Date
7-22-2025
Department
School of Behavioral Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
Chair
Rachel Piferi
Keywords
Hope, Military, Readiness, Religious Commitment, Resiliency, Spiritual Fitness, Spirituality
Disciplines
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Sidnam, David, "Spiritual Fitness and Religious Commitment as Predictors of Hope in Active Duty Deployed Military" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7184.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7184
Abstract
The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine how spiritual fitness and religious commitment are related to hope in deployed military personnel. Furthermore, the individual components of spiritual fitness (connection to God, belief in service, and purposeful meaning) were examined alongside religious commitment to determine the strongest predictor of hope for deployed military members. The study included 111 deployed, active duty members that were recruited from three deployed sites in the military. The data was assessed in SPSS and revealed that belief in service and purposeful meaning were significantly related to hope. Purposeful meaning was the strongest predictor of hope in this sample of deployed active duty military members. Hope has been identified as an important predictor of goal achievement, well-being, and resilience in the military. Therefore, understanding the corelates of hope can help leaders as they enhance a hopeful, life-saving culture in the military.
