Year: 2005
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Spirituality has long eluded a single definition that satisfies all.It has been described as the best that w hich is human, a quest for existential m eaning, and as the transcendent human dim ensions.For the sake o f this study spirituality is defined as " a search for the sacred" on an individual level with institutionalized religion being a subset o f this overall definition.Pathways to discovering the sacred may include traditional religious institutions, or m ay consist o f nontraditional paths.This study exam ined spirituality in sport.A necdotal evid en ce suggests that athletes m ay be more spiritual than non-athletes.A lso, because o f conceptual consistencies, the idea that an individual high in spirituality w ould also be high in hope and flow w as investigated.The results show no significant difference in the spirituality o f N C A A D ivision I college students and that o f physically active co lleg e students.H ow ever, factoring on the spirituality scale and subscale revealed a nine-factor structure inconsistent w ith previous three-factor findings.Therefore, research conclusions based on the three subscales are suspect and may be invalid.Sim ilarly, no differences were found betw een sam ples in flow , although, consistent with previous findings there w as a significant difference betw een athlete and non-athlete student sam ples in hope.N o significant correlations were found between spirituality and flow .H ow ever, significant correlations were found in the relationship o f spirituality and hope, as w ell as betw een hope and flow .Lastly, few conclusions can be forwarded about the role o f spirituality in sport from this study due to the possible validity problems with the present scale.Since hope is a proven predictor o f sport achievem ent, and there appears to be a significant relationship betw een hope and overall spirituality, the one notable finding m ay be that spirituality in sport is worthy o f future research with proper and valid instrumentation.
Source: The Mathematics Enthusiast
Author: Jed L. Fiebelkorn
Institution: University of Montana
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W575946817