Assessing the Incremental Validity of the Religious Problem-Solving Scale in the Prediction of Clergy Burnout

Abstract

To meet the rigorous standards set by the social sciences, religious research needs to answer two questions: To what degree are constructs developed on spirituality separate and distinct from established psychosocial variables; and To what degree do religious constructs provide insights into human functioning over and above those already provided by existing psychological constructs? Addressing these questions, the current study evaluated the relative contributions of Pargament et al.'s (1988) Religious Problem-Solving scale, the NEO-FFI (a measure of the five-factor model of personality; Costa and McCrae 1992) and two measures of environmental stress in predicting burnout among American Baptist clergy on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson 1986). The results indicated that the Religious Problem-Solving scale was a construct relatively distinct from the other psychological constructs. Hierarchical multiple regression results indicated that while the Religious Problem-Solving scale showed incremental significance in predicting burnout over the other psychosocial measures on two of the Maslach Burnout Inventory scales, its contribution was small. A methodology sensitive to the incremental validity question that uses the five-factor model as a point of reference is recommended for future research.