Spiritual well-being and daily spiritual experiences as protective factors against academic burnout among physical education students in Arabic-speaking universities

Abstract

This study examined how spiritual well-being and daily spiritual experiences are associated with burnout dimensions among physical education and sport students. A cross-sectional analytical design recruited 1,000 participants (516 females, 484 males; mean age 24.21 ± 4.52 years) across bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs. The sample comprised 513 bachelor’s, 335 master’s, and 152 doctoral students pursuing degrees in physical education and sport. Validated instruments comprised the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS), Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES), and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey (MBI-SS). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis investigated predictive correlations between spiritual qualities and burnout components. Psychometric validation demonstrated exceptional internal consistency among instruments (α = 0.877–0.934). Daily spiritual experiences exhibited the most significant correlation with cynicism, indicating a momentary protective aspect. There were strong negative associations between spiritual measures and maladaptive burnout aspects. For example, emotional tiredness was linked to daily spiritual experiences (r=-0.785, p < 0.001), existential well-being (r=-0.745, p < 0.001), and religious well-being (r=-0.651, p < 0.001). Cynicism had similar negative correlations (r=-0.695 to -0.621, all p < 0.001). Academic efficacy exhibited strong positive correlation with religious well-being (r = 0.742, p < 0.001). Hierarchical regression models achieved substantial explanatory capacity: spiritual variables accounted for 71.7% of emotional exhaustion variance, 58.2% of cynicism variance, and 71.4% of academic efficacy variance. Spiritual well-being dimensions and daily spiritual experiences function are associated with lower levels of academic burnout among physical education students in Arabic-speaking countries. Religious well-being emerged as the primary predictor of academic efficacy, while daily spiritual experiences demonstrated strong inverse associations with burnout dimensions. These findings establish empirical foundations for spiritual integrated suggesting that spiritual well-being showed a strong association with in academic efficacy.