Five-Factor Structure of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale and Its Relationship with Clinical Psychological Distress in Emerging Adults

John Lace,Paul Handal,Kristen Haeberlein

doi:10.3390/rel8100230

Abstract

This study examined the factor structure of the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) and its relation to clinically significant psychological distress in 644 (445 female) emerging adults from a private, Catholic university. The STS is broadly used in psychological research as a measure of spirituality. However, previous work has identified extensive psychometric problems with the STS, including variable factor structures and poor internal consistencies for its subscales. Results from exploratory factor analyses suggested a five-factor structure that accounted for over 57% of variance. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested this five-factor structure provided significantly better fit than the originally purported three-factor structure. Females reported significantly higher STS scores. Males with low reported spirituality reported significantly greater (and clinically significant) symptoms of psychological distress than lowly and moderately spiritual males. Females reporting low, moderate, and high levels of spirituality did not report significantly different levels of psychological distress. The findings provided contrasting conclusions from previous psychometric work on the STS, encourage continued study of its dimensionality across populations, and suggest a unique relationship between the STS and clinically significant psychological distress in emerging adults.

Highlights

Religion and spirituality have been at the forefront of social scientific research in recent years.Religion is often defined as a “multidimensional construct that includes beliefs, behaviors, rituals, and ceremonies that may be held or practiced in private or public settings” (Koenig 2012, pp. 2–3), while there is little consensus among researchers on the definition of spirituality
A confirmatory factor analysis was performed on all Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) items to determine the fit for the three-factor model proposed by Piedmont (1999)
Other indices to be used for model comparison (Akaike information criteria [Akaike information criterion (AIC)] and Bayesian information criteria [BIC]) are provided below

Summary

Introduction

Religion and spirituality have been at the forefront of social scientific research in recent years.Religion is often defined as a “multidimensional construct that includes beliefs, behaviors, rituals, and ceremonies that may be held or practiced in private or public settings” (Koenig 2012, pp. 2–3), while there is little consensus among researchers on the definition of spirituality. Religion and spirituality have been at the forefront of social scientific research in recent years. Religion is often defined as a “multidimensional construct that includes beliefs, behaviors, rituals, and ceremonies that may be held or practiced in private or public settings” 30), and are often conflated in both scientific study and in lay discussion, spirituality remains a unique construct deserving of individual empirical study (Koenig 2012; Zinnbauer et al 1997). The STS assesses the “transcendent perspective in which a person sees a fundamental unity underlying the diverse strivings of nature” It contains 24 items that assess three core constructs related to spiritual transcendence, including Universality, Prayer Fulfillment, and Connectedness.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion