Developing and Validating a Questionnaire to Measure Spirituality: A Psychometric Process

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to describe the processes undertaken to evaluate the psychometric properties of aquestionnaire developed to measure spirituality and examine the relationship between spirituality and coping in youngadults with diabetes.The specific validation processes used were: content and face validity, construct validity using factor analysis, reliabilityand internal consistency using test-retest reliability and Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient.The exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors: self-awareness, the importance of spiritual beliefs, spiritualpractices, and spiritual needs. The items on the Spirituality Questionnaire (SQ) revealed factor loading $\geq$0.5. Reliabilityprocesses indicated that the SQ is reliable: Cronbach’s alpha 0.94 for the global SQ and between 0.80-0.91 for the foursubscales. Test-retest statistic examination revealed stability of the responses at two time points 10 weeks apart.The final questionnaire consists of 29 items and the psychometrics indicated that it is valid and reliable.