The Polish adaptation of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Factorial structure and psychometric properties
Keywords:
religiosity; religious struggle; measurement of religiosity
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to present the theoretical basis and factorial structure of the Polish adaptation of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale – RSSS-PL. We present the results of two studies. Study 1 included an exploratory factor analysis, which showed that the Polish adaptation of the RSSS, like the original version, measures six domains of religious or spiritual struggle: divine (negative emotions centered on beliefs about God or perceived relationship with God), demonic (concern that the devil or evil spirits are attacking you or causing negative events), moral (wrestling with attempts to follow moral principles; worry or guilt about perceived offenses by the self), ultimate meaning (concern about not perceiving deep meaning in one’s life), interpersonal (concern about negative experiences with religious people or institutions; interpersonal conflict around religious issues), and doubt (feeling troubled by doubts or questions about one’s r / s beliefs). In Study 2, we confirmed the six-factor structure of the Polish adaptation of the RSSS using the confirmatory factor analysis. The RSSS-PL subscales had high reliability indices and high validity in relation to measures of religiousness and stress. This method has acceptable psychometric properties and may serve as a valuable tool in studies on religion as a source of struggles.
References
Ano, G. G., & Pargament, K. I. (2013). Predictors of spiritual struggles: An exploratory study. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 16(4), 419-434.
Batson, C. D., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1991). Measuring religion as quest: 2) Reliability concerns. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(4), 430-447.
Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588-606.
Bradley, R., Schwartz, A. C., & Kaslow, N. J. (2005). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among low-income, African American women with a history of intimate partner violence and suicidal behaviors: Self-esteem, social support, and religious coping. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18(6), 685-696.
Bryant, A. N., & Astin, H. S. (2008). The correlates of spiritual struggle during the college years. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(1), 1-27.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396.
Dew, R. E., Daniel, S. S., Goldston, D. B., McCall, W. V., Kuchibhatla, M., Schleifer, C., . . . Koenig, H. G. (2010). A prospective study of religion/spirituality and depressive symptoms among adolescent psychiatric patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 120(1), 149-157.
Exline, J. J. (2003). Anger toward God: A brief overview of existing research. Psychology of Religion Newsletter, 29(1), 1-8.
Exline, J. J. (2013). Religious and spiritual struggles. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 459-475). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208-222.
Exline, J. J., Park, C. L., Smyth, J. M., & Carey, M. P. (2011). Anger toward God: Social-cognitive predictors, prevalence, and links with adjustment to bereavement and cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(1), 129-148.
Exline, J. J., & Rose, E. D. (2005). Religious and spiritual struggles. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 315-330). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Exline, J. J., Yali, A. M., & Sanderson, W. C. (2000). Guilt, discord, and alienation: The role of religious strain in depression and suicidality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56, 1481-1496.
Franczak, K., Klein, P., Śliwak, J., & Zarzycka, B. (2010). Narcisismo e tipi di religiosità [Narcissism and religiosity]. Paper presented at Convegno SIPR: Religiosità e narcisismo [Religiosity and narcissism], Verona, Italy, November 21, 2010.
Funk, R. A. (1958). Experimental scales used in a study of religious attitudes as related to manifest anxiety. Psychological Newsletter, 9, 238-244.
Hambleton, R. K. (2001). The next generation of the ITC test translation and adaptation guidelines. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 17(3), 164-172.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55.
Huber, S. (2003). Zentralität und Inhalt: ein neues multidimensionales Messmodell der Religiosität [Centrality and content: A new multidimensional measurement model for religiosity]. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS). Religions, 3, 710-724.
Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (2002). A longitudinal study of religious doubts in high school and beyond: Relationships, stability, and searching for answers. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41(2), 255-266.
Johnson, C. V., & Hayes, J. A. (2003). Troubled spirits: Prevalence and predictors of religious and spiritual concerns among university students and counseling center clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50(4), 409-419.
Krause, N., Chatters, L. M., Meltzer, T., & Morgan, D. L. (2000). Negative interaction in the Church: Insights from focus groups with older adults. Review of Religious Research, 41(4), 510-533.
Krumrei, E. J., Mahoney, A., & Pargament, K. I. (2009). Divorce and the divine: The role of spirituality in adjustment to divorce. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(2), 373-383.
Kushner, H. S. (1981). When bad things happen to good people. New York, NY, US: Schocken.
Larson, D. B., & Larson, S. S. (2003). Spirituality’s potential relevance to physical and emotional health: A brief review of quantitative research. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 31(1), 37-51.
Lawson, R., Drebing, C., Berg, G., Vincellette, A., & Penk, W. (1998). The long-term impact of child abuse on religious behavior and spirituality in men. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(5), 369-380.
McConnell, K. M., Pargament, K. I., Ellison, C. G., & Flannelly, K. J. (2006). Examining the links between spiritual struggles and symptoms of psychopathology in a national sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(12), 146-1484.
Nowosielski, M., & Bartczuk, R. P. (2011). Skala Kryzysu Religijnego W. Prężyny [Religious Crisis Scale by W. Prezyna]. In M. Jarosz (Ed.), Psychologiczny pomiar religijności [Psychological measurement of religiosity] (pp. 73-88). Lublin, Poland: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL [John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Scientific Society].
Oman, D., & Thoresen, C. E. (2005). Do religion and spirituality influence health? In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 435-459). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519-543.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., Tarakeshwar, N., & Hahn, J. (2001). Religious struggle as a predictor of mortality among medically ill elderly patients: A 2-year longitudinal study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(15), 1881-1885.
Pargament, K. I., Magyar, G. M., Benore, E., & Mahoney, A. (2005). Sacrilege: A study of sacred loss and desecration and their implications for health and well-being in a community sample. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(1), 59-78.
Pargament, K. I., Mahoney, A., Exline, J. J., Jones, J. W., & Shafranske, E. P. (2013). Envisioning an integrative paradigm for the psychology of religion and spirituality. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 3-19). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Pargament, K. I., Murray-Swank, N. A., Magyar, G. M., & Ano, G. G. (2005). Spiritual struggle: A phenomenon of interest to psychology and religion. In W. R. Miller & H. D. Delaney (Eds.), Judeo-Christian perspectives on psychology: Human nature, motivation, and change (pp. 245-268). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Pargament, K. I., Murray-Swank, N. A., & Mahoney, A. (2008). Problem and solution: The spiritual dimension of clergy sexual abuse and its impact on survivors. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 17(3-4), 397-420.
Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 710-724.
Pargament, K. I., Tarakeshwar, N., Ellison, C. G., & Wulff, K. M. (2001). Religious coping among the religious: The relationships between religious coping and well-being in a national sample of Presbyterian clergy, elders, and members. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(3), 497-513.
Park, C. L., Edmondson, D., & Hale-Smith, A. (2013). Why religion? Meaning as motivation. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 157-171). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Park, C. L., Edmondson, D., Hale-Smith, A., & Blank, T. O. (2009). Religiousness/spirituality and health behaviors in younger adult cancer survivors: Does faith promote a healthier lifestyle? Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32(6), 582-591.
Raiya, H. A., Pargament, K. I., Mahoney, A., & Stein, C. H. (2008). A psychological measure of Islamic religiousness: Development and evidence for reliability and validity. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18(4), 291-315.
Rosmarin, D. H., Krumrei, E. J., & Andersson, G. (2009). Religion as a predictor of psychological distress in two religious communities. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38(1), 54-64.
Sijtsma, K. (2009). On the use, the misuse, and the very limited usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha. Psychometrika, 74(1), 107-120.
Socha, P. M. (1999). Ways religious orientations work: A Polish replication of measurement of religious orientations. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 9(3), 209-228.
Wheaton, B., Muthén, B., Alwin, D. F., & Summers, G. F. (1977). Assessing reliability and stability in panel models. Sociological Methodology, 8, 84-136.
Wilt, J. A., Grubbs, J. B., Exline, J. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2016). Personality, religious and spiritual struggles, and well-being. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 8(4), 341-351.
Wood, B. T., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Exline, J. J., Yali, A. M., Aten, J. D., & McMinn, M. R. (2010). Development, refinement, and psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward God Scale (ATGS-9). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2(3), 148-167.
Zarzycka, B. (2007). Skala Centralności Religijności Stefana Hubera [Centrality of Religiosity Scale by S. Huber]. Roczniki Psychologiczne, 10(1), 133-157.
Zarzycka, B. (2011). Polska adaptacja Skali Centralności Religijności S. Hubera [Polish adaptation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale by S. Huber]. In M. Jarosz (Ed.), Psychologiczny pomiar religijności [Psychological measurement of religiosity] (pp. 231-261). Lublin, Poland: Towa-rzystwo Naukowe KUL [The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Scientific Society].
Zarzycka, B. (2014). The internal structure of the Polish adaptation of the Religious Comfort and Strain Scale. Roczniki Psychologiczne, 17(4), 695-708.
Zarzycka, B. (2016). Prevalence and social-cognitive predictors of anger toward God in a Polish sample. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26(3), 225-239.
Zarzycka, B. (2017). Zmagania religijne. Uwarunkowania i funkcje [Religious struggle. Determinants and functions]. Lublin, Poland: The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Press.
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., & Scott, A. B. (1999). The emerging meanings of religiousness and spirituality: Problems and prospects. Journal of Personality, 67(6), 889-919.
Batson, C. D., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1991). Measuring religion as quest: 2) Reliability concerns. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(4), 430-447.
Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88(3), 588-606.
Bradley, R., Schwartz, A. C., & Kaslow, N. J. (2005). Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among low-income, African American women with a history of intimate partner violence and suicidal behaviors: Self-esteem, social support, and religious coping. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 18(6), 685-696.
Bryant, A. N., & Astin, H. S. (2008). The correlates of spiritual struggle during the college years. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(1), 1-27.
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396.
Dew, R. E., Daniel, S. S., Goldston, D. B., McCall, W. V., Kuchibhatla, M., Schleifer, C., . . . Koenig, H. G. (2010). A prospective study of religion/spirituality and depressive symptoms among adolescent psychiatric patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 120(1), 149-157.
Exline, J. J. (2003). Anger toward God: A brief overview of existing research. Psychology of Religion Newsletter, 29(1), 1-8.
Exline, J. J. (2013). Religious and spiritual struggles. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 459-475). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208-222.
Exline, J. J., Park, C. L., Smyth, J. M., & Carey, M. P. (2011). Anger toward God: Social-cognitive predictors, prevalence, and links with adjustment to bereavement and cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(1), 129-148.
Exline, J. J., & Rose, E. D. (2005). Religious and spiritual struggles. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 315-330). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Exline, J. J., Yali, A. M., & Sanderson, W. C. (2000). Guilt, discord, and alienation: The role of religious strain in depression and suicidality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56, 1481-1496.
Franczak, K., Klein, P., Śliwak, J., & Zarzycka, B. (2010). Narcisismo e tipi di religiosità [Narcissism and religiosity]. Paper presented at Convegno SIPR: Religiosità e narcisismo [Religiosity and narcissism], Verona, Italy, November 21, 2010.
Funk, R. A. (1958). Experimental scales used in a study of religious attitudes as related to manifest anxiety. Psychological Newsletter, 9, 238-244.
Hambleton, R. K. (2001). The next generation of the ITC test translation and adaptation guidelines. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 17(3), 164-172.
Hu, L., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55.
Huber, S. (2003). Zentralität und Inhalt: ein neues multidimensionales Messmodell der Religiosität [Centrality and content: A new multidimensional measurement model for religiosity]. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.
Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS). Religions, 3, 710-724.
Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (2002). A longitudinal study of religious doubts in high school and beyond: Relationships, stability, and searching for answers. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 41(2), 255-266.
Johnson, C. V., & Hayes, J. A. (2003). Troubled spirits: Prevalence and predictors of religious and spiritual concerns among university students and counseling center clients. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 50(4), 409-419.
Krause, N., Chatters, L. M., Meltzer, T., & Morgan, D. L. (2000). Negative interaction in the Church: Insights from focus groups with older adults. Review of Religious Research, 41(4), 510-533.
Krumrei, E. J., Mahoney, A., & Pargament, K. I. (2009). Divorce and the divine: The role of spirituality in adjustment to divorce. Journal of Marriage and Family, 71(2), 373-383.
Kushner, H. S. (1981). When bad things happen to good people. New York, NY, US: Schocken.
Larson, D. B., & Larson, S. S. (2003). Spirituality’s potential relevance to physical and emotional health: A brief review of quantitative research. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 31(1), 37-51.
Lawson, R., Drebing, C., Berg, G., Vincellette, A., & Penk, W. (1998). The long-term impact of child abuse on religious behavior and spirituality in men. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22(5), 369-380.
McConnell, K. M., Pargament, K. I., Ellison, C. G., & Flannelly, K. J. (2006). Examining the links between spiritual struggles and symptoms of psychopathology in a national sample. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(12), 146-1484.
Nowosielski, M., & Bartczuk, R. P. (2011). Skala Kryzysu Religijnego W. Prężyny [Religious Crisis Scale by W. Prezyna]. In M. Jarosz (Ed.), Psychologiczny pomiar religijności [Psychological measurement of religiosity] (pp. 73-88). Lublin, Poland: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL [John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Scientific Society].
Oman, D., & Thoresen, C. E. (2005). Do religion and spirituality influence health? In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 435-459). New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Pargament, K. I. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping. New York, London: The Guilford Press.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. M. (2000). The many methods of religious coping: Development and initial validation of the RCOPE. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56(4), 519-543.
Pargament, K. I., Koenig, H. G., Tarakeshwar, N., & Hahn, J. (2001). Religious struggle as a predictor of mortality among medically ill elderly patients: A 2-year longitudinal study. Archives of Internal Medicine, 161(15), 1881-1885.
Pargament, K. I., Magyar, G. M., Benore, E., & Mahoney, A. (2005). Sacrilege: A study of sacred loss and desecration and their implications for health and well-being in a community sample. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(1), 59-78.
Pargament, K. I., Mahoney, A., Exline, J. J., Jones, J. W., & Shafranske, E. P. (2013). Envisioning an integrative paradigm for the psychology of religion and spirituality. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 3-19). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Pargament, K. I., Murray-Swank, N. A., Magyar, G. M., & Ano, G. G. (2005). Spiritual struggle: A phenomenon of interest to psychology and religion. In W. R. Miller & H. D. Delaney (Eds.), Judeo-Christian perspectives on psychology: Human nature, motivation, and change (pp. 245-268). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Pargament, K. I., Murray-Swank, N. A., & Mahoney, A. (2008). Problem and solution: The spiritual dimension of clergy sexual abuse and its impact on survivors. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 17(3-4), 397-420.
Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., & Perez, L. (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37(4), 710-724.
Pargament, K. I., Tarakeshwar, N., Ellison, C. G., & Wulff, K. M. (2001). Religious coping among the religious: The relationships between religious coping and well-being in a national sample of Presbyterian clergy, elders, and members. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(3), 497-513.
Park, C. L., Edmondson, D., & Hale-Smith, A. (2013). Why religion? Meaning as motivation. In K. I. Pargament, J. J. Exline, & J. W. Jones (Eds.), APA handbook of psychology, religion, and spirituality. Vol. 1: Context, theory, and research (pp. 157-171). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.
Park, C. L., Edmondson, D., Hale-Smith, A., & Blank, T. O. (2009). Religiousness/spirituality and health behaviors in younger adult cancer survivors: Does faith promote a healthier lifestyle? Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32(6), 582-591.
Raiya, H. A., Pargament, K. I., Mahoney, A., & Stein, C. H. (2008). A psychological measure of Islamic religiousness: Development and evidence for reliability and validity. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18(4), 291-315.
Rosmarin, D. H., Krumrei, E. J., & Andersson, G. (2009). Religion as a predictor of psychological distress in two religious communities. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 38(1), 54-64.
Sijtsma, K. (2009). On the use, the misuse, and the very limited usefulness of Cronbach’s Alpha. Psychometrika, 74(1), 107-120.
Socha, P. M. (1999). Ways religious orientations work: A Polish replication of measurement of religious orientations. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 9(3), 209-228.
Wheaton, B., Muthén, B., Alwin, D. F., & Summers, G. F. (1977). Assessing reliability and stability in panel models. Sociological Methodology, 8, 84-136.
Wilt, J. A., Grubbs, J. B., Exline, J. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2016). Personality, religious and spiritual struggles, and well-being. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 8(4), 341-351.
Wood, B. T., Worthington, E. L. Jr., Exline, J. J., Yali, A. M., Aten, J. D., & McMinn, M. R. (2010). Development, refinement, and psychometric properties of the Attitudes Toward God Scale (ATGS-9). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 2(3), 148-167.
Zarzycka, B. (2007). Skala Centralności Religijności Stefana Hubera [Centrality of Religiosity Scale by S. Huber]. Roczniki Psychologiczne, 10(1), 133-157.
Zarzycka, B. (2011). Polska adaptacja Skali Centralności Religijności S. Hubera [Polish adaptation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale by S. Huber]. In M. Jarosz (Ed.), Psychologiczny pomiar religijności [Psychological measurement of religiosity] (pp. 231-261). Lublin, Poland: Towa-rzystwo Naukowe KUL [The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Scientific Society].
Zarzycka, B. (2014). The internal structure of the Polish adaptation of the Religious Comfort and Strain Scale. Roczniki Psychologiczne, 17(4), 695-708.
Zarzycka, B. (2016). Prevalence and social-cognitive predictors of anger toward God in a Polish sample. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 26(3), 225-239.
Zarzycka, B. (2017). Zmagania religijne. Uwarunkowania i funkcje [Religious struggle. Determinants and functions]. Lublin, Poland: The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin Press.
Zinnbauer, B. J., Pargament, K. I., & Scott, A. B. (1999). The emerging meanings of religiousness and spirituality: Problems and prospects. Journal of Personality, 67(6), 889-919.
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