Spirituality and Adult Mental Health in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria

Adults face challenges worldwide that test their psychological strength and coping abilities. This study examines the influence of spirituality on adult mental health in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria. It focuses on three dimensions of spirituality: spiritual practices, values and ethics, and personal growth and self-reflection. Adult mental health was assessed using resilience and coping, self-esteem and self-worth, and trauma and post-traumatic growth. The study is grounded in logotherapy and resilience theories. Data were collected using a self-developed four-point Likert-scale questionnaire titled Spirituality and Adult Mental Health (SAMH), adapted from established psychological scales. Taro Yamane’s formula determined the sample size from a population of 440,400. Four hundred respondents were selected through simple random sampling, and 280 (70%) valid responses were used for analysis. Results showed that spirituality explains 97.5% of the variance in adult mental health, as indicated by the correlation coefficient (R = .987) and the coefficient of determination (R² = .975), revealing a very strong predictive relationship. This relationship is statistically significant (F = 10,714.156, p = .000), and the regression coefficient (B = .976, p = .000) confirms that spirituality has a strong positive influence on adult mental health. The study concluded that adults in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria have high mental health and moderate spirituality, with spirituality significantly predicting and positively influencing mental well-being. It recommends incorporating spiritual values into therapy and mental health programs to enhance adult psychological resilience and overall mental health.