Spirituality in the Context of Well-being. Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties and Added Value of the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List Short Form (SAIL-SF)

Abstract

There is growing evidence that spiritual well-being is positively associated with adaptive coping and health. The Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL) was developed to measure a sense of connectedness to oneself, the environment and the transcendent as a universal experience. The aim of the current study was to develop a short form of the SAIL (SAIL-SF). A factor analytic approach was adopted to select the items for the SAIL-SF based on earlier studies among nurses (n = 458) and cancer patients (n = 445). The dimensionality, factor-loadings, internal consistency, construct validity and incremental validity of the final SAIL-SF were then evaluated in a new sample of adults (n = 225) participating in a trial assessing a positive psychology intervention. The first study yielded seven items, each representing one of the dimensions of the original SAIL: meaningfulness, trust, acceptance, caring for others, connectedness with nature, transcendent experiences, and spiritual activities. The seven items represented a single meaningful factor in both samples and the factor loadings of the items were adequately high. In the second study, a good fit across the various model indices was found and all items had adequately high factor loadings in a strict unidimensional confirmatory factor model and demonstrated good internal consistency. The SAIL-SF explained 7% of variance in ability to adapt above and beyond emotional, psychological, and social well-being. The current study shows that the SAIL-SF has good psychometric properties, and that spiritual well-being has a unique contribution to the ability to adapt in comparison with other types of well-being.