IntroductionReligious and spiritual aspects of life present a variety of challenges.The Religious and Spiritual Struggles scale (RSS; Exline, Pargament, Grubbs,

& Yali, 2014) proposes a 6-factor structure of these problems’ themes: Divine: conflict or insecurity in relationship with God Demonic: persecution by the devil or evil spirits Interpersonal: conflicts with people related to religion/spirituality Moral: concerns with morality of one’s actions and desires Meaning: doubting the importance, purpose, or meaning of

one’s life Doubt: discomfort with religious/spiritual doubts and

questions

RSS correlations with religiousness vary across the six factors.All RSS factors relate positively to anxiety, depression, anger, and loneliness.Spiritual struggles relate to many other forms of distress (Ano & Pargament, 2012).A strong religious orienting system may buffer any effects of stress on struggles.This would imply weaker correlations for stress & RSS, given high religiousness.

Hypothesis 1: Perceived stress predicts greater religious & spiritual struggles.Hypothesis 2: Religiousness and stress interact, predicting less RSS.

MethodParticipantsN = 2,589 USA undergraduates Mean age = 19.1 64% female72% White / Caucasian / European American 81% Christian

MeasuresReligious and Spiritual Struggles (Exline et al., 2014)

Six subscales: Divine, Demonic, Interpersonal, Moral, Meaning, & DoubtRated on a 5-point Likert scale for applicability over past few months

Religious belief salience and religious participation (Blaine & Crocker, 1995)Belief salience: 4 items rated for agreement on an 11-point Likert scale

E.g., “My religious/spiritual beliefs lie behind my whole approach to life.”Participation: 8 items rated for frequency in past week on a 6-point scale

E.g., “prayed or meditated”, “thought about religious/spiritual issues”

Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983)Ten items rated for frequency in past month on a 5-point scale

Excluding items 4, 5, 12, & 13 from the original 14-item scaleFour about control, e.g., “Felt that you were on top of things”Six about stress, e.g., “Felt nervous and ‘stressed’”

Religious and Spiritual Struggles, Perceived Stress, and ReligiousnessNick Staunera, Joshua A. Wilta, Kenneth I. Pargamentb, & Julie J. Exlinea

aCase Western Reserve University bBowling Green State University

ReferencesAno, G. G., &

Pargament, K. I. (2012). Predictors of spiritual struggles: An exploratory study. Mental Health, Religion, & Culture, 16(4), 1–16.

Blaine, B., & Crocker, J. (1995). Religiousness, race, and psychological well-being: Exploring social psychological moderators. PSPB, 21(10), 1031–1041.

Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 386–396.

Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208–222.

Acknowledgement

We wish to express our gratitude for funding from the John Templeton Foundation (Grant #36094).

ResultsAll factor scores were estimated using DWLS to fit SEMs to 2-step polychoric correlations.

PSS measurement model improves with two correlated factors for stress & control items.

Single factor: χ²(35) = 4506; TLI = .85; RMSEA = .21; WRMR = 7.3Two factors: χ²(34) = 611; TLI = .98; RMSEA = .08; WRMR = 2.7; factor

correlation = -.43

Religious belief salience & participation are strongly collinear (r = .86, VIFs = 3.9).Religiousness was estimated as a second-order factor from belief salience & participation.

No interactions in multiple regressions predicting RSS from PSS factors and religiousness.Main effects were estimated as a structural equation model (see Figure).Second-order RSS factor scores estimated from six first-order factor scores.

Perceived stress β = .34; perceived control β = -.12; religiousness β = .14

Contact: NickStauner@gmail.com

Figure. Structural equation model predicting struggles from stress and religiousness

Model fitΧ²

Χ² dfTLI

RMSEAWRMR

statistics

7067996

.992

.0492.332

DiscussionThe PSS has two factors. Perceived stress and control correlate moderately, but are not opposite ends of a unidimensional

construct.Hypothesis 1 was supported. Perceived stress predicts RSS factors moderately and more strongly than perceived control,

except demonic struggle.Hypothesis 2 was not supported. All interactions were insignificant. Religiousness does not reduce any effects of perceived

stress on R/S struggles.

Perceived stress explains the most variance in struggles overall. Religiousness only explains more in demonic and moral struggles.Religious and spiritual struggles may arise from stress generally, but religiousness may also increase some and decrease others.

Perceived control predicts less struggle with supernatural agents and ultimate meaning, but matters less in relationships, morals, and doubt.Lack of control may be attributed to control by supernatural agents or cause existential confusion. Other struggles may be more situational.

Divine Demonic Interpersonal MoralUltimate Meaning Doubt

R. Belief Salience

Religious Participation

Perceived Stress

PerceivedControl

Religiousness

.86 .95

.55

.29 -.17

.13 -.17

.23

.16 .34

-.07

.26-.06

-.19

-.06

.35 -.14

.25 -.06

-.45Perceived Stress

Scale(PSS)

Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale(RSS)

Note. All paths p < .05. RSS factor correlations omitted. The strongest predictor of each struggle factor is bolded.