Spiritual Struggles and Life Purpose Barriers as Mediators of General Life Purpose
and Well-being Among College Students
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Namele Gutierrez, Dr. Miller-Perrin and Dr. Thompson
Pepperdine University
Introduction
 In the midst of a critical and transformative
stage of development, college students are
increasingly relating their life purpose and
sense of well-being in relation to their faith
and spirituality (Smith & Denton, 2005).
 Although empirical evidence has been
establishing general life purpose as a
significant predictor of well-being, few have
examined the mediators of said relationship
among the college age population (Byron &
Miller-Perrin, 2009).
 Perceived barriers and spiritual struggles
have been suggested to inhibit life purpose
and well-being because both may call into
question a person’s belief in oneself or in
one’s foundational faith (Lent et al., 1994;
Lipshits-Braziler & Tatar, 2012).
 It was therefore hypothesized that general life
purpose would positively influence well-being,
unless life purpose barriers or spiritual
struggles negatively mediated the
relationship.
Objectives
 To examine the relationship between general life
purpose and well-being
 To examine how spiritual struggles mediate the
relationship between general life purpose and
well-being
 To examine how life purpose barriers mediate the
relationship between general life purpose and
well-being
Contact
Namele Gutierrez
namele.gutierrez@pepperdine.edu
Cindy Miller-Perrin
cindy.perrin@pepperdine.edu
Conclusions
Methods and Materials
Method
 Participants included 219 (17% male, 33% female) undergraduate students
 Students were emailed and asked to participate by completing all measures through a web-based survey
 Participants received convocation credit for participating
Materials
 The General Life Purpose Scale is an 18-item scale that assesses general sense of life purpose, operationalized as attempts to
pursue one’s life goals, based on Emmons’ (2005) reasoning that life purpose is expressed through goals.
 The Modified Negative RCOPE (NRCOPE) is an 23-item survey assessing spiritual struggles, which includes feelings that
individuals may experience concerning their faith, their relationship with God, and their relationship with other people.
 The Perceived Wellness Scale, a 36-item questionnaire, is designed to assess an individual’s self perceptions of well-being
(Adams, 1995) and its six dimensions of perceived well-being: psychological, emotional, social, physical, spiritual, and
intellectual.
 The Life Purpose Barriers scale is a 21-item scale measuring barriers to life purpose. It has three subscales: personal,
interpersonal, and environmental.
Results
Variable
GLP
Well-being
Spiritual Struggles
Barriers
Personal
Interpersonal
Environmental
GLP
-.581**
-.293**
-.340**
-.202**
.072
-.047
Well-being
.581**
--3.84**
-.439**
-.389**
-.240**
-.340**
NRCOPE
-.293**
-.384**
-.387**
.322**
.247**
.273**
Barriers Personal Interpersonal Environmental
-.340**
-.202**
.072
-.047
-.439**
-.389**
-.240**
-.340**
.387**
.322**
.247**
.273**
-.832**
.673**
.789**
.832**
-.334**
.425**
.673**
.334**
-.414**
.789**
.425**
.414**
--
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Variable
B
SE B
β
Personal
-.79
.20
-.29**
Interpersonal
-.34
.34
-.07
Environmental -.68
.28
-.19**
** β is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
95% CI (lower)
-1.18
-1.01
-1.23
2
95% CI (upper)
-.40
.34
-.13
R
.19
.19
.19
Table 3. Regression analysis predicting well-being from spiritual struggles.
Variable
B
SEB
β
Divine
-.84
.27
-.25**
Intrapersonal
-.79
.40
-.15*
Interpersonal
-.54
.70
-.06
* β is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
** β is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
95% CI (lower) 95% CI (upper)
-1.37
-.30
-1.58
.00
-1.91
.843
R2
.13
.13
.13
Mediation regression analyses were run in order to examine life purpose barriers and spiritual struggles as mediators
between general life purpose and well-being (see Tables 4 and 5). Total general life purpose scores significantly predicted
total well-being scores with personal barriers (R2 = .45) and total spiritual struggles (R2 = .37) as significant mediators.
Table 5. Mediation regression analysis including general life purpose, well-being and spiritual
struggles.
Table 4. Mediation regression analysis including general life purpose, well-being and barriers.
B
SE B
β
95% CI
(lower)
95% CI
(upper)
R
1. Predicting well-being from general life purpose
1.32
.13
.58**
1.06
1.59
.34
2. Predicting barriers from general life purpose
-.17
.06
-.20**
-.29
-.06
Variable
3. Predicting well-being from barriers controlling for
general life purpose
4. Predicting well-being from general life purpose with
barriers added
** β is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
1.13
1.33
.19
.12
-.32**
.58**
1.51
1.09
-.75
1.58
2
.58**
95% CI
(lower)
1.06
95% CI
(upper)
1.59
.34
.08
-.29**
-.47
-.18
.08
-.45
.12
-.22**
-.69
-.21
.37
1.16
.14
.51**
.89
1.43
.37
B
SE B
β
1. Predicting well-being from general life purpose
1.32
.13
.04
2. Predicting spiritual struggles from general life purpose
-.33
.45
3. Predicting well-being from spiritual struggles
controlling for general life purpose
.45
4. Predicting well-being from general life purpose with
spiritual struggles added
Variable
** β is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
 Findings were consistent with previous findings
that having a sense of general life purpose
positively predicted well-being in college students
(Dusselier, Dunn, Wang, Shelley & Whalen, 2005).
 Life purpose barriers and spiritual struggles were
found to decrease the relationship between
general life purpose and well-being, which was
consistent with past research (Lipshits-Braziler &
Tatar, 2012; Luzzo & McWhirter, 2001).
 The best predictors of well-being were personal
and circumstantial barriers, divine and
intrapersonal spiritual struggles.
References
Correlations were conducted between general life purpose, well-being, spiritual struggles, life purpose barriers and its
three subscales (personal, interpersonal, and environmental). Significant correlations were found between all dependent
variables, except between general life purpose and interpersonal barriers or environmental barriers (see Table 1). Two
linear regressions were conducted, which determined that personal barriers, environmental barriers, and spiritual struggles
significantly predicted well-being (see Tables 2 and 3).
Table 2. Regression analysis predicting well-being from barriers.
Table 1. Correlations between general life purpose, well-being, spiritual struggles, and life
purpose barriers.
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2
R
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