Assessment on Carthage Students' Spiritual Self-Care Practices — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

Instructions

Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
A clear description of the methods used to achieve the purpose or goals for the work.
A statement of the conclusions, results, outcomes, or recommendations, or if the work is still in progress, the results you expect to report at the event.

Presenter photographs should be head and shoulder shots comparable to passport photos.

Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

Assessment on Carthage Students' Spiritual Self-Care Practices

Name: Sophie Hyde
Major: Social Work
Hometown: Schaumburg, IL
Faculty Sponsor:
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: SURE
Funding: SURE

Abstract

The study aims to assess how students at Carthage use spirituality/religiosity for self-care and coping with everyday stress and crises with a special focus on use of art, and how the college can better support their practice and exploration of spiritual self-care. The study design is a mixed method design in the form of an anonymous online survey. The survey questionnaire included scales assessing students’ religiosity, spiritual self-care, and the role of arts in spiritual self-care. Questions created by the researchers in collaboration with the Center of Faith and Spirituality were also included to assess the needs of students for spiritual support in ordinary times, as well as in times of crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic. Demographic information including age, race, major, and year at college was also collected.

With over 500 students completing the survey, participation was strong and provided robust data. Some preliminary results of the quantitative data analysis indicated that religion, major, and year at college did play a significant role in students’ spiritual self-care, the use of art, and resources outside the classroom for spiritual self-care. The qualitative data demonstrated some details of the vastly different experiences for students practicing spiritual self-care and their needs for support from the college. For example, some students strongly identified with a specific religion, while others were unsure and wrote that the survey encouraged them to reconsider their relationship with spirituality and/or religion. The data does not draw many conclusions, but does give great insight for further research.

Poster file