TITLE:
The Prevalence of Psychosomatic Symptoms and Spirituality Levels among University Students in South Jordan
AUTHORS:
Hani A. Nawafleh, Lourance A. Al Hadid, Muwafaq M. Al Momani, Ahmad M. Al Sayeh
KEYWORDS:
Spirituality, Mental Health, Students, Psychosomatic, Jordan
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.10 No.1,
January
25,
2018
ABSTRACT: Psychosomatic symptoms are present in various stages of life. University students have also manifested such symptoms, which were also found to be linked to the level of spirituality affecting physical and psychological well-being. This study aims to examine whether spirituality can predict the presence of psychosomatic symptoms by investigating the relationship between the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms and the level of spirituality among university students in South Jordan. An exploratory cross-sectional design involving convenience samples and self-administered questionnaires using the twelveitem general health questionnaire including spirituality-based items were used to collect data for this study. A total of 1269 completed the study questionnaire. Students’ responses indicated various psychosomatic symptoms causing issues to better academic achievement, including students’ feeling of uselessness, followed by their lack of happiness, inability to make decisions and solve problems, and lack of concentration on what they are doing. They considered spirituality as an important part of their life. Lower scores on general health questionnaire were observed to have higher scores on spirituality items indicating that students with better spirituality practices have less psychological symptoms. Based on the findings of this study, the level of spirituality influences the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms. Conducting educational programs to improve the spiritual well-being of students could be beneficial. Further, it is important that students’ affairs board at the university perform proper assessment and interventions to improve the spirituality level to decrease the impact of psychosomatic symptoms among students.