
Research view
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
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Journal: | Middle East Current Psychiatry 2014, 21:127–138 |
Text: | |
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