The Analysis of Spiritual Well-Being and Sexual Attitude of Female High School Students

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1 Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 9(25), DOI: /ijst/2016/v9i25/97181, July 2016 ISSN (Print) : ISSN (Online) : The Analysis of Spiritual Well-Being and Sexual Attitude of Female High School Students Shinhong Min * and Soonyoung Yun Division of Health Science, Baekseok University, Korea; shmin@bu.ac.kr Abstract Background/Objectives: This research aims to find out how the spiritual of adolescents, especially female high school students, affect the establishment of proper sexual attitude. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Spiritual is for measuring the subjective state of spiritual, and is made up of two lower measures: the measure that gauges religious spiritual, the state of within the relationship with god, and existential spiritual, the state of focused on the meaning and goal of life. Sexual attitude is characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD), dating, sexual awareness and ethics. Findings: The total of spiritual wellbeing was 3.42±0.56, religious spiritual, which is the sense of within the relationship with god, stood at 3.12±0.77, and existential spiritual, which is the state of focused on the meaning and goal of life, was 3.73±0.55. The total score of sexual attitude stood at 3.61±0.33, and as for the sub-measures, characteristics of puberty at 3.89±0.59, knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD) at 3.51±0.50, dating at 4.08±0.69, and sexual awareness and ethics at 3.42±0.37. Spiritual has a positive relationship with the characteristics of puberty, and a negative relationship with dating. Among subcategories of spiritual, religious and dating had a negative relationship and existential had a positive relationship with sexual attitude, characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex, and sexual awareness and ethics. Application/Improvements: This study is expected to serve as base data for program development, when finding out the correlation between the level of adolescents spiritual and sexual attitude. Keywords: Female High School Students, Sexual Attitude, Spiritual Well-Being 1. Introduction Spirituality is the characteristics of spirit that is believe to reside in all human beings. It is the unifying power inside humans that incorporates physical, social, and psychological areas, and the power to set the meaning and goal of life and create a relationship with transcendental beings 1. According to 2, the higher the spiritual wellbeing, the better one keeps a positive attitude in a hard situation, the better one maintains inner harmony, peace, gratitude, and satisfaction, and the better one keeps supportive relationship with others. Spiritual can be defined as not only establishing a meaningful relationship with god, but setting the fundamental goal of life, and improving the ability to maximize one s own and other s potential through rich feelings of love and joy 3. In other words, spiritual is the states where the spirit is healthy, spirituality is expressed well so people can lead their own life toward their goal of life based on their values, maintain a satisfactory relationship with others and the absolute being, and live a satisfying life. In 4 divide spiritual into two types: Religious spiritual in perpendicular aspect and existential spiritual in horizontal aspect. Religious spiritual is achieved by creating a meaningful relationship with god and by believing that god is taking care of us. Existential spiritual is acquired by knowing the meaning and goal of life and by having satisfaction about life and secure feelings about the future. Especially, spirituality in adolescence tends to transcend oneself and help others, so it can be an important source in spending the teenage years successfully 5. Adolescents * Author for correspondence

2 The Analysis of Spiritual Well-Being and Sexual Attitude of Female High School Students of today are exposed to many personal and social dangers. In this situation, in order to realize the meaning and goal of life, persevere to fulfill them, and to grow up to be an independent civilian, they need to develop self-control, the ability to control themselves, and spirituality 6. One of the variables that have been studied in regard to teenager s religiousness is sexual behavior. As adolescence is a period when development of sexual behavior is conspicuous, the influence of religiousness on sexual impulse and sexual behavior has been an important topic. Adolescence is a period when the secreting glands of sex hormone mature, differences between opposite sex become conspicuous, and sexual energy is reactivated and focused. It is a time when teenagers start to have sexual interest so they start thinking about the opposite sex, dating, and having a spouse. Recently, along with the material affluence, physical development progresses quicker, and as puberty starts early, more children face sexual problems and concerns earlier than before 7. In the environment where incorrect information about sex abounds and indiscriminate sexual behavior spreads, many teenagers are put in trouble or seriously damaged 8. If the proper development of sexuality, one of the tasks in the growth and development of adolescence, is delayed or failed, instinctive impulse increases. Then, minor frustration of desire can cause problematic behavior and disorder in sexual development, or bring up pathological behavior that makes it hard to adjust to society. Though they are physically mature, teenagers cannot satisfy or express their sexual desire through sexual behavior due to social and cultural restriction, which raises conflicts and dissatisfaction. If strict instructions of religion or family form negative or repressive attitude toward sex, or inject the prejudice that sex is dirty and unseemly, teenagers will develop improper attitude toward sex and cannot achieve natural and normal sexual development. The attitude toward sex, which is established in teenage years, decides the sexual attitude for the rest of the life, and if healthy sexual behavior is formed in adolescence, it helps the mental health but otherwise, it can lead to frustration and sexually deviant behaviors 9. Sexual attitude based on the knowledge about sex is decided around adolescence, and it is predictable that this attitude would affect personality, sexual perspective before marriage, and sex life after marriage. Therefore, it is necessary to help teenagers get proper knowledge and attitude about sex so they can appropriately handle the problems and act responsibly regarding sex 10. As for the factors that affect adolescent s attitude and behavior toward premarital sex, the level of participation in religious meeting had an influence, and the students who view the religious values highly in their lives had less sexual experience and was less open toward premarital sex 7. Recently, many ways are presented to develop self-control, and judging from the similarity between spiritual and self-control, training spirituality may be a new way to develop selfcontrol. Also, considering that most religious people believe spiritual education can lead teenagers through an ethical life 6, it is worth investigating how much the spiritual can affect the establishment of proper sexual attitude. In this sense, this study aims to examine the spiritual and sexual attitude of adolescents, especially female high school students, and find out the relationship between the two. 2. Research Objects and Research Method 2.1 Research Objects The research objects were female high school students living in C area. The 178 students heard explanations about the purpose of this research and voluntarily agreed to participate. 180 questionnaires were handed out and collected, and excluding improperly answered 2 questionnaires, 178 of them (98.8%) were used for analysis. 2.2 Research Tool Spiritual Well-Being Spiritual was measured with a tool of 11, who modified the method of 12. This tool is for measuring the subjective state of spiritual, and is made up of two lower measures: The measure that gauges religious spiritual, the state of within the relationship with god, and existential spiritual, the state of focused on the meaning and goal of life. Religious contains 10 odd number questions and existential has 10 even number questions. They use Likert measure, which is scored from 1 to 5 with 1 being the lowest Sexual Attitude As for sexual attitude, the tool by 13 was used. It is a modification of the tools by 14,15 to make it applicable to high 2 Vol 9 (25) July Indian Journal of Science and Technology

3 Shinhong Min and Soonyoung Yun school students. It is made up of 25 questions in total: 5 about characteristics of puberty, 6 about knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD), 3 about dating, 11 about sexual awareness and ethics. The maximum score was 5 and questions were scored with 5 meaning always ; 4, often ; 3, sometimes ; 2, rarely ; and 1, never. Negative questions were calculated inversely, and higher score means more positive attitude. 2.3 Data Analysis For data analysis, SPSSWIN (ver. 18.0) program was used. For general characteristics of study objects, descriptive statistics was used, and the analysis of spiritual and sexual attitude based on general characteristics, ANOVA was used. The relationship between spiritual and sexual attitude was analyzed using the statistical technique, Pearson Correlation Coefficient. 3. Research Finding The general characteristics of study objects are shown in Table 1. As for school year, first graders are 30.3%, second graders 46.7% and third graders 23.0%, and as to religion, others including no religion stood at 50.0%, Christian at 27.5%, Buddhists at 12.4%, and Catholics 10.1%. Among 89 respondents who were religious, regarding participation in religious activities, 32.6% said they rarely participate, 28.1% answered they participate as a mere formality, 24.7% said generally faithfully, and 14.6% answered very earnestly. As to the health of the respondent, 47.2% answered generally healthy, 28.1% said very healthy, 21.96% answered average, and 2.8% said poor. Regarding academic performance, 78.6% said average, 12.4% said high, and 9.0% answered low. The spiritual and sexual attitude of the objects and the sub-measures are presented in Table 2. The total of spiritual was 3.42±0.56, religious spiritual, which is the sense of within the relationship with god, stood at 3.12±0.77, and existential spiritual, which is the state of focused on the meaning and goal of life, was 3.73±0.55. The total score of sexual attitude stood at 3.61±0.33, and as for the sub-measures, characteristics of puberty at 3.89±0.59, knowledge about sex (pregnancy, contraception, and STD) at 3.51±0.50, dating at 4.08±0.69, and sexual awareness and ethics at 3.42±0.37. Table 1. General characteristics of the subjects (N = 178) Characteristics Category N(%) Grade 1 54(30.3) 2 83(46.7) 3 41(23.0) Religion Protestant 49(27.5) Catholic 18(10.1) Buddhism 22(12.4) Others 89(50.0) Participation in religious Very earnestly 13(14.6) activities (N=89) Generally faithfully 22(24.7) Mere formality 25(28.1) Rarely participate 29(32.6) Health state Very healthy 50(28.1) Generally healthy 84(47.2) Average 39(21.9) Poor 5(2.8) Score High 22(12.4) Middle 140(78.6) Low 14(9.0) Table 2. Degree of spiritual and sexual attitude of the objects and the sub-measures (N = 178) Characteristics M±SD Spiritual 3.42±0.56 Religious spiritual 3.12±0.77 Existential spiritual 3.73±0.55 Sexual attitude 3.61±0.33 Characteristics of puberty 3.89±0.59 Knowledge about sex 3.51±0.50 Dating 4.08±0.69 Sexual awareness and ethics 3.42±0.37 The comparison between spiritual and sexual attitude based on general characteristics is shown in Table 3. First of all, spiritual was different depending on religion and the level of participation in religious activities, and sexual attitude showed statistical difference according to the level of academic performance. As for spiritual, Christian students showed higher level compared to Catholic, Buddhist, or other students, and those who participate in religious activities very earnestly marked higher than those who participate generally faithfully, as a mere formality, or rarely. As to sexual attitude, students whose academic performance was higher marked higher than those with low academic performance. Vol 9 (25) July Indian Journal of Science and Technology 3

4 The Analysis of Spiritual Well-Being and Sexual Attitude of Female High School Students Table 3. Comparison between spiritual and sexual attitude based on general characteristics (N = 178) Characteristics Category spiritual t/f p sexual attitude t/f p Grade ± ± ± ± ± ±0.28 Religion Protestant 3.94±0.44 < ± Catholic 3.45±0.46 (a>b, 3.62±0.33 Buddhism 3.19± a>c, 3.76±0.35 Others 3.19±0.44 a>d) 3.57±0.35 Participation in religious activities Very earnestly 4.43±0.4 < ± (N=89) Generally faithfully 3.87±0.36 (a>b, 3.66± Mere formality 3.46±0.32 a>c, 3.68±0.29 Rarely participate 3.32±0.57 a>d) 3.56±0.23 Health state Very healthy 3.44± ± Generally healthy 3.46± ± Average 3.36± ±0.31 Poor 3.12± ±0.26 Score high 3.60± ± (a>c) middle 3.39± ±0.33 low 3.49± ±0.25 Table 4. Correlation among Variables Spiritual Religious spiritual Existential spiritual The spiritual and sexual attitude of the objects and the sub-measures are presented in Table 4. Spiritual has a positive relationship with the characteristics of puberty, and a negative relationship with dating. Among subcategories of spiritual, religious and dating had a negative relationship and existential had a positive relationship with sexual attitude, characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex, and sexual awareness and ethics. Sexual attitude Characte-ristics of puberty 4. Discussion Knowle-dge about sex Dating Sexual awareness and ethics Spiritual **.775 ** * *.089 Religious spiritual.891 ** ** ** Existential spiritual.775 **.404 ** **.200 **.265 ** ** Sexual attitude ** **.703 **.544 **.805 ** Characte-ristics.180 * **.640 ** **.271 **.240 ** of puberty Knowledge about sex **.703 **.290 ** ** Dating * ** **.271 ** ** Sexual awareness and **.805 **.240 **.440 **.331 ** 1 ethics *p<0.05, **p<0.001 For adolescents, spiritual was higher when students had a religion, which corresponds to the research result of 16, who studied the influence of high schoolers spiritual on their sociality. In that research, the average level of spiritual, which put together religious spiritual and existential spiritual, stood at 3.28, a bit lower than the average 4 Vol 9 (25) July Indian Journal of Science and Technology

5 Shinhong Min and Soonyoung Yun level of this study, However, in a study conducted on college students about spiritual, life stress, depression and self-esteem 17, only on religious had religion an effect but on existential, there was no influence. It contradicts to the result of this study, where religion influenced existential more than religious. Regarding the difference in sexual attitude depending on general characteristics of adolescents, those with high scholastic performance scored higher than those with low performance, which was the same result as the study of 18. Also, adolescents spiritual showed meaningful difference depending on sex. Another research revealed that female adolescents had higher level of spiritual wellbeing and religious adolescents had higher level of spiritual than non-religious adolescents 17. A different result was drawn from a research conducted on middle schoolers 18, where students of different sexes showed no meaningful difference in their sexual attitude, so it could be concluded that there was a difference between middle school and high school students. This research was carried out only on female high school students so comparison between different sexes is not possible, but their level of spiritual seemed fairly high with the average score over 3. Regarding the difference in sexual attitude depending on the experience of dating, the group with dating experience showed higher level of spiritual. This corresponds with the study, which found male students with dating experience have more positive attitude, and the study, which examined the influence of parents affection that adolescents perceive on their sexual attitude. Adolescents sexual attitude is influenced by various factors and recently, the rapid development of internet and mass media has exposed teenagers to stimulating and provocative sexual culture, forming negative and distorted sexual awareness and attitude. The transition to information-oriented society raised the use of media including the internet throughout different age groups, but as the use of internet is more rapidly increasing among the 10s and 20s (Korea Network Information Center), adolescents are more likely to be exposed to harmful environment 19. Sexual ethics is the belief that sexual behavior should be based on mutual love, trust, and responsibility and higher the score means being more ethical. In a study conducted on high school students about adolescents sexual attitude and awareness of sexual violence 20, adolescent s sexual attitude tended to be low in most aspects, except for sexual ethics. That is, they have low level of sexual awareness and low interest in sex but high level of sexual ethics. In this test, however, respondents showed higher-than-average sexual attitude overall, which was again different from the study result of 21. Her study found that female students showed more positive and egalitarian sexual attitude and that they view sex negatively and have conservative tendency toward sex. Spiritual had a positive relationship with characteristics of puberty and a negative relationship with dating. Religious showed a negative relationship with dating. That is, the spiritual education of religious people are leading ethical life of adolescents and existential had a positive relationship with sexual attitude, characteristics of puberty, knowledge about sex, and sexual ethics. This indicates the necessity of proper sex education. Until now, sex education was mainly carried out only for adolescents. However, preceding studies show that when family and local community are involved in sex education, the effect is more positive and continuous 22. Adolescents sexual awareness and attitude are evolving fast along with the social awareness of sex, so sex education is an important task through which the older generation and adolescents can communicate. Therefore, educational fields including local community should approach adolescents sex with an active and open attitude through parents education, teacher training, and improvement of awareness of local residents. This study is expected to serve as base data for program development, when finding out the correlation between the level of adolescents spiritual and sexual attitude. 5. Acknowledgment This research was supported by Baekseok University in Korea. 6. References 1. Park SH. A study on the effect of the spiritual on the sociality of youth. Youth Facilities and Environment. 2011; 12(4): Voughan F. The inward arc: Healing and wholeness in psychotherapy and spirituality. Boston: New Science Library; Chapman LS. Spiritual health: A component missing from Vol 9 (25) July Indian Journal of Science and Technology 5

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