The Relationship between Spiritual Health and Academic Achievement

Investigating the relationship between spiritual health and academic performance can help educational authorities bridge the gap between academics and spirituality at universities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between spiritual health and academic achievement of medical students at Shahid University of Medical Sciences.

In this study, 300 medical students of Shahid University were randomly selected in 2018. The data collection tools consisted of a three-part questionnaire for demographic information, spiritual health and self-regulation in learning. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were evaluated at the beginning of the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Spearman correlations after entering the data SPSS v.18 software.

Finally, 275 students completed the relevant questionnaires. The mean score of spiritual health, self-regulation in learning and the grade point average (GPA) of the students were 92.97 ± 17.12, 97.95 ± 15.28 and 16.21 ± 3.1 respectively. Based on the results of this study, there was a positive and significant correlation between the 3 components of the score, the total score of spiritual health and the total self-regulation score in learning. Also, there was a significant correlation between the total score of spiritual health with gender and parent's educational level.

Based on the results of this study, students with higher levels of GPA and higher academic performance had higher spiritual health.