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Abstract
This research study aims primarily at finding out the differences in mental health among urban and rural undergraduate students; along with the relationship of its components with their spiritual quotient. The Mental health battery by Dr. Arun Kumar Singh and Dr. Alpana Sen Gupta was administered to collect relevant data of the students in mental health and its components. Their spiritual quotient was assessed with the Roqan Spiritual Intelligence test by Prof. Roquiya Zainuddin and Anjum Ahmed. A cross sectional study was conducted using the Descriptive Survey method. The cluster sampling technique was used to collect information from 139 undergraduate students from Urban colleges and 261 from Rural colleges, all affiliated to Gauhati University. The Mann Whitney U test analysis showed significant differences in the dimensions of Autonomy, Security-Insecurity, Self-concept and Intelligence, except in the dimension of Emotional Stability. The p value of 0.034 showed significant differences in composite mental health score, with rural students outperforming their urban counterparts. Spiritual quotient of the students had significant relationships with Security-Insecurity, Self-concept, Intelligence as well as the composite Mental Health. The correlation between Spiritual Intelligence and Mental health was found to be negative and significant, contradicting the findings of popular review studies. This study contributes to a different perspective to the study of mental health in relation to spiritual intelligence. A mentally sound or healthy person is able to use trans-logical thinking for proper alignment of ideals and new creation to solve problems of daily life. Here the spiritual aspect provides heightened consciousness to solve practical problems for better functioning of self- concept. The analysis of the paper was mainly based on the relationship between a person’s mental status and his spiritual quotient. It did not look to the other aspect of strategizing a person’s energies towards creation of an optimum mental health in a spiritual context. Studies can be furthered in the area of planning of a transformational way of life for better mental stability and spirituality.