بررسی تأثیر برنامه‌های مذهبی مدون و مستمر بر سلامت معنوی دانشجویان

Background and Purpose: Spirituality is one of the four dimensions of human existence. Given the importance of spiritual health and it promotion, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of continuous and systematic religious programs on the spiritual health among the female university students. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 50 female students studying at Beytol Hoda University of Amol, Iran (case group) and 52 students majoring at other state universities (control group). The data were collected using the spiritual health questionnaire developed by Ellison and Pulytzan. The data analysis was performed using the non-parametric tests through the SPSS 19 software. Results: According to the results, the mean scores of the spirituality in the students participating in the continuous and systematic religious programs were 101.41&plusmn;14.85 and 93.39&plusmn;15.51 in the case and control groups, respectively (P<0.01). In addition, the mean score of the religious and existential health was significantly higher in the case group than that in the control group (P<0.01). The majority of the students enjoying higher spiritual health (100-120) were in the case group, while the control group had medium spiritual health (41-99). The results demonstrated that this difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, the students participating in the systemic religious programs had higher spiritual health in terms of both religious and existential dimensions. It seems that the religious programs held at the universities help the students to improve their spiritual health.