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The Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale: Stability Over One Year

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Assessing Spirituality in a Diverse World

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Abstract

The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS) measures important psychological constructs involved in the complex relationship between religion and well-being. Religious/spiritual struggles are distinct from religiousness, distress, and each other, but the RSS’ internal discriminant validity has not been tested longitudinally. Previously, we published three alternative measurement models with a large sample of undergraduates in the USA (N = 3851), including two bifactor models with unidentified general factors. We reused this sample as our baseline measurement, and tested each measurement model’s ability to predict new measurements collected a year later (n = 583). Both general factors predicted themselves best over time with strength and specificity similar to the original six group factors, all of which also predicted themselves strongly and specifically in all three models. Correlations one year after baseline weakened slightly but remained positive, continuing to reflect both the general and group factors’ mutual influence. All group and general factors appear valid and meaningfully different as independent psychological constructs. Significant evidence that certain RSS factors independently predict certain others only emerged in the restricted bifactor model, where we least expected it. These effects did not diminish discriminant validity, but suggested subtle ways that some R/S struggles could predict changes in others, pending replication of these results. Overall, the RSS appears to measure distinct phases that are more stable than states, yet more transitory than traits. The RSS is well-suited to longitudinal research into many important questions about the dynamics of R/S struggles, which we discuss within.

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Acknowledgement

We are grateful to Professor Todd Hall for data collection assistance, and to the John Templeton Foundation for funding this research (Grants #59916 and #36094). Correspondence should be addressed to Nick Stauner, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7123. NickStauner@Gmail.com

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Nick Stauner & Julie J. Exline

  2. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA

    Joshua B. Grubbs & Kenneth I. Pargament

Authors
  1. Nick Stauner
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  2. Julie J. Exline
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  3. Joshua B. Grubbs
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  4. Kenneth I. Pargament
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Amy L. Ai

  2. Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA

    Paul Wink

  3. Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Raymond F. Paloutzian

  4. Algos Behavioral Health Services, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Kevin A. Harris

Appendix

Appendix

The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS) Over the past few months, to what extent have you had each of the experiences listed below?

"Over the past few months, I have..." not at all/does not apply a little bit somewhat quite a bit a great deal

  1. 1.

    questioned God’s love for me

  2. 2.

    felt angry at God

  3. 3.

    felt as though God had abandoned me

  4. 4.

    felt as though God was punishing me

  5. 5.

    felt as though God had let me down

  6. 6.

    felt attacked by the devil or by evil spirits

  7. 7.

    felt as though the devil (or an evil spirit) was trying to turn me away from what was good

  8. 8.

    worried that the problems I was facing were the work of the devil or evil spirits

  9. 9.

    felt tormented by the devil or evil spirits

  10. 10.

    had conflicts with other people about religious/spiritual matters

  11. 11.

    felt rejected or misunderstood by religious/spiritual people

  12. 12.

    felt as though others were looking down on me because of my religious/spiritual beliefs

  13. 13.

    felt angry at organized religion

  14. 14.

    felt hurt, mistreated, or offended by religious/spiritual people

  15. 15.

    felt guilty for not living up to my moral standards

  16. 16.

    worried that my actions were morally or spiritually wrong

  17. 17.

    wrestled with attempts to follow my moral principles

  18. 18.

    felt torn between what I wanted and what I knew was morally right

  19. 19.

    had concerns about whether there is any ultimate purpose to life or existence

  20. 20.

    felt as though my life had no deeper meaning

  21. 21.

    questioned whether life really matters

  22. 22.

    questioned whether my life will really make any difference in the world

  23. 23.

    struggled to figure out what I really believe about religion/spirituality

  24. 24.

    felt troubled by doubts or questions about religion or spirituality

  25. 25.

    felt confused about my religious/spiritual beliefs

  26. 26.

    worried about whether my beliefs about religion/spirituality were correct

  27. 27.

    Please select option 1: “Not at All/Does not Apply.”

Note. The simple-structure model’s factors are defined by the following subsets of these items: Divine = 1–5; Demonic = 6–9; Interpersonal = 10–14; Moral = 15–18; Ultimate Meaning = 19–22; Doubt = 23–26. Item 27 is a test of attentive responding. The bifactor models add secondary loadings for all items on a single general factor, which is not allowed to correlate with the six group factors. The restricted bifactor model also disallows correlations between the group factors, whereas the unrestricted bifactor model allows them to correlate freely.

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Stauner, N., Exline, J.J., Grubbs, J.B., Pargament, K.I. (2021). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale: Stability Over One Year. In: Ai, A.L., Wink, P., Paloutzian, R.F., Harris, K.A. (eds) Assessing Spirituality in a Diverse World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52140-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52140-0_7

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