To better understand the influence of religiosity and spirituality on moral reasoning, 1,037 college students completed a survey including demographic questions, a religiosity measure, a spirituality measure, and Forsyth's Ethical Position Questionnaire. Religiosity and spirituality positively correlated with moral idealism, whereas spirituality negatively correlated with moral relativism. However, religiosity and spirituality accounted for a very little variability in moral reasoning, suggesting that they do not directly influence moral reasoning. In addition, female participants reported higher spirituality, but there were no gender (...) differences on a spirituality measure. Future research is needed to examine other factors that may influence moral reasoning. (shrink)

Background and Objectives: Death and life after death are undoubtedly one of the most important issues in all divine religions. Death is perceived as a threat by many people because of its highly ambiguous significance. Anxiety and fear of death are common among all cultures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness in predicting death anxiety in the students of Zahedan Faculty of Nursing. Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, the study population consisted (...) of all students of Nursing Faculty of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2017-2018. In order to collect data, a sample of 260 people was selected based on Morgan’s table using stratified random sampling. The instruments used to collect data were the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory developed by King (2008), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale developed by Brown and Ryan (2003), and the Death Anxiety Scale developed by Templers and Ruff (1971). For data analysis, descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation, and also multivariate regression analysis in the SPSS version 21 were used, and P<0.05 was considered significance level. Results: The results showed that correlation coefficients of spiritual intelligence and all its components (r=-0.623, P<0.001), and mindfulness (r=-0.649, P<0.001) with death anxiety were negative and significant (P<0.001). In addition, the components of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness negatively predicted death anxiety. Conclusion: The results indicate the importance of spiritual intelligence and mindfulness in reducing death anxiety; therefore, it represents new horizons in clinical interventions and can be used as an effective intervention. (shrink)

Background and Objectives: Spiritual intelligence makes a major contribution to people’s health and well-being. Since religion is considered as an enriched context for Muslim communities, which can provide them with spiritual experiences, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire in order to assess spiritual intelligence among people in these communities. Methods: In this study, 10 components derived from the literature were examined using Islamic texts and interviews with Islamic scholars. Applying the expert opinion method, the (...) items of interest were made. The developed questionnaire was then administered on a sample of 350 students from Tehran University and seminaries in Tehran selected by stratified sampling to establish its factor structure, validity, and reliability. Results: Nine items were omitted in the preliminary conduction of the questionnaire. Following the explanatory factor analysis, six more questions were also eliminated due to their factor loadings being less than the critical value of 0.3. The Scree plot revealed that the factor structure of the questionnaire consisted of five main components which determined 36.99 percent of the total variance. Moreover, the Cronbach’s Alpha was obtained to be 0.92 which showed a proper internal consistency. Using King’s SISCI-24 questionnaire, the concurrent validity was also deemed relatively acceptable. Conclusion: The main strength of this study was the development of a contextually competent instrument to assess spiritual intelligence among Muslim people. This questionnaire instrument showed relatively acceptable reliability and validity, and can be used in future research, especially in health sciences, among the population of interest. (shrink)