Spirituality Assessment Tools

Compiled by Debra Mattison, LMSW, OSW-C

FICA

Pulchalski, C. M. and Romer, A. L. (2000). Taking a spiritual history allows clinicians to understand patients more fully. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 3, 129-137.

  • Explores 4 dimensions: Faith, Importance and Influence, Community and Address

HOPE

Anandarajah, G. and Hight, E. (2001). Spirituality and medical practice: Using the HOPE questions as a practical tool for spiritual assessment. American Family Physician, 63, 81-89.

  • Explores dimensions of Hope, Organized Religion, Personal Spirituality/Practices, Effects on Medical Care and End-of-Life Issues
SPIRITual History

Maugans, T.A. (1997). The SPIRITual history. Archives of Family Medicine, 5(1), 11-16.

  • 6 domains are covered in 22 items
  • Spiritual belief system, personal spirituality, integration with a spiritual community, practices and restrictions, implications for medical care and terminal events planning
FAITH

King, D. E. (2002). Spirituality and medicine. In Fundamentals of Clinical Practice. Mengel, Holleman & Fields (Eds). New York: Plenum.

  • Explores Faith, Apply to health, Involved in faith community, views on Treatment, How can I help

Standardized Assessment Inventories

Spiritual Well-Being Scale

Ellison, C. (1994). Spiritual well-being scale. Nyack, N. Y.: Life Advance.

  • 20 item non-sectarian instrument which can be quickly completed and scored
  • 3 subscales: overall spiritual well-being, existential well-being and religious well-being
  • Focuses on personal experience related to spiritual health and spiritual maturity
Spiritual Health Inventory

Veach, T. & Chappel, J. (1992). Measuring spiritual health: A preliminary study. Substance Abuse, 13, 139-147.

  • 18 item instrument measuring 4 domains: personal spiritual experience, spiritual well-being, sense of harmony and personal helplessness

Index of Core Spiritual Experience (INSPIRIT)

Kass, J., Friedman, R., Lesserman, J., Zuttermeister, P. & Benson, H. (1991). Health outcomes and a new index of spiritual experience. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30, 203-211.

  • Seven items, thus a quick tool that can be used as a take off point for discussion
  • Assesses 2 elements of spirituality: personal conviction of the existence of God and one’s perception of an internalized relationship with God
God Image Inventory

Lawrence, R.T. (1997). Measuring the image of God: The God image inventory and the God image scales. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 25 (2), 214-226.

  • 156 item instrument with 8 scales
  • 72 item version: 6 scales and 36 item version-3 scales are available as God Image Scales
The Spiritual Transcendence Scale

Piedmont, R. (1999). Does spirituality represent the sixth factor of personality? Spiritual transcendence and the five factor model. Journal of Personality, 67(6), 985-1013.

  • 24 item scale with 3 sub-scales: Universality, prayer fulfillment and connectedness
  • Looks at the capacity to stand outside one’s immediate sense of time and place and view life from a larger perspective.

The Spiritual Experience Index (SEI)

Genia, V. (1991). The spiritual experience index: A measure of spiritual maturity. Journal ofReligion and Health, 30, 337-347

  • a 6 point Likert scale
  • Focuses on a stage model of spiritual maturity

Duke Religious Index (DRI)

Sherman, A. C., Plante, T. G., Simonton, S., Adams, D. C., Harbison, C. and Burris, S. K. (2004). A multidimensional measure of religious involvement for cancer patients: The Duke Religious Index. Supportive Care in Cancer 8 (2), 102-109.

  • A five item tool that focuses on measurement of religious involvement

System of Belief Inventory (BBI-15R)

Holland, J. C. , Kash, K. M. and Passik, S. , et al. (1998). A brief spiritual beliefs inventory for use in quality of life research in life-threatening illness. Psycho-Oncology, 7(6), 460-469.

  • Measures two dimensions: presence and importance of religious and spiritual beliefs and practices and value of support from a religious/spiritual community

Brief Measure of Religious Coping (RCOPE)

Pargament, K. I., Smith, B. W., Koenig, H. G., et al (1998). Patterns of positive and negative religious coping with major life stressors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 37 (4) 710-724.

  • Measures two dimensions: Religious coping and Negative religious coping including the degree to which blame and anger at God is present
  • 10 items; longer version of test also available

Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT)

Webster, K. Cella, D. and Yost, K. (2003). The functional assessment of chronic illness therapy (FACIT) measurement system: Properties, applications and interpretation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 79, 1-7.

  • Ethnically diverse and does not assume a belief in God
  • Explores 3 factors: faith, meaning and peace

spirituality assessment tools

Mattison