Open-Ended and Closed-Ended Measures of Religious/Spiritual Struggles: A Mixed-Methods Study
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 =...
Authors: | ; ; ; ; |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
MDPI
[2020]
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In: |
Religions
Year: 2020, Volume: 11, Issue: 10 |
Further subjects: | B
religious and spiritual struggles
B closed-ended items B religious belief salience B open-ended items |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | 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. |
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ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel11100505 |