The opiate of the masses: Measuring spiritual bypass and its relationship to spirituality, religion, mindfulness, psychological distress, and personality.

Abstract

This article discusses the development of the Spiritual Bypass Scale-13 (SBS-13). Spiritual bypass is a clinical process of avoiding difficult psychological material using spiritual beliefs, practices, or experiences. A major limitation to the literature on spiritual bypass is that no psychometrically sound measures of the phenomenon exist, thus preventing scholars and clinicians from understanding its causes and treatment implications beyond anecdotal case reports. The SBS-13 was developed using a community sample of 661 participants. The factor structure of the SBS-13 was investigated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis which identified 2 facets (Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing) with a second order facet (Spiritual Bypass). The reliability of SBS-13 was satisfactory, with alpha coefficients ranging from .75 to .87 across 2 different samples. The convergent, discriminant, predictive, and incremental validity of the SBS-13 was assessed using several criterion variables including measures of spirituality, religiosity, religious problems-solving style, mindfulness, stress, anxiety, depression, and the Five Factor Model of Personality. We concluded that the SBS-13 is a significant contribution to the research on spiritual bypass and can be used in clinical settings as a screening tool and for future research.

The Spiritual Bypass Scale-Brazilian Adaptation: How Religious Affiliation, Age, and Gender Can Predict Levels of Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing

“…For this purpose, we started by analyzing bivariate correlations to determine relationships between both factors of spiritual bypass to depression, anxiety, stress, Superiority, and preference for solitude. Consistent with previous research (see Fox et al, 2017), results show (see Table 2) Spiritualizing to positively correlate with anxiety, depression, and stress, while Psychological Avoidance negatively correlates to preference for solitude and Superiority. No significant correlation is found between Psychological Avoidance and anxiety, depression and stress or between Spiritualizing with preference for solitude and Superiority.…”

“…Our first study shows the scale to have a factorial structure of two subscales for this population, as indicated by the CFA. The items on the subscales align with those found on the original version: (a) Psychological Avoidance and (b) Spiritualizing (see Fox et al, 2017). However, we found two major differences between the Brazilian version and the original SBS-13.…”

“…We then tested for structural invariance of the scale by partitioning the sample along lines of group identification, including age (young, middle, and adult), gender (male and female), and religious affiliation (spiritual but not religious and traditional religions). Our results indicate the items from the SBS-BT to have been interpreted consistently between these groups, which had previously been untested even in the original version of the scale (see Fox, et al, 2017). Next, we tested for the possible effects of age in predicting scores for the SBS-BT.…”

“…The SBS-13 was developed by Fox et al (2017) to provide a solid foundation and direction to the social scientific study of spiritual bypass. In the current set of three studies, we have successfully (a) recovered the two factors of the SBS-13 in a BrazilianPortuguese speaking population; (b) explored the effects of religious affiliation, age, and gender on levels of Psychological Avoidance and Spiritualizing; and (c) explored the relationship of the newly revised SBS-BT and psycho-social variables, including Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Narcissism and Preference for Solitude.…”

The Mediating Effects of Spiritual Bypass on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

“…However, what appears at first impression to be authentic spiritual maturity is in fact a way of remaining unopen to the demands of spiritual growth, namely, the willingness to accept both positive and negative experience. Both theory and research have, in fact, concluded that people who consider themselves to be spiritual may be the most prone to spiritual bypass (Cashwell et al, ; Fox, Cashwell, & Picciotto, ; Masters, ). If this is indeed true, it is possible that many people either experience or witness spiritual bypass given that the majority of people nationally and globally report being spiritual, religious, or both (Pew Research Center, , ).…”