Death anxiety and spiritual intelligence as predictors of dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder in Greek first responders: A moderation model.

Abstract

This cross-sectional study sought to examine spiritual intelligence (SI) as a moderator between death anxiety (DA) and dissociative posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD-DISS) among 1st responders. A convenience sample of 182 1st responders (aid workers and firefighters) was recruited from the regional directorates of Western Greece. Participants provided sociodemographic details and were assessed on SI-, DA-, and PTSD-DISS-related symptomatology. We hypothesized that DA would successfully predict prodromal PTSD-DISS, with SI inversely moderating the relationship between the aforementioned constructs, such that an increase in SI would correspond to a decrease in PTSD-DISS. The overall model confirmed that DA, SI, and their linear combination significantly explained 77% of PTSD-DISS variance. Furthermore, SI significantly moderated the relationship between DA and PTSD-DISS, though in the opposite direction than expected: At low SI values the association between DA and PTSD-DISS was nonexistent (t ϭ .45, p ϭ .07), whereas DA had an incremental effect on PTSD-DISS analogous to increasing SI values (average SI: t ϭ .2, p ϭ .05; high SI: t ϭ 2.54, p ϭ .01). The results indicate diverse trajectories of spiritual (death anxietyϪrelated) experiences and SI in mental health outcomes. Conceptual considerations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Development of the Greek version of the Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory-24 (KAPN): factor structure and validation

“…It may develop individually or in communities and traditions" (Moreira-Almeida et al, 2016, p. 87). Spiritual intelligence (SI) emerged as a result of integrating intelligence with spirituality (Mahasneh, Shammout, Alkhazaleh, Al-Alwan, & Abu-Eita, 2015) so as to produce an operationalized construct, as had been suggested in the past by researchers such as Gardner (1999), Emmons (2000), Zohar andMarshall (2001), andVaughan (2003), who introduced the concept of SI in reference to a set of mental mechanisms of one's spiritual understanding of life, thought to underlie and inform our repositories of spirituality (Polemikou & Vantarakis, 2019). Later on, David King addressed the pressing need for the development of a concrete assessment tool regarding the contribution of spirituality in a wide array of potential applications (King, 2008;King & Decicco, 2009).…”