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Cross-Cultural Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Brief Religious Coping Scale (A-BRCS)

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to translate and validate the psychometric properties of an Arabic Brief Religious Coping Scale. A descriptive correlational design was used to conduct the study among participants of 403 Iraqi secondary school students. The A-BRCS and both the subscales, positive and negative, had Cronbach’s alphas of .70, .86 and .82, respectively. All inter-item and item-to-total correlations for each subscale were above the recommended criteria of .30. Factor loadings of the positive subscale using oblique (oblimin) and orthogonal (varimax) rotations ranged from .72 to .86 and from .71 to .86, respectively. Factor loadings of the negative subscale using oblimin and varimax rotations ranged from .64 to .83 and from .63 to .83, respectively. The A-BRCS was found to be a valid and reliable instrument to measure religious coping among Iraqi secondary school students.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Iraq.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychiatry and Applied Psychology, School of Medicine, The University of Nottingham, 57 Brook Court, Player Street, Nottingham, NG7 5PP, UK

    Ashraf Al-Hadethe, Nigel Hunt, Shirley Thomas & Abdulgaffar Al-Qaysi

  2. Department of Education and Psychology, College of Education for Women, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq

    Abdulgaffar Al-Qaysi

  3. Division of Rehabilitation and Ageing, School of Medicine, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Shirley Thomas

Authors
  1. Ashraf Al-Hadethe
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  2. Nigel Hunt
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  3. Shirley Thomas
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  4. Abdulgaffar Al-Qaysi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashraf Al-Hadethe.

Additional information

Implications for Further Research and Practice Translating and having a valid and reliable scale to assess an A-BRCS among Iraqi population can be helpful for researchers to administrate this scale in their studies. Furthermore, this instrument can be used with other variables in order to examine the relation between religious coping and other variables. A-BRCS has the potential to become a standard instrument that can be used by researchers. This scale became understandable and clear for Iraqi people as its consonant with Iraqi and Islamic culture.

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Al-Hadethe, A., Hunt, N., Thomas, S. et al. Cross-Cultural Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Brief Religious Coping Scale (A-BRCS). J Relig Health 55, 16–25 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9963-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-014-9963-7

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