Negative life events, religious orientation, spiritual well-being,andhappiness inthecontextofBuddha Dharma among university students

บทคัดย่อ

Objective This study aimed to investigate the casual relationship that negative life events, religious orientation, and spiritual well-being had with happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma among university students.

Materials and methods Participants were university students. Instruments were Negative Life Event Scale, Religious Orientation Scale, Spiritual Well-being Scale, and Brief version of Happiness in the Context of Buddha Scale. The structural equation modeling through LISREL was employed in analyzing the data.

Results Participants were 179 males and 354 females with the mean age of 20.26 years. There was Buddhist at 94.7%. Findings revealed that negative life events as well as intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation predicted happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma with spiritual well-being being a mediator. All variables in the model accounted for Happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma to a high extent. Spiritual well-being had a high positive effect on happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma, whereas Negative life events and extrinsic religious orientation had low negative effects on happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma. The direct effect of intrinsic religious orientation on happiness, however, was not significant. Additionally, negative life events as well as intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation accounted for the variance of spiritual well-being to a minimal extent.

Conclusion Since negative life events, religious orientation, and spiritual well-being accounted for happiness in the context of Buddha Dharma to a high extent, an intervention for happiness enhance-ment should include these variables as components of the intervention.