Distinguishing Religious and Spiritual Struggles from Religiousness and Negative Emotionality

Nick Stauner, Joshua B. Grubbs, Julie J. Exline, & Kenneth I. Pargament

• The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale*

• 26 items, 6 dimensions:“Over the past few months, I have...”

*Exline, Pargament, Grubbs, & Yali (2014). Psychology of Religion & Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222.

Example itemDimension

“wondered if God really cares”Divine

“felt attacked by the devil or by evil spirits”Demonic

“had conflicts with other people about [R/S] matters”Interpersonal

“felt guilty for not living up to my moral standards”Moral

“questioned whether life really matters”Ultimate Meaning

“felt troubled by doubts or questions about [R/S]”Doubt

Religiousness

r = .50Diviner = .19

r = .28Demonicr = .66

r = .34Interpersonal

r = .16

r = .36Moralr = .45

r = .56Meaning

r = -.15

r = .37Doubtr = .11

Negativeemotionality

CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04 (N = 4,306)r = -.01

.95 .05.91 .07.98 .03CFI = , RMSEA =

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Divine Demonic Interpersonal MoralUltimateMeaning

Doubt

Original RSS measurement model*

*Exline et al. (2014). PRS.

2nd-orderfactor

*Restricted bifactor model of the RSS*Reise, Moore, & Haviland (2010). Journal of Personality Assessment, 92(6), 544–559.

Unrestricted

General factor of religious/spiritual struggles

Implied by factor correlations:

(N = 4,306)

r = .06Generalr = .87

r = .49Diviner = .06

r = .50Diviner = .19

r = .58Meaning

r = .02

r = .32Demonic

r = .09

r = .33Interpersonal

r = .04

r = .41Moralr = -.13

r = .37Doubtr = .06

r = .56Meaning

r = -.15

r = .28Demonicr = .66

r = .34Interpersonal

r = .16

r = .36Moralr = .45

r = .37Doubtr = .11

(N = 4,306)CFI = .92, RMSEA = .04CFI = .93, RMSEA = .03r = -.01

Negativeemotionality

Religiousness

The RSS measures neither distress nor religiousness per se.

R/S struggles are independent (but related!) constructs.

A way to control religiousness may be embedded in the RSSCaveat: structure and correlations change in multi-group SEM with religiousness

Conclusions