Correlation between Self-esteem, Death Anxiety, and Spiritual Wellbeing in Korean University Students

Mi Young Chung; Kyeong-Sook Cha; Ok-Hee Cho

doi:10.7469/kjan.2015.27.3.367

Journal List > Korean J Adult Nurs > v.27(3) > 1076335

Go to TopGo to Top Go to BottomGo to Bottom

TOOLS

Chung, Cha, and Cho: Correlation between Self-esteem, Death Anxiety, and Spiritual Wellbeing in Korean University Students

Original Article

Korean J Adult Nurs 2015;27(3):367-374.

Published online: NaN June 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7469/kjan.2015.27.3.367

Correlation between Self-esteem, Death Anxiety, and Spiritual Wellbeing in Korean University Students

Mi Young Chung¹, Kyeong-Sook Cha¹, Ok-Hee Cho²

^¹Department of Nursing Science, Sun Moon University, Asan

^²Department of Nursing, College of Nursing and Health, Kongju National University, Gongju, Korea

Corresponding author: Cho, Ok-Hee Department of Nursing, College of Nursing and Health, Kongju National University, 56 Gongjudeahak-ro, Gongju 314-701, Korea. Tel: +82-41-850-0306, Fax: +82-41-850-0315, E-mail: ohcho@kongju.ac.kr

Received 30 March 20159 June 2015 Accepted 11 June 2015

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed at understanding the correlation between self-esteem, death anxiety, and spiritual wellbeing in university students.

Methods

Cross-sectional method was used 671 students in South Korea. This study used the Self-esteem developed by Rosenberg, the Fear of Death Scale revised by Lester and Abdel-Khalek, and Spiritual wellbeing developed by Paloutzian and Ellison.

Results

Relationships between self-esteem, death anxiety, and spiritual wellbeing revealed an inverse correlation between self-esteem and death anxiety, and a direct correlation between self-esteem and spiritual wellbeing.

Conclusion

In order for students of establishing identity to lead a healthy life, there is a need for studies aiming at developing, implementing, and evaluating the results of consultation and education programs for maintaining spiritual wellbeing such as psychological counseling and logotherapy at the university or regional community level.

Keywords: Self-esteem, Death anxiety, Spiritual wellbeing

REFERENCES

1.Lee Y. The relationship of spiritual wellbeing and involvement with depression and perceived stress in Korean nursing students. Global Journal of Health Science. 2014. 6(4):169–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/gjhs.v6n4p169.

2.Taliaferro LA., Rienzo BA., Pigg RM., Miller MD., Dodd VJ. Spiritual wellbeing and suicidal ideation among college students. Journal of American College Health. 2009. 58(1):83–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.58.1.83-90.

3.Jo KH., An GJ., Sohn KC. Qualitative content analysis of suicidal ideation in Korean college students. Collegian. 2011. 18(2):87–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2010.11.001.

4.Statistics Korea. 2013 Annual report on the cause of death statistics [Internet]. Seoul: Statistics Korea;2014. [cited 2015 January 20]. Available from:. http://kostat.go.kr/portal/korea/kor_nw/2/6/1/index.board?bmode=read&bSeq=&aSeq=330181&pageNo=1&rowNum=10&navCount=10&currPg=&sTarget=title&sTxt=.

5.Birndorf S., Ryan S., Auinger P., Aten M. High self-esteem among adolescents: longitudinal trends, sex differences, and protective factors. The Journal of Adolescent Health. 2005. 37(3):194–201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.08.012.

6.Dubois DL., Flay BR. The healthy pursuit of self-esteem: comment on and alternative to the Crocker and Park (2004) formulation. Psychological Bulletin. 2004. 130(3):415–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.415.

7.Lyke J. Associations among aspects of meaning in life and death anxiety in young adults. Death Studies. 2013. 37(5):471–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2011.649939.

8.Adams TB., Bezner JR., Drabbs ME., Zambarano RJ., Steinhardt MA. Conceptualization and measurement of the spiritual and psychological dimensions of wellness in a college population. Journal of American Colledge Health. 2000. 48(4):165–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07448480009595692.

9.Papazisis G., Nicolaou P., Tsiga E. Christoforou T, Sapountzi-Krepia D. Religious and spiritual beliefs, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression among nursing students. Nursing & Health Sciences. 2014. 16(2):232–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12093.

10.Faul F., Erdfelder E., Lang AG., Buchner A. GPower 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods. 2007. 39:175–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03193146.

11.Rosenberg M. Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press;1965.

12.Lee JY., Nam SK., Lee MK., Lee SM. Rosenberg' self-esteem scale: analysis of item-level validity. The Korean Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 2009. 21(Suppl. 1):173–89.

13.Seo HK. An introduction to elderly death. Seoul: Kyungchunsa;2009.

14.Lester D., Abdel-Khalek A. The Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale: a correction. Death Study. 2003. 27(Suppl. 1):81–5. http://dx.doi.org10.1080/07481180302873.

15.Paloutzian RF., Ellison CW. Loneliness, spiritual wellbeing and the quality of life. New York: John Wiley & Sons;1982.

16.Cheung SD., Lee JB., Park HB., Kim JS., Bai DS., Lee KH, et al. A study on reliability and validity of the Korean version of spiritual well being scale. Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatry Association. 2001. 40(2):230–42.

17.Kim KH., Kim KD., Byun HS., Chung BY. Spiritual wellbeing, self esteem, and attitude to death among nursing students. Asian Oncology Nursing. 2010. 10(1):1–9.

18.Croghan IT., Bronars C., Patten CA., Schroeder DR., Nirelli LM., Thomas JL, et al. Is smoking related to body image satisfaction, stress, and self-esteem in young adults? American Journal of Health Behavior. 2006. 30(3):322–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.30.3.10.

19.Lawrence J., Ashford K., Dent P. Gender differences in coping strategies of undergraduate students and their impact on self-esteem and attainment. Active Learning in Higher Education. 2006. 7(3):273–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469787406069058.

20.Lee YJ., Ko JJ. An effect of college students' stress, coping strategies and self-esteem on suicidal ideation. Korean Association of Human Ecology Seminar. 2010. 1:154–5.

21.Creemers DHM., Scholte RHJ., Engels RCME., Prinsteinc MJ., Wiersd RW. Implicit and explicit self-esteem as concurrent predictors of suicidal ideation, depressive symptoms, and loneliness. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 2012. 43(1):638–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.09.006.

22.Russac RJ., Gatliff C., Reece M., Spottswood D. Death anxiety across the adult years: an examination of age and gender effects. Death Studies. 2007. 31(6):549–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07481180701356936.

23.Mooney DC. Tactical reframing to reduce death anxiety in undergraduate nursing students. The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care. 2005. 22(6):427–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/104990910502200607.

24.Andrés AR., Halicioglu F. Determinants of suicides in Denmark: evidence from time series data. Health Policy. 2010. 98(issues 2-3):263–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2010.06.023.

25.Waite L., Das A. Families, social life, and wellbeing at older ages. Demography. 2010. 47(Suppl.):S87–109. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/dem.2010.0009.

26.Shear MK., Skritskaya NA. Bereavement and anxiety. Current Psychiatry Reports. 2012. 14:169–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11920-012-0270-2.

27.Wu YW., Su YJ., Chen CK. Clinical characteristics, precipitating stressors, and correlates of lethality among suicide attempters. Chang Gung Medical Journal. 2009. 32(5):543–52.

28.Wnuk M., Marcinkowski JT. Do existential variables mediate between religious-spiritual facets of functionality and psychological wellbeing. Journal of Religion and Health. 2014. 53(1):56–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-012-9597-6.

29.Koenig H. Faith and mental health: religious resources for healing. Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press;2005.

30.Routledge C. Failure causes fear: the effect of self-esteem threat on death-anxiety. The Journal of Social Psychology. 2012. 152(6):665–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2012.691915.

Table 1.

General Characteristics of Participants (N=671)

Characteristics	Categories	n (%)
Gender	Male	413 (61.6)
Gender	Female	258 (38.4)
Grade	freshmen	129 (19.2)
	sophomores	169 (25.2)
	juniors	218 (32.5)
	seniors	155 (23.1)
Economic status	Poor	108 (16.1)
	Moderate	500 (74.5)
	Good	63 (9.4)
Religion	Yes	227 (33.8)
Religion	No	444 (66.2)
Place of residence	Alone	106 (15.8)
	Dormitory	307 (45.8)
	With the family	258 (38.4)
Indirect death experience	Yes	469 (69.9)
Indirect death experience	No	202 (30.1)
Suicidal ideation	Yes	125 (18.6)
Suicidal ideation	No	546 (81.4)

Table 2.

Self-esteem, Death anxiety and Spiritual Wellbeing according to Characteristics of the Participants (N=671)

Characteristics	Categories	Self-esteem		Death anxiety		Spiritual wellbeing
Characteristics	Categories	M±SD	t or F (p)	M±SD	t or F (p)	M±SD	t or F (p)
Gender	Male	30.15±4.88	5.01	89.98±19.64	-1.03	73.10±14.33	3.30
Gender	Female	28.23±4.70	(＜.001)	91.56±18.73	(.303)	69.65±12.37	(.001)
Grade	Freshmen	28.33±4.78^a	3.56	92.17±21.39	1.93	69.28±13.39^a	5.33
	Sophomores	29.60±5.10^b	(.014)	88.15±18.95	(.123)	69.55±12.63^a	(.001)
	Juniors	30.05±4.81^b	a＜b	89.99±19.96		73.61±14.26^b	a＜b
	Seniors	29.21±4.79		92.78±16.50		73.70±13.72^b
Economic status	Poor	28.44±4.90^a	9.67	95.65±21.90^a	4.54	68.97±14.26^a	4.41
	Moderate	29.32±4.78^a	(＜.001)	89.51±18.78^b	(.010)	71.94±13.39	(.013)
	Good	31.76±5.18^b	a＜b	90.48±17.38^b	a＞b	75.29±14.45^b	a＜b
Religion	Yes	29.34±4.63	-0.26	89.72±17.84	-0.83	78.48±14.08	9.23
Religion	No	29.45±5.04	(.793)	91.03±20.00	(.405)	68.34±12.16	(＜.001)
Place of residence	Alone	29.31±4.77	1.69	95.24±17.21^a	4.29	69.21±13.39^a	7.19
	Dormitory	29.77±5.03	(.185)	88.91±20.21^b	(.014)	73.90±13.81^b	(.001)
	With the family	29.02±4.79		90.69±18.74^b	a＞b	70.30±13.37^b	a＜b
Indirect death experience	Yes	29.58±4.92	1.39	91.94±18.53	2.77	71.31±13.86	-1.34
Indirect death experience	No	29.01±4.85	(.166)	87.47±20.68	(.006)	72.86±13.30	(.180)
Suicidal ideation	Yes	29.60±4.74	5.22	98.57±17.66	-4.03	67.37±12.98	-7.39
Suicidal ideation	No	30.06±4.71	(＜.001)	88.76±19.20	(＜.001)	72.78±13.68	(＜.001)
Total		29.41±4.90		90.59±19.30		71.77±13.70

a, b, c: Bonferroni t-test (means with the same le etter are not signifi cantly differen nt).

Table 3.

Correlation between Self-esteem, Death Anxiety and Spiritual Wellbeing (N=671)

Variables	Self-esteem	Death anxiety	Spiritual wellbeing
Variables	r (p)	r (p)	r (p)
Self-esteem		-.31 (＜.001)	.50 (＜.001)
Death anxiety			-.25 (＜.001)

TOOLS

Similar articles