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ABSTRACT
In this study, the impacts of service learning (SL) on the spiritual well-being and psychological health of Chinese university students in Hong Kong are determined. The SL programme is a six-month, credit-bearing programme (not less than 80 working hours). The study adopted a pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental design, wherein students enrolled in SL comprised the experimental group (n = 132; 59 male, 73 female), and those who were not enrolled in SL comprised the control group (n = 128; 55 male, 73 female). The students completed the spiritual well-being questionnaire (SWBQ) to evaluate the status of their spiritual well-being (including the personal and communal, environmental, and transcendental domains), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to assess their emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress before and after the SL programme. At pre-test, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in SWBQ and DASS-21 scores. Findings indicated that students in the experimental group had greater increases in spiritual well-being in personal and communal, environmental and transcendental domains and decreases in stress, anxiety and depression than those in the control group at the end of the SL programme.
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Notes on contributors
Hok-Ko Pong
Hok-Ko Pong is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Management and Hospitality, Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. He has taught various subjects in higher education for nearly 17 years. His research interests include accounting education, life and value education, business education, spirituality and holistic education.