Date of Award

9-1986

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology

Abstract

Due to the vital role spiritual health plays in the job performance of religious youth workers, there is a need to adequately predict this quality in this group of professionals. Spiritual well-being is a construct with support in the literature which can be used to objectively measure the internal, subjective condition of spiritual health. The purpose of this st~1dy was to identify one set of specific, commonly occurd.ng variables which in linear combination would adequately predict the spiritual well-being of fulltime Youth for Christ/USA staff members. The target sample consisted of 350 full-time YFC/USA sta.tf members whose names were drawn randomly from the computerized mailing list used by the national office. The final sample size was 298, or 85% of the original sample. The dependent variable was Spiritual Well-Being (SWB), the summed total score on the Spiritual Well-Being Scale. SWB is the summed total of the Religious Well-Being (RWB) and Existential Well-Being (EWB) subscales. There were 19 predictor variables measuring job-related areas, Christi2n life, family background, and demographic factors. The SPSS subprogram Regression, through a stepwise selection procedure, determined how much of the variance of the dependent variable (SWB Scores) was accounted for by the best linear combination of the 19 independent variables. A significant equation was developed with SWB as criterion, but it was a very weak one which accounted for only 7.5% of the variance in SWB. The secondary equations developed with RWB and EWB as criterions were significant, but also very weak in their predictive ability. The major regression assumptions were not violated and the study' s results were considered valid. The failure of the study to construct an adequate predictive model was viewed as a positive step in that it eliminated a number of ineffective predictors of spiritual well-being. It was hoped that the results of this exploratory study would be used by future researchers in an ongoing effort to construct a set of adequate predictors of the spiritual well-being of religious youth workers.

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