The Experience of Financial Well-Being, Shame, and Mental Health Outcomes in Seminary Students

The experience of pursuing a graduate seminary education is rife with many stressors, including the heavy financial burden required to fund a seminary degree. Shame, understood as an experience of being unworthy and inadequate at one's core, may be a natural reaction to financial hardship as many individuals may believe their inadequacy is the cause of their financial difficulties. The present study assessed 189 graduate seminary students from institutions accredited by the Association of Theological Schools to further understand the relationships between shame, financial distress, depression, anxiety, and spiritual well-being. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that financial well-being and shame would be negatively correlated. Furthermore, we hypothesized that shame would mediate the relationship between financial well-being and a number of negative outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and lack of spiritual well-being. Our findings demonstrated that the seminary population experienced shame in regard to perceived lack of financial well-being; shame was significantly and negatively related to financial well-being and significantly mediated the relationship between financial well-being and depression, anxiety, and spiritual well-being. These results indicate that financial hardship, including student debt, appears to have a far-reaching impact that causes distress on various levels for seminary students and that shame may be an important mechanism in understanding how this happens.