The relationship between spiritual intelligence, resilience, and well-being in an Aotearoa New Zealand sample

ABSTRACT

Existing research highlights adaptive applications of spiritual intelligence, specifically its relationship to positive well-being and quality of life. Limited studies have examined its applicability within secular Western contexts. Two-hundred and fourteen New Zealand university students completed a questionnaire measuring their spiritual intelligence, resilience, and several aspects of wellbeing. Results revealed that spiritual intelligence was significantly associated with increased resilience and reduced feelings of depression and stress, but not anxiety. However, the relationship between spiritual intelligence scores and combined depression, anxiety, and stress scores was fully mediated by resilience scores, suggesting that spiritual intelligence per se may not directly affect wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Spirituality
• spiritual intelligence
• mental health
• depression
• anxiety
• stress
• resilience
• well-being

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19349637.2022.2086840

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.