Studies of Well Being: Relation to Meditation and Power
Tae Sook Kim, Nursing, St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn, NY, USA
The findings of two recent internationally collaborative studies which have used Well-Being Picture Scale (WPS), translated into Korean, will be presented. In the first study the relationship of a Chakra Meditation intervention to power and well-being was examined at baseline, mid- and end-point using a quasi-experimental design over the 4-week duration. The sample of 63 (Experimental group = 31, Control group = 32) is predominantly generally healthy nursing students (generic and graduate). Since the experimental group was significantly different (p = .05 by Fisher’s Exact Test, 2-sided) from the control group in marital status, marital status was used as a covariate in data analysis. Repeated Measure Analyses of Variance showed significant interaction effects between both power and group (p < .01), and well-being and group (p < .05). However, neither group nor changes in power and well-being were found to be significant. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability of the WPS at baseline, mid- and end-point were .83, .89 and .91, respectively. Correlations between the WPS and Barrett’s measure of power at baseline, mid- and end-point were significant (p < .01) (r = .69, r = .75 and r = .71, respectively). The second study examined concurrent validity between the WPS and Barrett’s measure of power in a sample of 881 men and women in Korea. The age range was from 18 to 80 years with mean of 31.5 years. Education years ranged from 12 to 25 with a mean of 15.1. Reliability of the WPS by Cronbach’s Alpha was .84, and correlation between the WPS and Barrett’s measure of power was significant (r = .52, p < .01). Married people had significantly higher well-being compared to single people (p < .01). Housewives had the highest mean Well-being scores (Mean = 54.26) while people with no jobs had the lowest (Mean = 46.35).