Abstract
Religious and spiritual struggles are typically assessed by self-report scales using closed-ended items, yet nascent research suggests that using open-ended interviews and prompts may complement and advance assessment and theories. In the current mixed-methods study, undergraduate participants (N = 976) completed open-ended descriptions of their religious and spiritual struggles, the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS), and a quantitative measure of religious belief salience. Qualitative description showed that the themes emerging from open-ended descriptions generally fell within the broad domains of the RSS though some descriptions reflected more contextualized struggles. Scores derived from the open-ended responses to assess RSS domains achieved evidence of reliability, and quantitative correlational analyses provided support for convergent and discriminant validity with the RSS. Correlations revealed a mix of similar and divergent associations between methods of assessing religious and spiritual struggles and religious belief salience. Open-ended descriptions of religious and spiritual struggles may yield reliable and valid information that is related to but distinct from assessments relying on closed-ended items.
Highlights
Religion and spirituality (r/s) are sources of comfort, support, and security for many individuals (Koenig 2012; Wilt et al 2018); people commonly experience r/s struggles, which are defined as tensions, concerns, and negative thoughts and emotions around r/s (Exline 2013; Exline and Rose 2013; Pargament and Exline forthcoming)
Research has progressed toward these goals over the past few decades, with the development of standardized measures of different domains of r/s struggles using closed-ended items
We found that themes characterizing open-ended descriptions of r/s struggles tended to fall within the domains covered by the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS), individual codes reflected both the broad r/s struggle domains assessed by the RSS and more contextualized r/s struggles that are not assessed by the RSS
Summary
Religion and spirituality (r/s) are sources of comfort, support, and security for many individuals (Koenig 2012; Wilt et al 2018); people commonly experience r/s struggles, which are defined as tensions, concerns, and negative thoughts and emotions around r/s (Exline 2013; Exline and Rose 2013; Pargament and Exline forthcoming). Measurement of r/s struggles is typically done with self-report scales using closed-ended items and Likert-type scales designed to assess either specific domains of r/s struggles individually (Krause and Ellison 2009) or multiple aspects of r/s struggles simultaneously (Exline et al 2000; Pargament et al 2011). Having a diverse array of reliable and valid self-report scales including closed-ended items is important for assessing the breadth and depth of r/s struggles efficiently and flexibly; yet there may be at least a few good reasons to complement this work by assessing r/s struggles with open-ended items as well. Measures designed using closed-ended and open-ended items may overlap and/or diverge. Open-ended assessments may provide incremental validity beyond closed-ended assessments for predicting important outcomes
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