Abstract
Measures of spirituality should be multidimensional and inclusive and as such be applicable to persons with different worldviews and spiritual-religious beliefs and attitudes. Nevertheless, for distinct research purposes it may be relevant to more accurately differentiate specific religious practices, rituals and behaviors. It was thus the aim of this study to validate a variant version of the SpREUK-P questionnaire (which measures frequency of engagement in a large spectrum of organized and private religious, spiritual, existential and philosophical practices). This variant version was enriched with items addressing specific rituals and practices of Catholic religiosity, by further differentiating items of praying and meditation. The instrument was then tested in a sample of Catholics (inclusively nuns and monks), Protestants, and in non-religious persons. This 23-item SpREUK-RP (Religious Practices) questionnaire has four factors (i.e., Prosocial-Humanistic practices; General religious practices; Catholic religious practices; Existentialistic practices/Gratitude and Awe) and good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha ranging from 0.84 to 0.94). An advantage of this instrument is that it is not generally contaminated with items related to persons’ well-being, and it is not intermixed with specific religious attitudes and convictions.
Highlights
IntroductionOur societies are becoming more and more diverse (i.e., culturally, ethnically, philosophically, politically), and a person’s spiritual attitude may become more diverse, ranging from disinterest or strict a-religiosity to explicit dedicated religiosity or individualized patchwork spirituality (whatever the specific faith tradition is)
Our societies are becoming more and more diverse, and a person’s spiritual attitude may become more diverse, ranging from disinterest or strict a-religiosity to explicit dedicated religiosity or individualized patchwork spirituality
The aim of this study was to validate a variant version of the SpREUK-P questionnaire that was enriched with items addressing specific Catholic rituals and practices, and with more differentiated praying and meditation items
Summary
Our societies are becoming more and more diverse (i.e., culturally, ethnically, philosophically, politically), and a person’s spiritual attitude may become more diverse, ranging from disinterest or strict a-religiosity to explicit dedicated religiosity or individualized patchwork spirituality (whatever the specific faith tradition is). Measures of spirituality should be multidimensional in terms of the variety of topics, and in terms of the related behaviors (Büssing 2012)—but not that exclusive that they are valid only for specific religious groups. Apart from this diversity, one has to consider different ‘layers’ of spirituality that could be exemplified by Faith/Experience as the influencing core dimension, by Attitudes formed and shaped from this core dimension, and by subsequent Behaviors related to these attitudes and convictions (Table 1). It might be appropriate to use different valid measures related to these layers simultaneously instead of using instruments that condense all of these topics into one rather unsatisfying and less differentiated scale. One has to clearly differentiate the ‘core’ dimensions (the faith/experience component) and the related ‘outcomes’ (i.e., attitudes, behaviors and rituals) (Table 1)
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