Spirituality and depression have been studied in relation to mental health for many years, but not in the context of Korean seminarians. This study explored the association between spiritual well-being, depression, and self-esteem—the latter playing a mediating role—using a sample of Korean Protestant College seminarians. In addition, gender differences in the values of variables were examined using the latent mean analysis (LMA) method; the mediational pathway from spiritual well-being to depression via self-esteem was investigated through the multigroup structural model analysis. A total of 434 seminarians from one Baptist theological university/seminary and one Presbyterian college in South Korea responded to survey questions about spiritual well-being—it was categorized into religious well-being (RWB) and existential well-being (EWB)—self-esteem, and depression. Male seminarians (N = 177) obtained a higher mean score on a measure of self-esteem; female seminarians (N = 246) obtained a higher mean score on a measure of depression. EWB had a significant direct effect on self-esteem and depression in both groups. However, EWB had a significant indirect effect on depression via self-esteem as a mediator only for female seminarians. Meanwhile, RWB did not influence self-esteem or depression in either group. Implications based on these findings are discussed.
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