Locale and gender as determinants of spiritual intelligence

Pages: 814-818
Savita Rathour and Tejpreet Kaur Kang (Department of Human Development, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab)

Spiritual intelligence is the mental capacity of an individual that makes an individual aware of self and transcendental aspect of one’s existence, enhance meaning of self and helps to mastery the spiritual state. The adolescence period is the best time to develop positive emotions and skills, because adolescents are seeking to find their identity and their future personality at this period. Spiritual intelligence has a significant influence on the quality of life and it goes without saying that adolescence is a sensitive period which requires specific training to make a brighter future and be exposed to the difficulties. The present investigation aimed to explore the levels of spiritual intelligence among male and female adolescents and its association with selected socio personal factors. The sample comprised of 400 college going adolescents (equally distributed over locale & gender; 200 rural & 200 urban; 200 males & 200 females) in the age range of 18-20 years belonging to intact families. The sample was randomly drawn from government and private colleges of rural and urban Ludhiana. The Roqan Spiritual Intelligence Test by Zanuddin and Ahmed was used to assess the spiritual intelligence of the respondents. It comprised 78 items distributed over six dimensions. The results of the study revealed that locale wise, there was no significant difference among adolescents while, gender wise analysis revealed significant difference in dimensions of interself, spiritual actualization and value orientation. Female adolescents were found to be more inclined towards spirituality in comparison to male adolescents. It was also found that gender was significantly associated with interself and biostoria dimensions.