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Title: Developing and testing an original Arabic religiosity scale
Author: Dany R. Khalaf, Sani A.A. Hlais, Ramzi S. Haddad, Chantal M. Mansour, Antoine J. Pelissolo and Wadih J. Naja
Abstract:
Introduction Religion was and still is considered to be a major aspect of life, affecting mental health outcome worldwide and more particularly in the Middle Eastern Arab patients. The aim of this study was to develop an original Arabic religiosity scale and to test its psychometric properties to be used in clinical settings. Patients and methods The study was conducted in two steps: (i) development and initial content validation of items through comprehensive literature review and discussion of the existing scales and (ii) distribution of the questionnaire (which included written consent for the participation in this study) among 236 consecutive mental health adult patients consulting at a private clinic, and statistical analysis was performed to test the structure validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability. Results Principal component analysis referred to as factor analysis revealed good structure validity with one-factor solution. Cronbach’s a coefficient (to test internal consistency) was very satisfactory and was found to be 0.85 for the total scale. Test–retest reliability was also high with k coefficient of 0.77 using the first 20 consecutive patients of the main sample, who were reassessed 2 weeks after the initial administration of the scale. Conclusion The resulting Arabic religiosity scale is an acceptable, reliable, and valid general measure of religious belief, practice, and importance in the daily life of adult psychiatric patients (including times of difficulties). We hope that this scale will be used widely in Lebanon and the Middle East Arab countries. Keywords: beliefs, private and public religiosity, scales, spirituality, statistics
Journal: Middle East Current Psychiatry 2014, 21:127–138
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