Constructs and Our Measures

Overview of Constructs & Our Measures - Resources for Researchers

• In addition to Research Findings, this web page offers researchers more information, bout specific spiritual beliefs and practices that may help or harm family relationships. Listed below are several illustrative constructs that go well beyond 1 or 2 general questions on a given family member's involvement in organized religion. Initial research indicates that these specific constructs make a difference to family functioning and merit further research. See Relational Spirituality & Current State of Science for more information on why research on specific constructs is valuable. See Relational Spirituality Framework for more information on how these specific constructs fit into the research literature on faith and family relationships.
• Below we provide pdf documents with additional background information on constructs we have examined, copies of our assessment tools on these constructs, and lists of published studies on that construct.

For Better Constructs & Our Tools -  “For better” refers to specific spiritual beliefs or behaviors that tend to improve family relationships

• Sanctification - seeing something as sacred  

  • For a chart of findings from all published studies on sanctification that we know about, click Sanctification: Chart of Individual Studies. 
  • Congratulations to Julie Pomerleau & Serena Wong who received the APA Division 36 Student Poster Award for the 2015 Midyear Conference. Sanctification Meta-Analysis Poster, Handout. 
    
  • For copies of our 20-item original and revised sanctification measures, click Sanctification: Multiple Scales. This document includes full scales for marriage, pregnancy, parenting, & marital sexuality & short scales on the sanctification of sexuality in loving relationships, major life strivings, one's body, & the environment.
  • For a list of published studies on the perceived sanctity of many aspects of life, click Sanctification: Reference List. This document covers marriage, cohabiting relationships, sexuality in and out of marriage, parenting, major life strivings, one’s physical body, the environment.
  • For sample items & findings on sanctification of family relationships, click:Sanctification of Marriage/Couple Relationship - Sanctification of Sexuality in Marriage & Loving Relationships - Sanctification of Pregnancy  - Sanctification of Parenting
• Spiritual Intimacy - talking as soul mates
  • For our 8-item measure of spiritual intimacy, click Spiritual Intimacy 
  • For findings & citations on spiritual intimacy, click  Spiritual Intimacy
• Spiritual Resources in Coping - seeking spiritual strength
  • For more on theory & findings on spiritual resources in coping, click Spiritual Resources for Coping
  • For information on past 20 years of assessment of spiritual resources & struggles, including positive religious coping, click Primer on Spiritual Coping: Resources & Struggles
  • For copies of brief RCOPE & full RCOPE that include positive religious coping scales to assess spiritual resources in coping, click RCOPE: Multiple measures
    
  • For sample items & findings on spiritual resources in coping with family problems, click: Spiritual Resources in Coping with Pregnancy Stress - Spiritual Resources in Coping with Parenting Stress - Spiritual Resources in Coping with Divorce

For Worse Construct & Tools -   “For worse” refers to specific spiritual beliefs or behaviors that tend to improve family relationships.

• Desecration & Sacred Loss - interpreting something as spiritual injury 

  • For findings on sacred loss/desecration in the context of one's own divorce or when one's parents divorce, click Divorce as a Sacred Loss and Desecration This web page also lists studies on perceiving other aspects of life, besides divorce, as a sacred loss & desecration.
  • For sample items on desecration & sacred loss, click Divorce as a Sacred Loss and Desecration.  We will post our measures of divorce as a sacred loss & desecration on this web site at a later date. In meantime, researchers can find all items in tables of published studies on divorce & parental divorce by Krumrei & Mahoney  & Warner listed under Additional Readings. Likewise, researchers can find published items to assess perceiving other aspects of life, besides divorce, as a sacred loss or desecration in the corresponding published studies (e.g., seeing homosexuality as desecration of one's Christian faith; seeing Islam as a desecration of one's Christian faith; seeing Christianity as a desecration of one's Islamic faith).
• Spiritual One-Upmanship - aligning with spiritually against others
  • For findings on spiritual one-upmanship in marriage and in parent-college student relationships, click Spiritual One-Upmanship.
  • For sample items on spiritual one-upmanship in marriage, see  Spiritual One-Upmanship. We will post our entire measure of spiritual one-upmanship used in our transition to parenthood study on this web site at a later date. In meantime, researchers can find items used in prior published studies on spiritual one-upmanship (a.k.a. theistic triangulation) in prior published studies listed under Additional Readings by Brelsford & Mahoney.
• Spiritual\Religious Struggles in Coping - being in spiritual conflict
  • For more on theory & findings on spiritual struggles in coping, click Spiritual Resources for Coping
  • For information on past 20 years of assessment of spiritual resources & struggles, including negative religious coping, click Primer on Spiritual Coping: Resources & Struggles
  • Click Multiple RCOPE for copies of brief RCOPE & long versions of RCOPE that include negative religious coping scales to assess spiritual struggles in coping.
  • For sample items & findings on spiritual struggles in coping with family problems, click: Spiritual Struggles in Coping with Marital Problems - Spiritual Struggle in Coping with Pregnancy Stress - Spiritual Struggle in Coping with Parenting Stress -  Spiritual Struggles in Coping with Divorce