SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERNS QUESTIONNAIRE

Variable:

The Spiritual and Religious Con­cerns Questionnaire (SRQ) measures the spiritual and religious beliefs, attitudes, needs, and behaviors of adolescents. The scale was designed to assess the spiritual and religious concerns of newly hospital­ized patients in an adolescent inpatient unit. The main purpose of the scale is to provide clinically useful information that might prove useful to caregivers in delivering more focused and wholistic services.

Description:

The SRQ is not based on any particular theoretical orientation. Silber and Reilly (1985) asserted that the intensity of an adolescent’s spiritual and religious con­cerns would increase following hospitaliza­tion in proportion to the severity of his or her illness.

The SRQ consists of 11 items scored on a 9-point Likert continuum scale with 1 indi­cating low spiritual and/or religious concern and 9 indicating high spiritual and/or religious concern. The Likert response cate­gories are not consistent across items. The overall SRQ score is obtained by averaging all eleven items. The authors included a final item asking patients if they “would like help with any of your spiritual and/or religious concerns.” This item was an­swered yes or no and space was provided to specify the kind of help desired.

Practical Considerations:

Silber and Reilly (1985) used trained volunteers to administer the SRQ. No guidelines were offered on re­ quired reading level or time of administra­tion. The authors do not describe any special instructions for administration, but it would seem important that the purpose and rationale for giving the scale should be ex­plained to hospitalized adolescents.

Norms/Standardization:

Specialized norms for the SRQ have not been developed. The original sample consisted of 114 newly hos­pitalized adolescents in an adolescent inpa­tient unit. The participants ranged in age from 11 to 19 years of age with equal repre­sentation in early (11-13 years), middle (14-15 years), and late (16-19 years) adoles­cence categories. Thirty-nine participants were male and 75 were female. The ethnic composition of the sample consisted of 58 African-American, 54 Caucasian, and 2 Asian participants. The vast majority (92) of the participants attended a public school. Participants were separated into three cate­gories of severity of illness, including (a) severe with high probability of being fatal (24 patients), (b) severe (53 patients), (c) moderate (37 patients).

Mean scores on the SRQ ranged from a low of 2.45 for early adolescents to a high of 2.94 for older adolescents. This trend was not statistically significant. Mean scores for females (2.59) were significantly higher than mean scores for males (2.33). African­ Americans had higher mean scores (2.58) .than Caucasians (2.41). The most seriously ill participants had higher SRQ scores re­gardless of gender or ethnicity.

Reliability:

No analysis of the reliability of the SRQ was reported.

Validity:

Silber and Reilly (1985) were par­ticularly interested in the relationship be­ tween changes in adolescent spiritual and/or religious concerns and severity of illness. Item 3 assesses changes in the patient’s spir­itual and/or religious concerns since his or her illness began, and item IO assesses changes in frequency of prayer since enter­ing the hospital. There was a significant severity of illness trend for scores on both of these items, with higher scores indicating more serious illness. The wording of item 3 inquires about changes in spiritual and/or religious concerns “since your illness began,” not since hospitalization. This pre­sents an inconsistency in that a patient’s ill­ ness may have begun well before hospitalization. The measure appears to have fine “face validity.”

Patient Questionnaire on Spiritual and Religious Concerns (SRQ)

1. Sex:
2. Age:
3. Race:
4. School:
5. Religious affiliation:
6. Medical diagnosis:

• While you are in the hospital, how often do you talk about spiritual and/or religious concerns?

  1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
  Never				Average				Very Often

• Do you consider yourself a person with spiritual and/or religious concerns?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Not religious and/or spiritual at all Average Very religious and/or spiritual

• Have you had any changes in your concerns relating to spiritual and/or religious matters since your illness began?

l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Much less interested No change Much more interested

• Do you believe in God (Supreme Being)?

l 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I don’t believe I sometimes believe I believe firmly

• If you believe in God (Supreme Being), how do you feel toward God (Supreme Being)?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Angry, abandoned Indifferent, don’t care  Confident, grateful

• Have your feelings toward God (Supreme Being) changed since your illness began?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I feel negative about God (Supreme Being) No change I feel more positive about God (Supreme Being)

• Mark the numeral you feel relates best to your illness.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

God (Supreme Being) has nothing to do with my illness

• How often do you pray?

1 2 3 Never I don’t know if God (Supreme Being) is involved in my illness 4 5 6 7 8 Sometimes  God (Supreme Being) willed my illness 9  Often

• Since you have come to the hospital, do you pray?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Less than before   Unchanged   More than before

• If you pray about illness answer the following question: Prayer has helped …

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Not at	all			Some				Very much

• How often do you participate in organized spiritual and/or religious activities?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Never Average Very often (at least weekly)

• Would you like help with any of your spiritual and/or religious concerns?

     Yes (If yes, what kind of help?) No

Location:

Subsequent Research: