Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research

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This publication is the product of a national working group that examined key dimensions of religiousness/spirituality as they relate to physical and mental health outcomes. Its 12 papers include brief literature reviews, recommended instruments, and bibliographies for each of the 12 identified domains. Also included is the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality, an instrument substantially based on select questions from each domain.

The report contains psychometric and population distribution data, including the questions and domains, percentage distributions, and psychometric data from the measure that was included in the 1997-1998 General Social Survey (GSS).* This project and its working group were supported by the Fetzer Institute in collaboration with The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.

The report's Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) was developed by Dr. Lynn Underwood. Dr. Underwood is a former Vice President of the Fetzer Institute and currently Professor of Biomedical Humanities at Hiram College. The latest version of the scale, along with information on its development, usage, and non-English language versions of the scale, can be found at www.dsescale.org.

*The basic purpose of the GSS is to gather and disseminate data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends in attitudes and behaviors, and to compare the United States to other societies.

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