© Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology

September 2024, Special Issue, 483-490

Association between Self Esteem, Resilience,

Spirituality and Stress
KC Barmola
SRM University, Sonepat Haryana

Vaishali Saini
Manastha Health Solutions Private Ltd, India

Stress and lower self-esteem are amongst the top factors taking a toll on mental health
of youth nowadays. This led to numerous researches to find ways to handle it. The
current study attempted to find the relationship spirituality, self esteem and resilience
can help students to overcome this stress. To find the aim of the study a sample 150
College Students were selected purposively of Haryana, India. All the respondents
were within the age group of 17- 26 years. To measure self esteem, resilience, spirituality
and stress among college student Self-Esteem Scale by Rosenberg (1965), Brief
Resilience Scale by Smith (2008), Daily Spiritual Experience scale by Underwood &
Teresi (2002) and Student Stress Inventory by Mohamed Arip et al (2015) were used.
Results of the study suggests that there was a significantly positive relationship between
self-esteem and resilience (rs = .385, p<.01). There was also found significantly negative
relationship between self-esteem and stress (rs = -.362, p<.01); resilience and stress
(rs = -.353, p<.01), and self-esteem and spirituality (rs = -.232, p<.01). Another finding
says there is no significant relationship between spirituality and stress (rs = .127,
p<.01), and spirituality and resilience (rs = -.054, p<.01). It may be concluded that self
esteem resilience have important role in managing stress while spirituality does not
any association with stress.
Keywords: Self-Esteem, Resilience, Spirituality, Stress, Adolescents

Stress and lower self-esteem are amongst stress in past 12 months. Digging deeper with
the top factors taking a toll on mental health this fact, there can be many factors that are
of youth nowadays. Indulging with numerous directly or indirectly related to stress coping
people during college days can offer many and bearing skills, mainly to mention are self-
ups and downs to students. From being esteem, resilience and spirituality. Eisenbarth
thrilled by small victories to questioning self- (2012) came up with the facts of college
worth in the low times, the drive to battle students and mentioned the relationship
challenges goes off track. Managing stress between self-esteem and stress coping,
in such crucial times to seek personal well- stating that if an individual doesn’t believe in
being, academ ic excellence, develop his capability or consider himself worthy or
interpersonal relationships becomes very significant, the perceived stress levels can
important, so that; they can become capable be heightened which may lead to depressive
individuals who contribute to environment symptoms.
and humanity. According to American College
The main purpose to take up this research
Health Association, National College Health
is to identify and discuss the root cause of
Assessment II (2018) survey, only 1.6 percent
one of major problems prevailing in society.
of college students reported absence of

JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ACADEMY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 2024 483

Individuals in colleges tend to compare dropouts. The findings suggested positive
themselves with others and forget their significant correlation between protective
unique identity they are born with and factors and resilience, positive relationship.
undergo tremendous stress and emotional Sethi et al (2013) studied role of yoga in
vulnerability. When one respects one’s lives improving attention and self-esteem and
from deep within, tend to respect people in found that Yogic practices like asana,
their environment and become resilient and pranayama, vedic chanting, and meditation
spiritual and focus on polishing our character may improve adjustment among chronically
as human being. The area of focus is just to stressed and disadvantaged students by
identify the deadlocks and restoring their enhancing self-esteem. Jain & Dixit (2014)
lives deep within. College population is mostly examined gender-based comparison and the
protected in a shell during school days by causal factors and revealed that there was
families and friends. The real battle starts no significant gender difference in the self-
when one is exposed to vulnerability of life. A esteem levels of the participants. The causal
review details the typical trajectory of incidents reducing self-esteem levels were
emotional experience during adolescence. divided into four themes, based on, unmet
Adolescents experience changes in a variety expectation; from personal self, from social
of emotional dimensions, with different self, at home and at school/college. Kumar
patterns emerging in adolescents of different & Singh (2014) examined the resilience and
ages, genders, and pubertal stages. (Bailen spirituality and found that psychological well-
et al., 2019). being is predicted by both resilience as well
as spirituality among students. This shows
Carter & Garber (2011) studied the onset
that students who were resilient and had
of a major depressive episode and changes
strong spiritual approach in their lives
in depressive symptoms across adolescence
reported higher levels of psychological well-
and found that low self-esteem and low self-
being.
worth are associated with stress and
depression. Both of them constitute risk Reddy et al (2015) examined self-esteem
factors for appearance of depression, as and stress among private and government
people cannot manage and cope with the high school students. Results revealed that
stressful life events. students from government and private
schools don’t have any difference on self-
Kim & Esquivel (2011) investigated
esteem and stress. Students from both
adolescent spirituality and resilience. Results
schools had low level of stress and normal
suggested that spirituality promotes healthy
level of self-esteem. Athulya et al (2016)
development in adolescents, enhances the
studied procrastination, perfectionism,
ability to cope, and leads to positive
coping and their relation to distress and self-
outcomes in mental health, psychological well
esteem in college students. Maladaptive
being, and academic learning.
perfectionism emerged as a significant
Sood et al. (2011) examined the stress predictor of both distress and lower self-
management and resilience training and esteem. Bakhshi et al (2017) examined self-
suggested that the intervention has a esteem and resiliency between blind and
potential to improve resiliency, stress, sighted children and adolescents. The
anxiety, and quality of life among physicians. results showed that there was no significant
Mehrotra & Chaddha (2013) examined a difference in between the two, blind and
co-relational study of protective factors, sighted group in the resilience rate, but there
resilience and self-esteem in pre medical was a significant level of difference in Self-

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esteem among blind and sighted people, consisted of 10-item which measures global
which shows that disability exists not only in self-worth by measuring both positive and
the body of people with disabilities, but also negative feelings about the self. All items are
in the attitudes of those individuals. Tian et answered using a 4-point Likert scale format
al (2018) studied parent–child relationships ranging from strongly agree to strongly
and resilience among Chinese adolescents. disagree. The scores obtained from this
The results indicated that the associations instrument can range from 0-30. The
between parent–child relationships and Reliability of the RSES ranges from 0.77 to
adolescent resilience were primarily mediated 0.88, and validity is 0.55
by self-esteem and that parental support was
Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al, 2008):
more robustly linked with adolescent
The B.R.S is comprised of 6 items, half of
resilience than parent–adolescent conflict.
them formulated positively and half of them
Harikrishnan & Ali (2018) studied refer to negative events: difficult periods,
resilience, psychological distress, and self- stressful events, disappointments.
esteem among Undergraduate Students in Participants responded on a 5-point Likert
Kerala. Results revealed that psychological scale, ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to
distress and self-esteem among university 5 (Strongly Agree). The scores obtained from
students is associated with resilience. Mitra this instrument can range from 1-30. The
(2020) examined a model for a deeper reliability of the used scale is .83.
understanding of the predictive factors of
Daily Spiritual Experience scale
resilience and found a partial role of self-
(Underwood & Teresi, 2002): The Daily
esteem in mediating the relation between
Spiritual scale consisted of 15-item, self-
spiritual health and resilience.
report measure of spiritual experience. The
Objective of the study first 14 items of the questionnaire are
To find the association between the study measured on a 6-point Likert-type scale:
variables Self-Esteem, Resilience Spirituality many times, a day, every day, most days,
and Stress some days, once in a while, and never or
almost never. Item 15 is measured on a 4-
Hypothesis point scale: Not Close at All, Somewhat
There will be significant correlation Close, Very Close, As Close as Possible.
between study variables- Self Esteem, DSES reliability scores were high 0.85.
Resilience Spirituality and Stress Student Stress Inventory (Arip et al,
Method 2015): This scale is used to measure the
level of stress among university students.
Sample The SSI was designed with ordinal scale of
The sample comprised of College the ‘Never’, ‘somewhat frequent’, ‘Frequent’
Students chosen purposively from various and ‘Always’. The overall validity is 0.805.
educational colleges of Haryana in India. The The reliability of SSI had a high reliability
Sample size consisted of 150 participants. coefficient of .857.
All the respondents were within the age group Results and Discussion
of 17- 26 years.
To measure the relationship between
Tools different variables of the study Spearman’s
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale rho non parametric test of correlation is
(Rosenberg, 1965): The complete scale analyzed. Correlation is used to calculate the

JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ACADEMY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 2024 485

strength and direction of the relationship that academic resilience can have a big
between the different study variable’s self impact when internal and external support
esteem, resilience, spirituality and stress. conditions are met, which the consequences
The value of r s in Table 2 represents the are often reinforced when family support, a
assessment of correlation strength between learning environment, and improved
two variables. If the numerical value of adaptability to life at college also are provided
correlation falls between 0 to 0.2 is generally (Shin, 2016). Another study performed by
considered weak. Table 2 shows the (Kennedy et al, 2018) showed that loss of a
statistical analysis reports computed by parent or sibling in childhood conferred an
SPSS. Having calculated Spearman rho in the increased risk of subsequent low stress
current study as shown in Table no 2 that resilience and an increased risk of moderate
can be summarized in following points: stress resilience in late adolescence.
Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient
was calculated to measure the relationship was calculated to measure the relationship
between self-esteem and resilience. There between self-esteem and spirituality. There
was a significantly positive relationship was found a significantly negative
between self-esteem and resilience (r s = relationship between self-esteem and
.385, p<.01). It shows an increase in self spirituality (r s = -.232, p<.01). This
esteem will lead to an increase in resilience. significantly found negative correlation of the
current study shows an increase in the self
Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient
esteem m ay lead to decrease in the
was calculated to measure the relationship
spirituality. This finding is supported by
between self-esteem and stress. There was
(Gabova et al., 2021) which showed that
found a significantly negative relationship
while religious/spiritual respondents did not
between self-esteem and stress (rs = -.362,
differ significantly from non-religious
p<.01). It shows an increase in self esteem
respondents, religious/non-spiritual
will lead to decrease in stress. A study shows
respondents had approximately 79% lower
a similar result that, low-self-esteem
chance of having good self esteem.
individuals are especially vulnerable to
unstable and negative circumstances Table 1. Descriptive Statistics
because their feelings of self-worth tend to
N Min. Max. Mean Std.
drop under failure, they are more concerned
Deviation
about self-protection in stressful situations,
and they are more likely to have depressive Resilience 150 1.66 26.00 3.2937 1.96192
attributions in response to negative event Self-esteem 150 9.00 30.00 18.9467 4.17533
(Nima et al, 2013). Another study by Orth et
al (2014) also found that people with low self- Spirituality 150 16.70 96.70 51.0447 16.45552
esteem react with more stress in several Stress 150 40.00 134.00 73.5733 17.78709
stressful situations.
Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient
was calculated to measure the relationship was calculated to measure the relationship
between resilience and stress. There was between spirituality and stress. There was
found a significantly negative relationship found no relationship between spirituality and
between resilience and stress (rs = -.353, stress (rs = .127, p<.01). It shows that there
p<.01). It shows an increase in resilience will is no role of spirituality in managing stress
lead to decrease in stress. A study showed among college students.

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Table 2. Correlations
Resilience Self-esteem Spirituality Stress
Spearman’s rho Resilience Correlation Coefficient 1.000 .385** -.054 -.353**
Sig. (2-tailed) . .000 .513 .000
N 150 150 150 150
Self-esteem Correlation Coefficient .385 **
1.000 -.232 **
-.362**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 . .004 .000
N 150 150 150 150
Spirituality Correlation Coefficient -.054 -.232** 1.000 .127
Sig. (2-tailed) .513 .004 . .122
N 150 150 150 150
Stress Correlation Coefficient -.353** -.362** .127 1.000
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .122 .
N 150 150 150 150
**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

An Indian study by Yadav, and Khanna current study. First hypothesis of no

(2014) also supported the current study relationship between self esteem and
finding which showed that there is negative resilience was rejected because there was
correlation (r = -0.519) between the stress statistically significant relationship was found
and spirituality of engineering students. (r s = .385, p<.01). This finding is also
Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient supported the literature. Karatas & Cakar
was calculated to measure the relationship (2011) findings showed that self-esteem and
between spirituality and resilience. There hopelessness is a significant predictor of
was found no relationship between spirituality resilience in adolescents. There was a
and resilience (rs = -.054, p<.01). It shows positive relationship between self-esteem and
that there is no role of spirituality in resilience resilience. Relationship between self esteem
among college students. This could be due and stress was also found negatively
to health issues, a related study found a significant (rs = -.362, p<.01) which is also
weak to moderate correlation between supported by the study that shows low-self-
spirituality and resilience in respondents with esteem individuals are especially vulnerable
health problems or suffered from chronic to unstable and negative circumstances
diseases and productive respondents (Dewi because their feelings of self-worth tend to
& Hamzah, 2019). drop under failure, they are more concerned
Hypotheses of the current study stated about self-protection in stressful situations,
that there would be no significant relationship and they are more likely to have depressive
between different study variables. To test attributions in response to negative event
these hypotheses statistical analysis was (Nima et al, 2013). Another study by Orth et
done with the help of Spearman Rho in the al (2014) also found that people with low self-

JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ACADEMY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 2024 487

esteem react with more stress in several Conclusion
stressful situations. In view of association The current study had aimed to find
between resilience and stress, a negatively relationship between different study variable-
significant relationship was found (rs = -.353, Self-Esteem, Resilience Spirituality and
p<.01) in the current study. Which means Stress. One of the results of study suggests
resilient student will have less chances of that there was a significantly positive
stressful life experience than those who are relationship between self-esteem and
not resilient. Study by Shin (2016) and resilience. In another finding also a
Kennedy et al, (2018) reported similar significantly negative relationship was found
results. between self-esteem and stress; resilience
and stress, and self-esteem and spirituality.
Hypothesis of no relationship between self
It was also found no significant relationship
esteem and spirituality was accepted in the
between spirituality and stress, and
current study findings (r s = -.232, p<.01).
spirituality and resilience in the current study.
W hich means there does not have any
Therefore, it may be concluded that self-
relationship between self esteem and esteem and resilience have important role in
spirituality among college students. In other managing stress among college students
word it can be said that self worth does not while spirituality does not any association with
matter among college students for spirituality stress.
or vice versa. There was not found any
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KC Barmola, PhD., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, SRM University

Sonepat Haryana
Vaishali Saini, Psychologist, Manastha Health Solutions Private Ltd, India

490 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN ACADEMY OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, SEPTEMBER 2024