Developing a Causal Model of University Educational-Research Environment, Spiritual Health and Students’ Self-Esteem in Medical Education Curricula

Numerous factors play a role in the quality of university environment in different educational and research aspects. Researchers have explained these factors from different perspectives. Achieving these factors facilitates improvement of universities in various areas. Universities are then compelled to design and implement effective educational courses for students and reflect their findings about effective curricula.

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between educational-research environment of the university and students’ self-esteem considering the mediating role of spiritual health in medical education curricula.

The statistical population consists of all the students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, of whom 211 students were selected by stratified random sampling. Research tools included educational-research environment of university questionnaire, spiritual health questionnaire and self-esteem questionnaire.

The results indicated that components of educational-research environment of the university have a significant effect on students’ self-esteem and students’ spiritual health. The findings also showed that educational-research environment of the university and spiritual health have a significant effect on students’ self-esteem, and predicted 33% of the total variance of students’ spiritual health. Finally, spiritual health plays a major mediating role between students’ self-esteem and variables of infrastructures and facilities.

Therefore, higher education curricula must be designed, developed and most importantly implemented such that learning the content of the curricula in the higher education environment helps students find meaning and purpose in life, gain a deep understanding of life values and strive to attain humanity, nobility and wisdom.