Validation of the Polish Version of the Brief Measure of Perceived Divine Engagement and Disengagement in Response to Prayer (PDED)

Abstract

Divine engagement applies to a positive relationship with God in which people feel that God is close to them and answers their prayers. Divine disengagement pertains to an unsteady connection and a sense of God’s absence. Although several questionnaires consider the concerns of the human experience of prayer, only one deals precisely with the subject of the human perception of divine engagement and disengagement in response to one’s prayer. The main goals of the present research were to: (1) determine the latent structure of the Brief Measure of Perceived Divine Engagement and Disengagement in Response to Prayer (PDED) in a sample set; (2) test whether the factor structure indicated by EFA matches the data and provides an equivalent goodness-of-fit index to Exline’s model; and (3) confirm that perceived divine engagement and disengagement are correlated with religious meaning, gratitude to God, and dimensions of religious centrality. The results show that the proposed two-factor structure of the eight-item version of the PDED is a suitable and reliable solution of the original PDED (Study 1). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) revealed a good fit of the data to the model in both the second and third studies. Both dimensions of the PDED correlated significantly with all of the subscales of the RMS, GGQ–6, and CRS–15. The Polish version of the PDED demonstrated very good psychometric properties.

Polish Validation of a 14-Item Version of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS-14): Factorial Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Clinical Correlates

“…Believing in a God who is attentive to prayers is also associated positively with two types of religious struggle—demonic and moral . It may be easier for people to fight a spiritual battle against evil and struggle with the moral aspects of religiosity if one is aware of God’s presence in prayer (Szcześniak et al, 2021 ) .…”

“…The Brief Measure of Perceived Engagement and Disengagement in Response to Prayer (PDED), adapted into Polish by Szcześniak et al ( 2021 ), is a short 8-item measure which assesses people’s levels of confidence in God’s attention to their prayers. The PDED has two dimensions.…”

“…The Social Desirability Scale (SDS), inspired by the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and developed by Wilczyńska and Drwal (1995), measures Szcześniak et al (2021), is a short 8-item measure which assesses people's levels of confidence in God's attention to their prayers. The PDED has two dimensions.…”