Despina Sapountzi-Krepia

Religious and spiritual beliefs, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression among nursing students.

Research of the role of religious belief and/or spirituality has been conducted on a wide range of health-related topics, across many disciplines, and in many countries. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between religious beliefs, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression in nursing students in Cyprus. One hundred and twenty-three nursing students were asked to complete a survey consisting of four self-report questionnaires (Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, The Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs, and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale). The lowest levels of depression were observed in the third and fourth study year. Normal self-esteem levels were found in the majority of the students (71.3%) and most of them perceived current stress at mild levels. No significant differences on the basis of sex were observed. The vast majority (98.2%) of the students stated a strong religious and/or a spiritual belief that was strongly positively correlated with increased self-esteem and negatively correlated with depression, current stress, and stress as personality trait.

Fathers’ Feelings and Experience Related to their Wife/Partner’s Delivery in Northern Greece

Objectives: The study aims at exploring the feelings and the experience of fathers about their wife/partner’s delivery. Background: During the last decades birth attendance by fathers is a common phenomenon across many countries. Fathers’ birth attendance may evoke both positive and negative feelings. Methodology: The study was conducted in a city of Northern Greece. The sample consisted of 417 fathers whose wife/partner had given birth during the previous one week to one year. Data were collected using the Kuopio Instrument for Fathers (KIF). Results: Father’s feelings about their wife or partner were very positive as nearly all (82.1%) of the participants were proud to become fathers and agree that they felt love and were grateful to their wife/partner. However, half of the fathers felt anxious and nervous. 40.7% quite agree that the staff was very professional, that they trusted the staff (45%) and that they were grateful to the staff (38.8%). There is correlation between the “feelings related to the wife/partner” and education (r=0.156, p=0.0047), “being afraid during the preparatory visit at the obstetric hospital” (r=-0.238, p=0.009), and “anxiety during the preparatory visit” (r=0.295 p=0.005). The subscale “feelings related to the environment and staff” correlates with “usefulness of preparatory visit” (r=-0.223, p=0.004) and the subscale of “experiences related to delivery” correlates with “usefulness of preparatory visit” (r=-0.357, p=0.001). Conclusions: Our results support the findings of previous studies, which indicated that birth attendance by fathers has evoked positive feelings about their wife/partner, the delivery, the staff and the hospital environment.

Validation and test-retest reliability of the Royal Free Interview for Spiritual and Religious Beliefs when adapted to a Greek population

BackgroundThe self-report version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs has been confirmed as a valid and reliable scale, assessing the manner and nature in which spiritual beliefs are expressed. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the test-retest reliability and psychometric properties of the Greek version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs.MethodsA total of 209 persons (77 men and 132 women) with a mean age of 28.33 ± 9.44 years participated in the study (test group). We subsequently approached 139 participants of the test group with a mean age of 28.93 ± 9.60 years, who were asked to complete the Royal Free Questionnaire a second time two weeks later (retest group).ResultsThe vast majority of participants (58.9%) reported both a religious and a spiritual belief, compared to 52 (25.1%) who told of a religious belief only. The internal consistency of the spiritual scale for the test group proved to be good, as standardized inter-item reliability / Cronbachs alpha was 0.83. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.51 to 0.73. They indicated very good levels of differentiation, thus showing that the questions were appropriate. Internal consistency of the spiritual scale for the retest group proved as good as for the test group. Standardized inter-item reliability / Cronbachs alpha was 0.84. Item-total correlations ranged from 0.52 to 0.75. The Pearson correlation coefficient for the total test-retest score of the spiritual scale was 0.754 (p < 0.001).ConclusionThe Greek version of the Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs is reliable and thus suitable for use in Greece.

Depression and anxiety among nursing students in Greece

Majority of the students (71.8%) perceived stress, most ofthem in mild levels (31.8%). About 12,4% reported veryhigh levels of stress. The mean scores of state anxiety were41, 45, 37.5 and 41, of trait anxiety 40.5, 41, 44, 42 andof depression 12, 13, 13, 9 for the four years respectively.Depressive symptoms were reported by 52,4% of the sam-ple and high depressive symptoms by 4,7%. The averageGHQ score was 5, 6, 5 and 4. The factor analysis of GHQshowed that “severe depression” and “somatic symp-toms” were the primary and secondary factor causingstress. A positive relationship between anxiety, depressionand mental stress was found.

Exploring Religiosity, Self-Esteem, Stress, and Depression Among Students of a Cypriot University

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between Religiosity, Self-esteem, Stress, and Depression among nursing students, social work students, and early-education students of a Cypriot University. The data were collected using four questionnaires. The results indicate a significant positive association between Depression and Stress. Greater levels of Self-esteem were found to be associated with lower depression levels in correlation analysis, while strength of Religious and Spiritual Beliefs was correlated negatively with depression. The results of the current study highlight the need for early intervention in order to promote students mental well-being.

PW01-106 - Evaluation of the effect of religiosity on mental health of nursing students in northern Greece

Introduction Religious and spiritual beliefs are widely recognized as important components of human wellness, of health care outcomes and of holistic medical and nursing care. There are controversial data suggesting a correlation between religiosity and mental health disorders among young adults and students. Aim of the study was to determine the association between self-esteem, depression and religious and spiritual beliefs among nursing students in Thessaloniki, Greece. Methods A total of 122 students agreed to participate in the study. Data was collected using the Greek versions of three self-administered, structured, pre-tested questionnaires: I) The Royal Free Interview for Religious and Spiritual Beliefs II) Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) and III) Rosenberg self-esteem scale. Results Self-esteem was found normal in 89,3% of the students, low in 10,7%, but it is important to notice that nobody reported high self-esteem levels. The vast majority of the students (61,5%) reported both religious and spiritual beliefs. 27% reported only religious beliefs and 9% only spiritual beliefs. 31,9% of the students perceived depressive symptoms, most of them in mild levels (19,5%). Praying, religious reading and religious attendance were associated with normal self-esteem and low depressive symptoms. However, a consistent negative correlation was found between intrinsic religiosity and depression. Discussion These findings indicate that religious and spiritual variables influence the psychological well-being of students. Religiosity may have a protective role against depression; however, our study sample is relative small and further studies are required in order to evaluate the effect of religious beliefs on the mental health of students.