A study on women in Turkish culture: the mediating role of psychological resilience in the association between perceived stress and spiritual well-being.

AIM: This study aims to examine the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between perceived stress and spiritual well-being among women. By focusing on a large sample of Turkish women, it provides one of the first quantitative insights into how cultural and spiritual traditions shape gender-specific coping mechanisms, thereby offering a novel contribution to the international literature on stress and spirituality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 498 women residing in Istanbul. Participants completed the Brief Resilience Scale, the Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale-Short Form. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis for construct validity, correlation analysis, and path analysis with the bootstrap method (5.000 iterations) to test the mediation hypothesis. RESULTS: Women reported moderate stress (M = 2.97) and resilience (M = 3.20), but high spiritual well-being (M = 3.81). Stress negatively correlated with resilience (r = - .457, p = .000) and spiritual well-being (r = - .117, p = .009). Resilience showed a weak positive correlation with spiritual well-being (r = .109, p = .015). Path analysis indicated a significant direct association of stress on spiritual well-being (β = -0.123, p = .006), but the indirect association through resilience was not significant (β = -0.005, p = .530). In other words, psychological resilience does not have a mediating role in the association of perceived stress on spiritual well-being. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate a small but significant negative association between perceived stress and spiritual well-being, suggesting that higher stress levels were related to lower spiritual well-being. These findings underscore the need for culturally sensitive health interventions that integrate spiritual coping strategies alongside resilience-building approaches.