Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2022

Keywords

Service learning; spiritual well-being; psychological health; DASS-21; Chinese youths

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/13617672.2022.2133429

Abstract

In this study, the impacts of service learning (SL) on the spiritual wellbeing and psychological health of Chinese university students in Hong Kong are determined. The SL programme is a six-month, creditbearing programme (not less than 80 working hours). The study adopted a pre-test–post-test quasi-experimental design, wherein students enrolled in SL comprised the experimental group (n = 132; 59 male, 73 female), and those who were not enrolled in SL comprised the control group (n = 128; 55 male, 73 female). The students completed the spiritual well-being questionnaire (SWBQ) to evaluate the status of their spiritual well-being (including the personal and communal, environmental, and transcendental domains), and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to assess their emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress before and after the SL programme. At pre-test, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in SWBQ and DASS-21 scores. Findings indicated that students in the experimental group had greater increases in spiritual well-being in personal and communal, environmental and transcendental domains and decreases in stress, anxiety and depression than those in the control group at the end of the SL programme.

Source Publication

JOURNAL OF BELIEFS & VALUES

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