The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH): Psychometric Evaluation and Initial Validation of the SSSH Baseline Spirituality Survey
Erica T. Warner,
Blake Victor Kent,
Ying Zhang,
M. Austin Argentieri,
Wade C. Rowatt,
Kenneth Pargament,
Harold G. Koenig,
Lynn Underwood,
Shelley A. Cole,
Martha L. Daviglus,
Alka M. Kanaya,
Julie R. Palmer,
Tianyi Huang,
Mark A. Blais,
Alexandra E. Shields
Affiliations
Erica T. Warner
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Blake Victor Kent
Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Ying Zhang
Department of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
M. Austin Argentieri
Harvard/MGH Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Wade C. Rowatt
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, USA
Kenneth Pargament
Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403, USA
Harold G. Koenig
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
Lynn Underwood
Inamori International Center for Ethics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Shelley A. Cole
Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78227, USA
Martha L. Daviglus
Institute for Minority Health and Chancellor’s Office, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Alka M. Kanaya
Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA
Julie R. Palmer
Slone Epidemiology Center, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Tianyi Huang
Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Mark A. Blais
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
Alexandra E. Shields
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH). The SS-1 contains a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments, and our purpose here was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in a racially/ethnically diverse sample. Psychometric properties of the SS-1 were evaluated using standard psychometric analyses in 4563 SSSH participants. Predictive validity of SS-1 scales was assessed in relation to the physical and mental health component scores from the Short-Form 12 Health Survey (SF-12). Scales exhibited adequate to strong psychometric properties and demonstrated construct and predictive validity. Overall, the correlational findings provided solid evidence that the SS-1 scales are associated with a wide range of relevant R/S attitudes, mental health, and to a lesser degree physical health.
