Spirituality as a Moderator of the Impact of Marital Adjustment on Mental Health

Description

Page: 24-29

Arti Goley¹ and Snehlata Jaswal¹
(Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut, Uttar Pradesh¹ and Department of Psychology, School of Human Sciences, Sikkim University, Sikkim²)

Mental health is a state of well-being whereby every individual not only copes with the normal stresses of life but also works productively and fruitfully. A key factor in mental health is marital adjustment, which is an overall feeling of happiness and satisfaction in spouses with the marriage and each other. In a good marriage, the husband and wife agree on the chief concerns of marriage. Among these basic issues is the spirituality of both partners. Spirituality implies a meaningful existence and includes a sense of connection to something bigger than oneself. In recent years there has been an escalating interest in the role of spirituality in mental health. The main purpose of this empirical research was to test whether spirituality influences the relationship between marital adjustment and mental health. Three separate questionnaires were used to assess the three variables under study, viz., mental health, marital adjustment, and spirituality. The results showed positive relationships among all the three variables. Path analyses revealed that marital adjustment directly influenced mental health and most of its dimensions. More importantly, spirituality was a significant positive moderator as it enhanced the effect of marital adjustment on mental health.