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Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Learning Objective 1: understand complexity and uniqueness of Japanese spirituality and how to conceptualize it for instrumentation.
Learning Objective 2: understand how to construct the new instrument about Japanese spirituality by using an existing English questionnaire
Purpose: The purpose of this instrumentation study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Japanese Spiritual Perspective Scale (JSPS). Methods: The JSPS is a 17-item instrument addressing an individual’s perceptions of the extent to which he or she holds certain spiritual views and engages in spiritually-related interactions. The JSPS is developed by combination of symmetrical translation of the Spiritual Perspective Scale (Reed, 1986) and conceptualization of Japanese spirituality by an extensive literature review. Each item on the JSPS was rated using a 6-point Likert type scale (1 = strongly disagree/not at all, 6 = strongly agree/once a day) and scored by calculating the arithmetic mean across all items, for a total score ranging from 1.0 to 6.0. Higher scores indicate greater spiritual perspective. Content validity of the JSPS was examined by a panel of four reviewers including university faculties in Japan and the United States. Because the process of spirituality is considered to be triggered by vulnerable health experiences, hospitalized elders were selected as the study subjects. A total of 105 Japanese hospitalized elders between ages 65 and 94, with a mean of 74 participated in this study. An interview format was used to help ensure consistency across respondents in understanding and completing the instrument. Results: Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach α) of the JSPS was .79. Factor analysis with principle component analysis revealed one factor loading, and construct validity was supported by convergence and divergence with well-being variables as theorized. Conclusion: The JSPS incorporated traditional Japanese religious perspectives in a positive manner and had significant relationships with life satisfaction and depression. Further study is necessary to refine the JSPS and verify the positive effect of spirituality on well-being among Japanese people.