The Religious Support Scale: Construction, Validation, and Cross‐Validation

Abstract

Cutrona and Russell's social support model was used to develop a religious support measure (C. E. Cutrona & D. W. Russell, 1987), including 3 distinct but related subscales respectively measuring support from God, the congregation, and church leadership. Factor analyses with the main sample's data (249 Protestants) and cross-validation (93 additional Protestants) supported the scales' reliability and validity. All 3 types of religious support were related to lower depression and greater life satisfaction. Moreover, several relationships between the 3 subscales and psychological functioning variables remained significant after controlling for variance because of church attendance and social support. Results suggest that religious attendance does not automatically imply religious support, and that religious support can provide unique resources for religious persons, above and beyond those furnished by social support. Findings are discussed regarding relevance to community psychology.

Thriving Among African‐American Adolescents: Religiosity, Religious Support, and Communalism

“…Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which each statement is true for them using a Likert scale ranging from 1-"strongly disagree" to 5-"strongly agree." Internal consistency for each of the three subscales was strong in previous studies (Cronbach's (Fiala et al, 2002) but ranged from low to acceptable in the current study (Cronbach's a = .57, .66, .76). Convergent validity is evidenced by the measure's relation to general measures of social support (r = .41, p < .01).…”

“…Convergent validity is evidenced by the measure's relation to general measures of social support (r = .41, p < .01). Further, scores on the religious support scale are also negatively correlated with depression (r = À.29, p < .01) and positively associated with life satisfaction (r = .36, p < .01) (Fiala et al, 2002). For this study, the three subscales served as indicators for the latent variable religious support.…”

“…The Religious Support Scale (Fiala, Bjorck, & Gorsuch, 2002) was used to assess support from the congregation, church leaders, and God. This measure was developed and cross-validated on protestant adults (75.9% Caucasian, 13.7% African American), most of whom had a post high school education.…”

Protocol for a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial to Compare the “Taste & See” Programme—A Church-Based Programme to Develop a Healthy Relationship with Food—With a Wait-List Control

“…Spiritual experience will be measured using the daily spiritual experiences scale (Underwood 2011). Religious social support will be measured using the domains of congregational support and church leader support (Fiala et al 2002) the questions will be adapted to reflect the context of this church based programme. Where possible the briefest measures have been chosen to reduce participant burden and all the scales have been amalgamated into an easy to use online survey using Bristol Online Survey platform.…”

Exploring Calling Work Orientation: Construct Clarity and Organizational Implications

“…Likewise, researchers suggest that individuals who are spiritual or religious report that they feel supported by God, a higher power, and their affiliated religious communities; this has been linked to lower levels of psychological stress and depression (Fiala, Bjorck, & Gorsuch, 2002;Larson, Milano, & Lu, 1998;Plante & Sharma, 2001). Though it appears that the majority of research on spirituality and religiosity in the workplace has focused on health and well-being outcomes, the experience of feeling support from a sense of calling is likely to have a positive affect on job performance outcomes.…”