SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COLLEGE STUDENTS: MEDIATION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL

The study was carried out to examine the relationships among the attributes of spiritual intelligence and psychological capital (PSYCAP) and also how PSYCAP mediates between spiritual intelligence and academic performance of college students. Participants were 360 college students in the age group of 18 to 20. They were administered the questionnaires of spiritual intelligence and PSYCAP. The GPA in their last university examination was used as academic performance score. All the correlations between the attributes of spiritual intelligence, PSYCAP and GPA were significant. Hence, the results implied for multiple and hierarchical regression analyses to examine the extent of prediction of the PSYCAP from the attributes of spiritual intelligence. It is observed that each of the four attributes of spiritual intelligence significantly predicted the PSYCAP variables as well as GPA. Spiritual intelligence explained 35%, 38%, 41%, and 39% of variances of hope, optimism, resiliency, and self-efficacy respectively. Each attribute of spiritual intelligence and PSYCAP also significantly predicted the GPA. Further, when PSYCAP variables were introduced in the 2nd step of the hierarchical regression analyses, the variances of GPA explained was increased by 8% to suggest the significant mediation of PSYCAP. Sobel's test also confirmed the mediationof PSYCAP with each of the attributes of spiritual intelligence