Abstract:
The objective of this research was to study the mental health of female religious practitioners (Satthawas) of Dhammakaya temple, Pathumthani province. This research is a Survey Research between the quantitative and qualitative research, The population is the 200 female religious practitioners (Satthawas) of Dhammakaya Temple who participated in a special meditation program between 29 November - 26 December 2020, The researcher used the basic meditation practice according to the practice of Phramongkonthepmuni (Sodh Candasaro) Luang Pu of Wat Pak Nam Phasi Charoen in this research. Research tool is the Thai Mental Health Indicator or TMHI of the Department of Mental Health 66 items and take the data obtained from the measurements were analyzed the mean and statistics for quatitative data analysis are mean, standard deviation, independent sample test, t-test, and Pearsons Correlation Coefficient. qualitative data were collected by in-depth interview methods and analyzed by content analysis method.
The results of the research were as follows:
1. The overall mental health indicators of this group of the female religious practitioners (Satthawas) of Dhammakaya Temple. Have a total mean score of 150.16 standard deviation of 23.99 that indicated that they having mental health better than general people.
2. The residences were related to the mental health level of the female religious practitioners (Satthawas) of Dhammakaya Temple. It was statistically significant at the .05 level (t = 4.044 *, p-value = .000), that is, the sample group who stayed in the temple had a higher mental health levels than the sample group who stayed outside the temple (The average score is 2.37 and 2.13, respectively)
3. The having of childern is related to the level of mental health of the female religious practitioners (Satthawas) of Dhammakaya Temple. It was statistically significant at the .05 level (t = 1.999 *, p-value = .048), that is, the sample group that no children had a higher mental health level than the sample group that have childern.