A Multidimensional Analysis of Fear, Patience, and Gratitude as Predictors of Students' Emotional Stability and Social Adjustment

Abstract

The current research conducts an exploration on fear, patience, and gratitude as multidimensional predictors of emotional stability and social adjustment in Pakistani university students. The research was based on the positive psychology and Islamic psychological tradition and fills the gap in the literature on the joint effects of these constructs on the mental health outcomes of students in South Asian higher education. A purposive sample of N = 300 students of the University of Sargodha was used to conduct a quantitative cross-sectional research design. Reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression through the IBM SPSS Statistics were used to analyze standardized self-report scales. The alpha coefficients of Cronbach showed acceptable to good internal consistency in all measures (alpha =.704-804). Mean levels showed moderate levels of all constructs. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that emotional stability (r = .494, p <.001) and social adjustment (r =.157, p <.01) were strongly correlated with patience and significantly predicted. Gratitude showed strong positive correlation with emotional stability (r =.346, p <.001) but not with social adjustment. Fear also had a small but significant positive correlation with social adjustment ( r =.160, p <.01) and non significant correlation with emotional stability. Multiple regression analysis showed that fear, patience, and gratitude collectively explained 27.9% of variance in emotional stability (R² = .279, F(3,296) = 38.23, p < .001) and 7.5% of variance in social adjustment (R² = .075, F(3,296) = 7.99, p < .001).