousness through reflection, thinking,
meditation or prayers. There are many components of conscious state
expansion that vary across religions, however, one of the frequently
reported aspects is achieving spiritual consciousness through prayer which
may furnish an individual’s skills to achieve conscious state expansion.
For instance, a study based on the comparison of mystical experience
across religious groups including Muslims, Christians, and Hindus showed
that Christians and Muslims were higher in mystical experience as
compared to Hindus (Anthony et al., 2010). Similarly, a study based on
ethnic differences found that Chinese Christians scored higher than non-
Chinese on mystical interpretation factors (Chen et al., 2012).
The present study found no significant differences between the groups
on the construct of resilience which rejects our hypothesized comparison
between student groups. In literature we receive varying evidence in this
regard. For instance, Prinyaphol and Chongruksa (2008) found student
from Islamic studies were more resilient because they had a strong
religion inclination and adhere to religious practices in the face of
challenges e.g., adversities. On the contrary, van der Mijl and Vingerhoets
(2017) found no difference in the resilience score between humanities and
psychology students. In present case, where no differences are reported,
one possible explanation for this finding can be that resilience dependents

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on the number of factors and affected by a number of experiences which

inoculate and builds the defenses to resist stressors in life (Meichenbaum,
2007). So when both groups were measured on their ability to bounce
back, no differences were found which is probably both groups
experienced similar academic load, examination stress, or other
challenging circumstances as a part of their student life. Another
explanation can be the implementation of Islamic teachings in daily life
practices. In a study by Annalakshmi and Abeer (2011), it was found that
the individuals scoring low on resilience were not practically
implementing the Islamic teachings in their lifestyles in comparison to the
more resilient individuals. Lastly, cultural factors may also intervene as
evidence has suggested that cultural factors, for instance, availability of
social support foster resilience among individuals (Orozco, 2007).
The results also showed significant differences across both groups on
the score of depression, anxiety, and stress which also verifies the
proposed association. These findings have classical underpinnings as
Seligman et al. (2005) assert that individuals who can be described as
spiritual usually demonstrate improved physical and social functioning in
comparison to other individuals. These results are also in congruence with
previous studies based on spiritual intelligence emphasizing its role in
reducing anxiety, depression, and stress (Dami et al., 2019). This implies
that spiritual and religious beliefs of the individuals help them interpreting
and managing through the life situations with an optimistic approach and
in turn has a healthy impact on their mental health which is also supported
by existing evidence (Darvishzadeh & Bozorgi, 2016).
Conclusion
The present study contributes to the converging body of research
showing that studying in a discipline specifically focused on Islamic
curriculum have a healthy impact on the spirituality and psychological
health of the individuals. The results suggest that Islamic education is
holistic in nature as it directs nurtures that way of thinking and living
which is productive for both a healthy body and a healthy soul.
Limitations and Suggestions
The study findings cannot be generalized as the sample size was small
and limited to academic disciplines based on the students from a single
university. There is a possibility of observing different results with
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students from other academic disciplines, and universities for instance,

medical sciences. So, more research is required in this area with a large
sample of students from various academic disciplines.
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