Assessment of the Spiritual Well-being Index and Its Relationship with the Culture of Belief in Mahdism among Female Student Teachers

The absence of precise information regarding the condition of spiritual well-being and its correlation with Mahdist beliefs creates ambiguity in the cultural and educational strategies at Farhangian University. In response to this gap, the present study was conducted in 2024 (1403) to evaluate the spiritual well-being index and its relationship with the culture of belief in Mahdism among female student teachers at the Shahid Bahonar Campus of Farhangian University in Hamadan. To assess the spiritual well-being, we utilized the standardized questionnaire by Dehshiri et al. (2009), and while the belief in Mahdism was measured using the framework proposed by the National Interfaith Association. The research was conducted using a correlational survey method administering a questionnaire to a sample of 248 participants. Descriptive results indicate that the student teachers exhibit moderate levels of spiritual well-being, whereas their cultural belief in Mahdism falls slightly below the moderate range. Correlation test results reveal a significant relationship between spiritual well-being and the culture of belief in Mahdism (p = 0.40). Moreover, a significant correlation between the components of spiritual well-being—namely, the connection with God (p = 0.29), connection with self (p = 0.19), connection with others (p = 0.18), and connection with nature (p = 0.11)—and the culture of belief in Mahdism was confirmed. Regression analysis indicate that among the independent variables, the variable of "connection with God" with a beta value of 0.46 and the variable of "connection with self" with a beta value of 0.45 played the most substantial role in elucidating the dependent variable, belief in Mahdism.