| The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine models relating faith maturity and personality traits, specifically academic success, psychological distress, problems in living, and purpose in life to wellness among college students as emerging adults. The study explored several questions: (a) Did faith maturity have incremental validity over the personality traits of emerging adults in predicting their academic success, psychological distress, problems in living, and purpose in life? (b) Did faith maturity differ by gender and year in college, and whether an interaction occurred? (c) Did levels of faith maturity interact with year in college and gender in predicting academic success, psychological distress, problems in living, and purpose in life? Participants were 216 undergraduate students (N = 63 men and 143 women, 10 incomplete data) at a small liberal arts university in Baltimore, Maryland who completed the Faith Maturity Scale (FMS), Purpose in Life Test (PILT), mini International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), and the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) during a 50-minute class period. The results demonstrated that the vertical dimension of the FMS predicted 8% of unique variation in the dependent variable purpose in life, F(7, 189) = 12.95, p < .001. A significant main effect was observed for gender among FMS vertical scores, F(7, 182) = 10.43, p < .05, eta2 = .05. In addition, a significant interaction effect was observed between gender and year in school among FMS vertical scores, F(7, 182) = 3.40, p < .05, eta2 = .05. The findings of this study suggest that a culture that fosters students' spirituality may have positive effects on some aspects of well-being, though gender differences are important. |
