Paths from Spiritual Support to College Self-Efficacy in Southeastern Christian and Southeastern Public University Students

Abstract

Using a modified portion of Lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction, this study assessed the role spiritual models play in Southeastern Christian university students’ and Southeastern public university students’ traits of spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, and the associations these traits had with college self-efficacy. Additionally, this study proposed perspective-taking as a moderator of the association between environmental support from spiritual models and spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, such that college students high in perspective-taking would understand and internalize traits of models rather than only imitating the spiritual practices of the model. Participants (n = 384) in this one-time survey study were recruited from a Southeaster Christian university and a Southeastern public university. Results of the paths show spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope mediated the association between environmental support from spiritual models and college self-efficacy, but perspective-taking did not moderate associations from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediators. These findings supported the modified portion of Lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction which states that environmental support, including support given by spiritual models, enhanced the development of healthy traits such as spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope. In turn, the healthy traits were associated with increased college self-efficacy.