Developing and validating a questionnaire to measure spirituality : a psychometric process

The purpose of the paper is to describe the processes undertaken to evaluate the psychometric properties of a questionnaire developed to measure spirituality and examine the relationship between spirituality and coping in young adults with diabetes.<br /><br />The specific validation processes used were: content and face validity, construct validity using factor analysis, reliability and internal consistency using test-retest reliability and Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient.<br /><br />The exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors: self-awareness, the importance of spiritual beliefs, spiritual practices, and spiritual needs. The items on the Spirituality Questionnaire (SQ) revealed factor loading ≥ 0.5. Reliability processes indicated that the SQ is reliable: Cronbach’s alpha 0.94 for the global SQ and between 0.80-0.91 for the four subscales. Test-retest statistic examination revealed stability of the responses at two time points 10 weeks apart.<br /><br />The final questionnaire consists of 29 items and the psychometrics indicated that it is valid and reliable.<br />