A Study Of Daily Spiritual Experiences And Stress
Among Youth Of Haryana State
Tanu Kukreja* Suma Chebiyyam **

ABSTRACT
Spirituality and religiousness are gaining attention as health research variables. This research is done to measure the relationship between daily spiritual experiences and stress level. When humans place their faith and belief in GOD, then they tend to relax and relieve their stress. Normative data from random sample of 75 students from a university campus in Haryana were collected.The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (Underwood, 2002) and Perceived stress scale (Cohen, 1983) were used to assess the Daily life spiritual experiences and stress respectively. It was hypothesized that Spirituality should be negatively correlated to stress but the present results show that Spiritual experiences and Stress are not significantly correlated.

Key words: Daily Spiritual Experience, Stress
Tanu Kukreja*
Lecturer
Amity University Haryana tkukreja@ggn.amity.edu; tanukukreja1986@gmail.com
Suma Chebiyyam**
Student
Amity University Haryana suma.chebiyyam@gmail.com Similar research has examined the relationship between spirituality and anxiety or stress. The symptoms commonly associated with anxiety can be emotional, intellectual, physical and/or social. These include feelings of shame, grief or aloneness; difficulty concentrating or an inability to learn new details; increased breathing and pulse rate, difficulty sleeping and problems with eating; social apprehension, isolation or withdrawal and irritability or unusual levels of aggression. In addition, Swinton argues that stress and anxiety can have spiritual symptoms, including: * a loss of meaning in life * obsessional religious thoughts and actions feelings of alienation and indifference loss of previous spiritual belief * no sense of the future fear of death * fear of the consequences of ‘sins’ or religiously-defined ‘bad’ behavior and/or an inability to focus on ‘God’ or to meditate8
Reviewing the past rersearches, there appears to be a growing belief in the connection between spirituality and health, scientists in this field feel that research should begin to focus on assessing the validity of this connection, a better understanding of why there is this connection, and how it works. There is also interesting research emerging that evaluates the impact of religion and spirituality (both the child's and the parents') on the health of children and adolescents.
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Spirituality has many benefits for stress relief and overall mental health. It can help one: * Feel a sense of purpose. Cultivating your spirituality may help uncover what's most meaningful in your life. By clarifying what's most important, you can focus less on the unimportant things and eliminate stress. * Connect to the world. The more you feel you have a purpose in the world, the less solitary you feel — even when you're alone. This can lead to a valuable inner peace during difficult times. * Release control. When you feel part of a greater whole, you realize that you aren't responsible for everything that happens in life. You can share the burden of tough times as well as the joys of life's blessings with those around you. * Expand your support network. Whether you find spirituality in a church, mosque or synagogue, in your family, or in walks with a friend through nature, this sharing of spiritual expression can help build relationships. * Lead a healthier life. People who consider themselves spiritual appear to be better able to cope with stress and heal from illness or addiction faster.
Spirituality means something different to everyone .For some, it’s about participating in organized religion, going to church
In a recent summary of spirituality and personality research, Simpson et al. (2007) conclude the research area is relatively new and much of the work to date is correlational. An example of a study that provides a randomized, controlled attempt to reduce stress in health professionals using passage meditation—a spiritual intervention called the Eight-Point Program (EPP)—found that the benefits of the intervention were greater for those who rated themselves as less spiritual than participants with higher spirituality ratings (Easwaran 1978/1991; Oman et al. 2006).They also conclude that future studies should exam potential physiological stress and disease markers associated with changes in spirituality using EPP.
The results of this study are also consistent with recent reports of research suggesting that individuals with lower and moderate levels of spirituality demonstrated greater stress and mental health benefits from a meditation-based spiritual intervention than highly spiritual participants (Oman et al.2006). Ludwig and Kabat-Zinn (2008)
Contrary to theoretical predictions, spirituality was associated to less distress and better quality of life regardless of perceived life threat (Laubmeier et. al, 2004).
Spirituality often becomes important throughout the course of the disease and its treatment as well as during the period of remission (Mickley and Soeken, 1993) and may be an important coping strategy for patients facing the various stressors associated with cancer as well as its potential life threat.
Stress is a multifaceted term that can be simplified to mean an event or situation that forces a person to adapt to the event. Stress is what happens from an event and the results from the reaction to that event within the person experiencing it. The amount of stress one feels depends upon the experiences of that person.
In particular, religiosity has been reported to serve as a coping strategy to help manage emotional distress (Koenig et al.,1992)
Furthermore, a growing body of research reveals a statistically significant, positive relationship between higher levels of reported spirituality, religiousness and better health (Oman et al. 2006).
Results from several studies indicate that people with strong religious and spiritual beliefs heal faster from surgery, are less anxious, stressed and depressed, have lower blood pressure, and cope better with chronic illnesses such as arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and spinal cord injury.
Some experts warn that religious beliefs can be harmful when they encourage excessive guilt, fear, and lowered self-worth. Similarly, physicians should avoid advocating for particular spiritual practices; this can be inappropriate, intrusive, and induce a feeling of guilt or even harm if the implication is that ill health is a result of insufficient faith. It is also important to note that spirituality does not guarantee health. Finally, there is the risk that people may substitute prayer for medical care or that spiritual practice could delay the receipt of necessary medical treatment.
Religious coping has been conceptualised as a mediator to account for the relationship between spirituality and mental health, particularly in times of stress. Pollner
OBJECTIVE

To study the correlation between Daily spiritual experience and Stress.
HYPOTHESIS
Daily Spiritual experience should be highly negatively correlated to stress.

METHODOLOGY
SAMPLE
A sample of 76 students residing in Haryana was collected. Only the students of undergraduate programs were considered for this test. Keeping gender in mind, half of the students were females and the other half males. All students were selected on random basis. Each student was given a questionnaire and was asked to carefully read each question and tick the option that suited him or her best.
TOOLS USED
PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE
The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) given by Cohen(1983) is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress.PSS is a 10 Item likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4(very often) the possible range of scores for the total index is 0 to 40, where higher score represents higher stress. These items were designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives. The scale also includes a number of direct queries about current levels of experienced stress. The PSS was designed for use in community samples with at least a junior high school education. The items are easy to understand, and the response alternatives are simple to grasp. Moreover, the questions are of a general nature and hence are relatively free of content specific to any subpopulation group. The questions in the PSS ask about feelings and thoughts during the last month. In each case, respondents are asked how often they felt a certain way.
Validity
Evidence for Validity: Higher PSS scores were associated with (for example):
· failure to quit smoking
· failure among diabetics to control blood sugar levels
· greater vulnerability to stressful life-event-elicited depressive symptoms
· more colds
DAILY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE SCALE
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) was developed by Dr.Lynn G. Underwood and Jeanne A. Teresi(DATE) is used to measure spirituality. The DSES isa 16-item Likert scale ranging from 1 (many times a day) to 6 (never or almost never) ; the possible range of scores for the total index is 16 to 94, with higher scores representing lower spirituality. This self-report measure is designed to assess ordinary experiences of connection with the transcendent in daily life. It includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent and compassionate love. It also includes measures of awareness of discernment/inspiration and a sense of deep inner peace. Interrater reliability is not a concern for most applications of the DSES because it is usually self-administered however if administered by an interviewer,the reliability coefficients were adequate, ranging from .64 to .78.
Internal consistency reliability estimates with Cronbach’s alpha were very high, .94 and .95 for the 16 item version of the scale. VALIDITY,

PROCEDURE
All the participants were invited to complete a self- administered questionnaire which included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress and the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES). Clear instructions were given on the questionnaires and informed consent was sought. Participants were assured that the information they provided would be kept strictly confidential and used for research purposes only.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Table A representing Descriptive Statistics | N | MEAN | STANDARD DEVIATION | DAILY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE | 76 | 44.98 | 13.84 | STRESS | 76 | 19.30 | 5.13 |

TABLE B representing Correlation table | STRESS | DAILY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE | .05 |

The result of the study does not provide support for our hypothesis.
Lower the score in DSES, higher the spirituality and vice-versa. The lowest score i.e. 16 would mean that the subject is highly spiritual .The highest score of 94 would mean that the subject is least spiritual. Similarly a score of 0 in Perceived stress test would mean that the subject is not at all stressed, whereas the highest score of 40 would mean that the subject is highly stressed.
Pearson Product moment Correlation value for DSE and Stress is .o5 which shows that the value is not significant. The results have nullified the Hypothesis that Daily Spiritual Experience should be highly negatively correlated to stress.

CONCLUSION
The results of this study indicate that individuals with lower and moderate levels of spirituality do not necessarily have to demonstrate greater stress and mental health.

REFERENCES

Kimberly K. Laubmeier, Sandra G. Zakowski, and John P. Bair.The Role of Spirituality in the Psychological Adjustment to Cancer: A Test of the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping.International Journal of Behavioral Medicine ,2004, Vol. 11, No. 1, 48–55.
Simpson, D. B., Newman, J. L., & Fuqua, D. R. (2007). Spirituality and personality: Accumulating evidence. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 26(1), 35–44.
Easwaran, E. (1991). Meditation: A simple eight-point program for translating spiritual ideals into daily life (2nd ed.). Tomales, CA: Nilgiri Press. (Original work published 1978).
Oman,D., Hedberg, J., &Thoresen, C. E. (2006). Passage meditation reduces perceived stress in health professionals: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(4), 714–719.
Oman, D., Hedberg, J., &Thoresen, C. E. (2006). Passage meditation reduces perceived stress in health professionals: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(4), 714–719. Ludwig, D. S., &Kabat-Zinn, J. (2008).Mindfulness in medicine.Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(11), 1350– 1352.
Mickley, J., &Soeken, K. (1993). Religiousness and hope in Hispanic and Anglo-American women with breast cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum, 20, 1171–1177.
Koenig, H., Cohen, H., Blazer, D., Pieper, D., Meador, K., Shelp, F.,et al. (1992). Religious coping and depression among elderlyhospitalized medically ill men. American Journal of Psychiatry, 12, 1693–1700.
Oman, D., Hedberg, J., &Thoresen, C. E. (2006). Passage meditation reduces perceived stress in health professionals: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(4), 714–719.
Pollner, M., 1989, Divine relations, social relations, and well-being: Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, v. 30, p. 92-104.
Steven D. Ehrlich, NMD, Solutions Acupuncture, a private practice specializing in complementary and alternative medicine, Phoenix, AZ. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.