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Spirituality and religiousness are gaining increasing attention as health research variables. However, the particular aspects examined vary from study to study, ranging from church attendance to religious coping to meaning in life. This frequently results in a lack of clarity regarding what is being measured, the meaning of the relationships between health variables and spirituality, and implications for action. This article describes the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) and its development, reliability, exploratory factor analyses, and preliminary construct validity. Normative data from random samples and preliminary relationships of health-related data with the DSES also are included. Detailed data for the 16-item DSES are provided from two studies; a third study provided data on a subset of 6 items, and afourth study was done on the interrater reliability of the item subset. A 6-item version was used in the General Social Survey because of the need to shorten the measure for the survey. A rationale for the conceptual underpinnings and item selection is provided, as are suggested pathways for linkages to health and well-being. This scale addresses reported ordinary experiences of spirituality such as awe, joy that lifts one out of the mundane, and a sense of deep inner peace. Studies using the DSES may identify ways in which this element of life may influence emotion, cognition and behavior, and health or ways in which this element may be treated as an outcome in itself a particular component of well-being. The DSES evidenced good reliability across several studies with internal consistency estimates in the .90s. Preliminary evidence showed that daily spiritual experience is related to decreased total alcohol intake, improved quality of life, and positive psychosocial status.

Progress in studying the relationship between religion and health has been hampered by the absence of an adequate measure of religiousness and spirituality. This article reports on the conceptual and empirical development of an instrument to measure religiousness and spirituality, intended explicitly for studies of health. It is multidimensional to allow investigation of multiple possible mechanisms of effect, brief enough to be included in clinical or epidemiological surveys, inclusive of both traditional religiousness and noninstitutionally based spirituality, and appropriate for diverse Judeo-Christian populations. The measure may be particularly useful for studies of health in elderly populations in which religious involvement is higher. The measure was tested in the nationally representative 1998 General Social Survey ( N = 1,445). Nine dimensions have indices with moderate-to-good internal consistency, and there are three single-item domains. Analysis by age and sex shows that elderly respondents report higher levels of religiousness in virtually every domain of the measure.

The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is an instrument designed to provide researchers with a self-report measure of spiritual experiences as an important aspect of how religiousness/spirituality is expressed in daily life for many people. The sixteen-item scale includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent, compassionate love, and desire for closeness to God. It also includes measures of awareness of discernment/inspiration and transcendent sense of self. This measure was originally developed for use in health studies, but has been increasingly used more widely in the social sciences, for program evaluation, and for examining changes in religious/spiritual experiences over time. It has been included on the U.S. General Social Survey (GSS), and the items have shown high prevalence in that population. The challenge of identifying items that tap the underlying constructs was addressed through qualitative methods, both in the development and testing of the instrument. Translations have been made into Spanish, Korean, Hebrew, Vietnamese, and French, and the scale has been effectively used outside the United States. Detailed discussion of item construction based on qualitative work is given to assist in use, interpretation and translation development. Options for scoring and suggestions for exploring correlations with other variables using individual items and subgroups are also presented.

The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) is a 16-item self-report measure designed to assess ordinary experiences of connection with the transcendent in daily life. It includes constructs such as awe, gratitude, mercy, sense of connection with the transcendent and compassionate love. It also includes measures of awareness of discernment/inspiration and a sense of deep inner peace. Originally developed for use in health studies, it has been increasingly used more widely in the social sciences, for program evaluation, and for examining changes in spiritual experiences over time. Also it has been used in counseling, addiction treatment settings, and religious organizations. It has been included in longitudinal health studies and in the U.S. General Social Survey which established random-sample population norms. It has publications on its psychometric validity in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German and Mandarin Chinese. Translations have been made into twenty languages including Hindi, Hebrew and Arabic and the scale has been effectively used in a variety of cultures. The 16-item scale does not have a psychometrically representative shorter form although a 6-item adaptation has been used. The DSES was developed using extensive qualitative testing in a variety of groups, which has helped its capacity to be useful in a variety of settings. It was constructed to reflect an overlapping circle model of spirituality/religiousness and contains items that are more specifically theistic in nature, as well as items to tap the spiritual experience of those who are not comfortable with theistic language. The scale has been used in over 70 published studies. This paper will provide an overview of the scale itself, describe why it has proved useful, and discuss some studies using the scale. See http://www.dsescale.org/ for more information on the scale.

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