Religious Participation, Subjective Happiness, and Purpose in Life as Predictors of Psychological Resilience among College Students at a Faith-Based Institution in the United States
type: CreativeWork
description: Problem During the transition from adolescence to adulthood, also known as emerging adulthood, many college students experience psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, stress, and loneliness (Arnett & Tanner, 2009; DeRosier et al., 2013). For some students, their psychological distress will impact how they perform academically and whether they will persist in their academic goals (Hartley, 2012; Robbins et al., 2018). Many students lack the resilience needed to survive and thrive amid the challenges of college life (Lane, 2020; McLafferty et al., 2022; Watkins et al., 2012). -- Resilience is considered an essential psychological characteristic to assist students in navigating the demands of academia, which includes making academic progress while coping with the stressors of study, work, and life (Caruana et al., 2014). Various studies have been conducted on factors that predict resilience in college students (Gupta & Kumar, 2015a; Hartley, 2013; Lane, 2020). However, gaps in the literature prompted this examination of how religious participation, subjective happiness, and purpose in life, individually and cumulatively, promote resilience in college students at a faith-based institution. Methodology A non-experimental quantitative research design was used for this quantitative retrospective cohort study. A theoretical model based on resilience theory and previous studies was developed to determine the relationship between religious participation, subjective happiness, purpose in life, and resilience. A correlation design for the data analysis was adopted to demonstrate if any relationship(s) exists between the variables, variance, and correlative variances. The research hypothesis specified that these three variables significantly predicted resilience in college students. These variables were measurable, and data was collected in 2023 in the administration of the Health Risk and Protective Factors Survey, conducted every 5 years since 1995 by the Institu…
abstract: Problem During the transition from adolescence to adulthood, also known as emerging adulthood, many college students experience psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, stress, and loneliness (Arnett & Tanner, 2009; DeRosier et al., 2013). For some students, their psychological distress will impact how they perform academically and whether they will persist in their academic goals (Hartley, 2012; Robbins et al., 2018). Many students lack the resilience needed to survive and thrive amid the challenges of college life (Lane, 2020; McLafferty et al., 2022; Watkins et al., 2012). -- Resilience is considered an essential psychological characteristic to assist students in navigating the demands of academia, which includes making academic progress while coping with the stressors of study, work, and life (Caruana et al., 2014). Various studies have been conducted on factors that predict resilience in college students (Gupta & Kumar, 2015a; Hartley, 2013; Lane, 2020). However, gaps in the literature prompted this examination of how religious participation, subjective happiness, and purpose in life, individually and cumulatively, promote resilience in college students at a faith-based institution. Methodology A non-experimental quantitative research design was used for this quantitative retrospective cohort study. A theoretical model based on resilience theory and previous studies was developed to determine the relationship between religious participation, subjective happiness, purpose in life, and resilience. A correlation design for the data analysis was adopted to demonstrate if any relationship(s) exists between the variables, variance, and correlative variances. The research hypothesis specified that these three variables significantly predicted resilience in college students. These variables were measurable, and data was collected in 2023 in the administration of the Health Risk and Protective Factors Survey, conducted every 5 years since 1995 by the Institu…
author: Oliver, Elaine Powell
keywords: College Students; Resilience; Religious Participation; Purpose; Happiness, Educational Psychology, Psychology
date published: 2025-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:54:19Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University