Effect of Daily Spiritual Experience on Corona Anxiety and Mental

Wellbeing of Social Workers in the United Kingdom

Sheeba Joseph, Richi Simon, Rutwik Gandhe and Tanuja Khan

The Bhopal School of Social Sciences, India

rutwikgande@bsssbhopal.edu.in, tanujakhan@bsssbhopal.edu.in

Keywords: Mental Well-Being, Daily Spiritual Experience, Corona Anxiety, Age, Gender.

Abstract: The study focused to explore the association of Daily Spiritual Experience with the Mental well-being and

Corona Anxiety of social workers in the United Kingdom. The research also tried to explore whether age,

profession, and gender play a substantial role in the mental well-being, Daily Spiritual Experience, and Corona

Anxiety of the respondents. The study is exploratory and cross-sectional in nature. The researcher

administered Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale

(WEMWBS)and Corona Anxiety Scale. Post reliability and validity tests, established scales are used to study

the variable in the research. The data was analysed using Smart PLS SEM 3.3.2 and SPSS Statistics 21. The

respondents include a cohort of 112 respondents who gave consent to be part of the study hailed from India

to the United Kingdom. The research report shows an association between the gender of the respondents and

corona anxiety, daily Spiritual Experience, and mental well-being. The study evinces an association between

age and corona anxiety, Daily Spiritual Experience, and Mental well-being. Also, a significant association is

reported between daily spiritual well-being and corona anxiety. This research also helps to demonstrate how

important spiritual values are to control corona anxiety among the respondents.

1 INTRODUCTION

The first case of the novel coronavirus disease 2019

(COVID-19) was diagnosed in December 2019 and

has swept the world and inspired global action. This

has led to unprecedented efforts to establish physical

distancing practices (called "social distancing" in

most cases) in countries around the world, leading to

changes in national behavior patterns and the

shutdown of day-to-day operations. Although these

steps can slow the spread of this disease, indubitably

it will have short and term consequences on the

mental health and well-being of the individuals.

These consequences are very important and

immediate preventive and direct intervention

measures are needed to address the impact of the

epidemic on the mental health of individuals and

populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to

notice the various mental health issues of affected

populations(Hernández-Torrano et al., 2020).

Spirituality is a universally recognized concept

that involves belief in and obedience to the full power

commonly referred to as God, who controls the

destiny of the universe and mankind. It involves how

people achieve what they think is the purpose of their

life, seeking the meaning of life and a sense of

connection with the universe. The universality of

spirituality runs through creed and culture (Liu et al.,

2021). At the same time, spirituality is very personal,

and each person is unique. It is the sacred realm of

human experience. Spirituality produces qualities in

people such as love, honesty, patience, tolerance,

compassion, detachment, faith, and hope. In view of

the various data available, the present research tries to

find the association between Corona anxiety, daily

spiritual experience, and mental well-being of the

Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom.

1.1 Spiritual Experience and Mental

Wellbeing

Spirituality, is a source of comfort and support that

implants the idea of a sense of belonging and

existential interconnectedness, promoting mental

health. In the literature, the intonation has been placed

on the association that exists between spirituality and

greater perception of well-being, and physical and

mental health. A particularly important aspect is

896

Joseph, S., Simon, R., Gandhe, R. and Khan, T.

Effect of Daily Spiritual Experience on Corona Anxiety and Mental Wellbeing of Social Workers in the United Kingdom.

DOI: 10.5220/0012523400003792

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 896-902

ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3

related to coping, or the function performed by

spiritual well-being in the management of stressful

events. Spiritual coping could be stated as cognitive

and behavioral efforts to discover or maintain

meaning, purpose, and connection at the time of

difficult situations and crises. Furthermore, some

authors over the years have argued that faith and

spirituality could also be perceived as a source of

resilience from physical, psychological and mental

points of view (Arslan et al., 2022).

Spiritual well-being is also defined as a state that

ties the mind and body of the individual, society,

intelligence, and health, supporting the individual in

his/her attitudes and life goals. Spiritual well-being

includes both psycho-social dimensions and more

than a religious dimension, a unifying force that aims

to integrate the physical, emotional, and social

dimensions of health and well-being. Psychological

well-being is fundamentally an evaluation of one’s

life, that includes an assessment of life satisfaction

and mood or emotions. Emotional well-being and

cognitive well-being are the two components of

psychological well-being. Emotional well-being is

defined as the occurrence of experiencing positive

emotions by individuals more, as compared to that of

negative emotions while cognitive well-being is

defined as a general evaluation of the life satisfaction

of an individual (Morton et al., 2020).

Spirituality is also seen as a more intimate

dimension, a larger construct, an individual effort to

discover the sacred or meaning of life without

confessional constraints. Further, the dimension of

spirituality is vital for humanity, as it contains

philosophical aspects, religious and cultural beliefs,

and practices. Therefore, the full integration of

physical, mental, social, and spiritual aspects of life

endorses peace of mind and creates a sense of

wholeness and well-being. It has been reported in the

media regarding the information about the treatment

for this virus, suggesting engagement in spiritual and

religious practices such as visiting churches and

offering prayers in mosques can protect people from

the virus. Spiritual coping is the cognitive and

behavioral efforts that one places in order to find or

maintain meaning, purpose, and connection upon the

emergence of a difficult situation. Furthermore, some

authors over the years have argued that faith and

spirituality can also be perceived as a source of

resilience both from a physical, psychological, and

mental point of view (Folke et al., 2010).

1.2 Corona Anxiety and Mental

Wellbeing

Corona has taken a toll on the mental well-being of

every individual. Contributory to recent literature

reviews regarding the psychosocial impact of

previous epidemics, done by researchers stated that

fears, anxieties, and depression were common

psychological symptoms. The research established a

link between deteriorating mental health and the

COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Previous

studies support the idea that religion, spirituality, and

health have grown exclusively over recent decades.

Basic religiosity measures are associated with

positive mental and bodily health outcomes. In

addition to this, the majority of the studies (72%)

have shown a positive relationship between health

and religion, and only sixteen percent have reported a

negative opinion.

With this backdrop, the research started with three

objectives

● To ascertain the association between age on

corona anxiety, daily spiritual experience,

and mental well being

● To examine the association between gender

on corona anxiety, daily spiritual

experience, and mental well being

● To find the association between employment

status on corona anxiety, daily spiritual

experiences, and mental well being

● To find whether any association exists

between corona anxiety, spiritual experience

and mental well being

1.3 Hypotheses

H1 - Age affects Corona Anxiety, Daily Spiritual

experiences and Mental well being

H2- Gender affects Corona Anxiety, Daily

Spiritual experiences and Mental well being

H3-Daily Spiritual experience is associated with

corona anxiety

H4- Daily Spiritual experience is associated with

mental well being

H5 - Mental well-being is associated with corona

anxiety.

2 RESEARCH METHODS

The data were collected through Google forms from

social workers in the United Kingdom and who gave

Effect of Daily Spiritual Experience on Corona Anxiety and Mental Wellbeing of Social Workers in the United Kingdom

897

consent to be a part of the study. The reason behind

selecting the Indians in the United Kingdom was

based on the accessibility to reach out to the

respondents through google based

questionnaire. Snowball sampling was used to invite

respondents to complete the questionnaires from the

first week of September to the last week of November

2021. The researcher received 115 responses and

excluding the invalid and repeated entries 112

samples were analysed using PLS-SEM 3.3.2 and

SPSS Statistics.

2.1 Tools and Data

Standardized tools for Mental well-being and Daily

Spiritual Experience were adopted and administered.

The tool comprised of four sections namely

Demographic Details, Mental Well-being, Daily

Spiritual Experience, and Corona Anxiety (CAS)

used to manage the life situation during the pandemic.

The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES)

(Underwood, 2011)is a 16-item self-report measure

designed to assess ordinary experiences of connection

with the transcendent in daily life. It includes

constructs such as age, gratitude, mercy, sense of

connection with transcendent and compassionate

love. It also includes measures of awareness of

discernment/inspiration and a sense of deep inner

peace. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being

Scale (WEMWBS) comprises 14 items of mental

well-being covering subjective well-being and

psychological functioning, in which all items are

worded positively and address aspects of positive

mental health. Corona Anxiety Scale comprises 5

items. The study is based on three constructs namely

mental well-being, corona anxiety, and daily spiritual

experience. The two constructs of the topic under

study had a total of 29 indicators. After preliminary

analysis, the reliability and validity analysis items

were conducted and the items with loadings <.70

were removed and retained the values above 0.7.

Also, VIF was examined and the values below the

threshold were considered in the final model.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Construct Reliability and Validity

George and Mallery (2003) describe Cronbach alpha

value of more than 0.7 to be acceptable and a value

above 0.9 as excellent. Hence the tool is reliable.

AVE values are greater than 0.5, hence convergent

validity is established.

Table 1: Reliability.

Cronbach's Alpha rho_A

Composite

Reliability

Average

Variance

Extracted

(AVE)

Corona Anxiety 0.787 0.803 0.860 0.606

Daily Spiritual Experience 0.987 0.997 0.989 0.888

Mental Well-Being 0.944 0.962 0.953 0.744

Age 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000

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Figure 1: Preliminary Constructs.

The items causing multicollinearity and having a

factor loading below 0.70 were removed.

Figure 2: Final Constructs.

The final construct had 11 items to measure Daily

Spiritual Experience, 4 items to measure Corona

Anxiety and 7 items to measure mental well-being.

There were some questions pertaining to

demographic details as well.

Effect of Daily Spiritual Experience on Corona Anxiety and Mental Wellbeing of Social Workers in the United Kingdom

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Table 2: Measure of Age on Mental Well being, Corona Anxiety and Daily Spiritual Experience.

Sum of S

uares df Mean S

uare F Si

Mental Well

being

Between

Groups

1486.333 2 743.167 18.705 .000

Within Groups 4330.667 109 39.731

Total 5817.000 111

Corona

Anxiety

Between

Groups

422.333 2 211.167 21.716 .000

Within Groups 1059.917 109 9.724

Total 1482.250 111

Daily Spiritual

Experience

Between

Groups

8369.083 2 4184.542 12.884 .000

Within Grou

s 35401.917 109 324.788

Total 43771.000 111

Table No:2 portrays the result of one-way ANOVA,

it is observed that there was a statistically significant

difference between age and Mental-well-being as

demonstrated (F(2,109= 18.7, p=.000)(p-value is less

than the .05 alpha level). There was a statistically

significant difference between age and Daily Spiritual

Experience as demonstrated (F(2,109= 12.88, p=.000

(p-value is less than the .05 alpha level).Corona

Anxiety and age also reported statistical significance

( F(2,109= 21.71, p=.000) (p-value is less than the .05

alpha level).

Table 3: Measuring constructs across Gender.

Gender

Construct

Males Females

Mean Std. Deviation Mean Std. Deviation

Spiritual Wellbeing 18.00 8.49 24.80 2.96

Corona Anxiety 5.63 3.10 7.00 3.33

Mental Wellbeing 20.27 3.24 19.20 3.10

From table 3 it is evident that the Daily spiritual

experiences of females (24.80±2.96) are better than

their male counterparts (18.00±8.49). Corona anxiety

experienced by the females (7.00±3.33) is reported

higher than the males (5.63±3.10). There is not much

differences reported among the male (20.27± 3.24)

and females (19.20± 3.10) when it comes to mental

well-being. Furthermore, table 9 reported the

significant association between gender and Daily

Spiritual Experience (P=.000); gender and Mental

well-being (p=.000); gender and Corona Anxiety

(p=.000).

Table 4: Measuring constructs across the nature of employment.

Nature of

Employment

Construct

Government Semi-Government Private

Mean Std. Deviation Mean Std. Deviation Mean Std.

Deviation

Spiritual

Wellbein

13.0000 11.41524 21.0000 .00000 21.1538 6.98717

Corona

Anxiet

9.0000 5.18875 4.0000 .00000 5.7692 2.67946

Mental

Wellbein

25.0000 .00000 18.0000 .00000 19.3077 2.85460

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From table 4, it is evident that government employees

experienced low spiritual well-being (13.00±11.41)

as compared to the semi-government (21.00±.00) and

private employees (21.15±6.98). At the same, a

noticeable result is the corona anxiety experienced by

the respondents working in the government sector is

high as compared to the semi-government and private

employees. Another aspect is Mental well-being is

high among government employees (25±.00) than

their counterparts working in semi-government

(18.00±.00) and private sectors (19.30±2.85).

From below Table 4, reports the result of the

hypotheses proposed in the preliminary section of the

study. It is reported that an exists between age of the

respondents and corona anxiety (p=.000). Hence the

hypothesis is accepted. The study could not establish

the association between Daily Spiritual Experience

and Mental Well-being (p>.05). Hence the hypothesis

could not be accepted. Mental Well -being and

Corona Anxiety established a significant association

(P=.000). Hence the proposed hypothesis is accepted.

There is also an association between the age of the

respondents, corona anxiety (p=0.000); age and Daily

Spiritual experience (p=.000); age and Mental well-

being (p=.000) which are reported in table 9 is already

reflected in table7 and the hypothesis stands accepted.

The result also reported the association of gender and

corona anxiety (p=0.000); gender and Daily Spiritual

Experience (p=.000); gender and Mental well-being

(p=.000). Hence the hypothesis is valid.

Table 5: Path Coefficients.

Original

Sample (O)

Sample

Mean (M)

Standard

Deviation

(

STDEV

)

T Statistics

(|O/STDEV|)

P Values

Remark

Daily Spiritual

Experience -> Corona

Anxiet

-0.745 -0.735 0.078 9.575 0.000

Accepted

Daily Spiritual

Experience -> Mental

Well-Being

0.184 0.194 0.144 1.273 0.204

Not

Accepted

Mental Well-Being ->

Corona Anxiet

0.357 0.348 0.054 6.585 0.000

Accepted

age -> Corona Anxiety 0.541 0.550 0.066 8.221 0.000

Accepted

gender -> Corona Anxiety 0.398 0.396 0.061 6.559 0.000

Accepted

gender -> Daily Spiritual

Experience

0.418 0.418 0.050 8.418 0.000

Accepted

gender -> Mental Well-

Bein

-0.312 -0.304 0.120 2.599 0.010

Accepted

This study is an attempt to explore the daily spiritual

well-being, corona anxiety and mental well-being

among Indian social workers in UK. During the

pandemic, people are likely to adopt more spiritual

ways to adapt to the situation. Psychological anguish

among people during pandemic has become a

universal concern. During the COVID-19 pandemic,

individuals and families experienced novel situation

forcing them to stay indoors for long span of time.

The respondents also commented that “Being in touch

with the family members in India through skype and

online family meetings helped us to manage stress

and anxiety”. “Meditation helped me to become

calmer”. “The UK Government has tried to reach us

with all the facilities required to face lockdown”.

Mental Health, spiritual well-being, grief and loss

were known themes for many individuals, families,

and communities in diverse contexts.

4 CONCLUSION

This study summarizes the various mental and

emotional impacts that COVID has made in the life

of individuals. In addition to its physical health

implications, the pandemic has had numerous effects

on psychological well-being, people’s economic

situations, and social relationships (Valian et al.,

2018). Adopting preventive measures, and following

the standard operating procedures will be equally as

important as medical care in order to contain and

eventually eradicate the virus. In this regard, different

factors, such as spirituality, and psychological well-

being, have different influences. Education is

identified as one of the most significant social

indicators. In conclusion, the result of the study

portrays spiritual well-being and mental well-being

Effect of Daily Spiritual Experience on Corona Anxiety and Mental Wellbeing of Social Workers in the United Kingdom

901

are emerging areas of research during the outbreak of

the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide.

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