Portuguese version of the spiritual well-being questionnaire : validation study in people under assisted reproductive techniques
- Authors: Romeiro, Joana , Nogueira, Paulo , Fisher, John , Caldeira, Silvia
- Date: 2022
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 13, no. 5 (2022), p.
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- Description: Attention has been given to the experience of individuals undergoing assisted reproductive techniques. However, only recent literature has focused on the spiritual journey triggered by such an event and highlighted the nurses and midwives’ roles in the assessment of the spiritual needs of those living with infertility. This study aimed to perform a psychometric test of the factor structure of the Portuguese version of the Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire in a sample of people undergoing assisted reproductive techniques. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2019 and June 2020 on a sample of 104 Portuguese adults attending fertility treatment. An online questionnaire was released on fertility-related websites. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on six hypothesized models of the instrument. The findings provided evidence of an adequate internal consistency of the instrument, and the validity and reliability of the oblique four-factor model was confirmed. Spiritual well-being had a significant association with the nature of infertility and a higher score was achieved by participants that perceived religion as very important. This study provides a validated tool for nurses and midwives to assess spiritual well-being and promote an integrated reproductive healthcare approach. Further longitudinal research with bigger samples would provide more evidence of the spiritual needs of people living with this condition. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Modelling the effect of worship attendance and personal prayer on spiritual well-being among 9- to 11-year-old students attending Anglican church schools in Wales
- Authors: Francis, Leslie , Fisher, John , Lankshear, David , Eccles, Emma
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Children's Spirituality Vol. 23, no. 1 (2018), p. 30-44
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- Description: This study employs a modified form of the Fisher 16-item Feeling Good, Living Life measure of spiritual well-being (assessing quality of relationships across four domains: self, family, nature and God) among a sample of 1,328 students drawn from year five and year six classes within Church in Wales primary schools, alongside measures of frequency of worship attendance and frequency of personal prayer. The data demonstrate frequency of personal prayer is a much stronger predictor than frequency of worship attendance in respect of spiritual well-being. This finding is consistent with the view that personal prayer is a key factor in the formation of individual spirituality.
Psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the lived experience component of the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM)
- Authors: Nunes, Sandra , Fernandes, Helder , Fisher, John , Fernandes, Marcos
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Psicologia: Reflexao e Critica Vol. 31, no. 1 (2018), p.1-13
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- Description: This study had the following aims: (i) to translate the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) into Brazilian Portuguese and adapt it to ensure the semantic/conceptual equivalence and content validity of the Brazilian version and (ii) to analyse the psychometric properties-reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity and factorial validity-of the lived experience component, also called the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ), in a calibration sample and in a validation sample of Brazilian adults. The calibration sample comprised 436 subjects, 159 men and 277 women, aged between 18 and 79 years (mean age = 32.20 years; SD = 11.46); the validation study sample comprised 388 subjects, 253 women and 135 men, aged between 18 and 59 years (mean age = 30.59 years; SD = 9.44). All subjects completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brazilian SWBQ and the Psychological Well-being Scale (PWBS). The results provide evidence of the reliability and factorial validity of an oblique four-factor model of a reduced 17-item version but revealed some problems with the convergent validity of the communal and personal factors (average variance extracted < .50). Nonetheless, these results provide evidence that the Brazilian version of the lived experience component of SHALOM (or SWBQb) has good psychometric properties and is a valid method of evaluating the spiritual health of Brazilian adults. Further research is required to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of this reduced version. © The Author(s).
Validation of the persian version of spiritual well-being questionnaires
- Authors: Biglari Abhari, Mrayam , Fisher, John , Kheiltash, Azita , Nojomi, Marzieh
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Iranian journal of medical sciences Vol. 43, no. 3 (2018), p. 276-285
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- Description: Spiritual well-being is an important issue in health sciences, hence the need for validated instruments to assess this aspect of health in the Iranian population. The aim of the current study was to determine the validity of the Persian versions of 2 most common measures of spiritual health (Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire [SWBQ] or Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure [SHALOM] and Spiritual Well-Being Scale [SWBS]). This was a cross-sectional study via a convenience sampling method in Iran University of Medical Sciences with 170 participants aged above 18 years comprising students, teachers, and administrative staff and managers. The study was conducted from September 7, 2014 to September 20, 2015 in Tehran. Four questionnaires, namely the SWBQ, SWBS, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), were used. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 18 and LISREL (version 8.2). Cronbach's alpha, intra-class correlation coefficient, Pearson correlation, and confirmatory factor analysis were employed to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaires. Cronbach's alpha for the SWBQ and the SWBS was greater than 0.85. The repeatability of both questionnaires was between 0.88 and 0.98. The Pearson correlation for the SWBQ and the SWBS ranged from 0.33 to 0.53 and all the correlations were significant. The respondents who indicated a higher spiritual well-being also reported better general health and happiness. The Persian versions of the SWBS and the SWBQ have good reliability, repeatability, and validity to assess spiritual health in the Iranian population.
Presenting a 4-Item spiritual well-being index (4-ISWBI)
- Authors: Fisher, John , Ng, David
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 8, no. 9 (2017), p. 1-13
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- Description: Spiritual well-being is perceived to be reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in four areas, namely with God, others, nature, and self. Many spiritual well-being questionnaires exist, but not many provide an adequate assessment of these four relationships. As part of a survey of parental perceptions of holistic early childhood education in kindergartens in Hong Kong, 1383 parents and 165 teachers, from 22 kindergartens, completed a written survey questionnaire which helped to investigate the potential for a single question with four parts to provide a valid and reliable measure for spiritual well-being. Face, content, and construct validity were confirmed, together with Cronbach’s alpha providing a test for reliability. Similarity of findings from regression analysis of items in the 4-ISWBI with domains of spiritual well-being in the 20-item SHALOM, as well as partial discrimination by gender, reinforce the validity of the 4-ISWBI as a sound indicator of spiritual well-being and its four domains. In brief, the 4-Item Spiritual Well-Being Index (4-ISWBI) promises to be a handy instrument to aid researchers looking for a convenient, concise, coherent indicator, but not an exhaustive measure, of spiritual well-being. © 2017 by the authors.
Assessing adolescent spiritual health and well-being (commentary related to Social Science & Medicine - Population Health, ref: SSMPH-D-15-00089)
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: SSM Population Health Vol. 2, no. (2016), p. 304-305
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- Description: Over the last three decades, rapidly increasing interest has been shown, and a great growth has occurred in publications and new journals, related to assessing spiritual health and well-being. Most attention has been paid to university students (many of whom participate in research projects to gain credit points) and adults, many of whom have been in poor states of health. However, assessment of spiritual health of younger adolescents has received less attention, with pertinent publications in journals such as the International Journal of Children
Selecting the best version of SHALOM to assess spiritual well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 7, no. 5 (2016), p. 1-12
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- Description: This paper extends the reporting of contemporary use of the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), which provides flexibility to researchers, enabling them to choose the version of the instrument that best suits the cohort under investigation. SHALOM was built on a solid theoretical foundation, provided by the Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health/Well-Being. It comprises 20 items that assess spiritual well-being, as reflected in the quality of relationships that each person has with themselves, others, the environment, and/or with God. Summary results are reported from 30 recent studies. SHALOM provides a unique form of assessment that is statistically stronger than just assessing lived experiences, in that spiritual harmony/dissonance is studied by comparing each person’s “lived experiences” with her/his “ideals” for spiritual well-being. SHALOM has been sought for use with hundreds of studies in 29 languages, in education, healthcare and wider community. A generic form of SHALOM was developed to expand the Transcendental domain to include more than God. However, recent studies have shown that relating with God is most important for spiritual well-being. The best version of SHALOM to assess spiritual well-being depends on the needs of the clients/participants and the project goals of the researcher. This will involve a selection between the original form of Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire-SHALOM for comparison with other measures and investigation of characteristics influencing spiritual well-being; or the dissonance method for spiritual care; and either the original or the generic version of SHALOM for use with non-religious/secular participants. © 2016 by the author; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Importance of relating with God for spiritual well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Thesis
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- Description: The importance of relating with God for Spiritual Well-Being Twenty years of research in spiritual health/well-being culminate in this thesis. My PhD (1998), University of Melbourne, presented a Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health/Well-Being. This formed the theoretical base for several spiritual well-being questionnaires, presented in my EdD (2009), University of Ballarat. The main instrument, Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM), proposed a novel method of assessing quality of relationships which are posited as reflecting spiritual well-being. These relationships are of each person with themselves, others, the environment and/or with a Transcendent Other (God). Instead of just investigating lived experiences, SHALOM asks for two responses to each item. Each respondent’s lived experience is compared with their stated ideals. Studies presented herein show that this double-response method, comparing ideal with actual, provides a statistically stronger measure of quality of relationships than lived experiences alone, thus spiritual well-being. Eighteen publications included in this thesis relate to studies of spiritual well-being in educational, healthcare and general community settings. A total of 52 studies, using SHALOM with 41686 people from 27 countries, have shown that, of the four sets of relationships measured by SHALOM, relating with God explains greatest variance in spiritual well-being, so is therefore most important. An international study with people involved with, as well as some opposed to, spirituality and religious education led to a generic form of SHALOM, in which the theistic words were replaced by ‘Transcendent’, with 19 alternatives provided from which to select preferred Transcendent, or none. This project revealed that relating with God, as Transcendent, provides greatest support for a person’s relating with self and others, in contrast to help provided by non-theistic and non-religious Transcendents and not believing in Transcendents. This research implies that researchers need to investigate relationship with God in any study of spiritual well-being, whether or not it fits their personal worldview.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Investigating spiritual well-being among Islamic Divinity and religious education students in Turkey
- Authors: Coskun, Mehmet , Fisher, John
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religious Education Journal of Australia Vol. 29, no. 2 (2013), p. 21-28
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- Description: In light of increased emphasis on universities being called to facilitate spiritual growth among students, the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure was used to assess four domains of spiritual well-being among 122 Divinity and 137 Religious Education students in Turkey. Students provided three responses to 20 items reflecting spiritual well-being, indicating their ideals for spiritual well-being, lived experience and how much university helped in each area. Another 16 potential factors were explored to help students develop their spiritual well-being, ranging from self-improvement to scripture. High scores on ideals for spiritual well-being, reported by both groups of students, underpin the lived experiences of Religious Education and Divinity students in each of four domains of spiritual well-being. Relating with God significantly influenced aspects of spiritual well-being but it appears that the highly religious students overstate the influence of religious activities, such as prayer and scripture, on their spiritual well-being. Universities provide small yet significant support in developing the four domains of spiritual well-being for these students. Overall, this study has shown many similarities, yet some significant variations in spiritual well-being between these Divinity and Religious Education students in Turkey. This project provides a sound base from which future studies can be launched to review, enhance and monitor university students' spiritual well-being and to determine the influence of these students' spiritual well-being on the clients they will serve after graduating and gaining employment.
You Can’t Beat Relating with God for Spiritual Well-Being: Comparing a Generic Version with the Original Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire Called SHALOM
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 2013, no. 4 (2013), p. 325-335
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- Description: The Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM) is a 20-item instrument that assesses the quality of relationships of the respondent with self, others, the environment and/or a Transcendent Other. In the Transcendental domain, four of the five items had the words ‘God, ‘Divine’ and ‘Creator’ replaced by the word ‘Transcendent’ to make the survey more generic by removing any implied reference to any god or religion. Invitations to complete a web survey were sent to people who had published papers in spirituality, or belonged to associations for spirituality or religious studies, as well as the Australian Atheist Forum. 409 respondents from 14 geographic regions, completed the survey. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the modified, generic form of SHALOM showed acceptable model fit, comprising four clearly delineated domains of spiritual well-being. The paper analyses the results derived from using the modified, generic version and, in comparison with results of applications of the original survey instrument, concludes with discussion of the comparative utility of each of the versions of SHALOM. Further studies with more people are warranted, but, from evidence presented here, it looks like you can’t beat relating with God for spiritual well-being.
The four domains model: Connecting spirituality, health and well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 2, no. (2011), p. 17-28
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- Description: At our core, or coeur, we humans are spiritual beings. Spirituality can be viewed in a variety of ways from a traditional understanding of spirituality as an expression of religiosity, in search of the sacred, through to a humanistic view of spirituality devoid of religion. Health is also multi-faceted, with increasing evidence reporting the relationship of spirituality with physical, mental, emotional, social and vocational well-being. This paper presents spiritual health as a, if not THE, fundamental dimension of people‟s overall health and well-being, permeating and integrating all the other dimensions of health. Spiritual health is a dynamic state of being, reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in up to four domains of spiritual well-being: Personal domain where a person intra-relates with self; Communal domain, with in-depth inter-personal relationships; Environmental domain, connecting with nature; Transcendental domain, relating to some-thing or some-One beyond the human level. The Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health and Well-Being embraces all extant world-views from the ardently religious to the atheistic rationalist.
- Description: 2003009288
Development and application of a spiritual well-being questionnaire called SHALOM
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Religions Vol. 1, no.1, p.105-121
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- Description: The Four Domains Model of Spiritual Health and Well-Being was used as the theoretical base for the development of several spiritual well-being questionnaires, with progressive fine-tuning leading to the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM). SHALOM comprises 20 items with five items reflecting the quality of relationships of each person with themselves, other people, the environment and/or God, in the Personal, Communal, Environmental and Transcendental domains of spiritual well-being. SHALOM has undergone rigorous statistical testing in several languages. SHALOM has been used with school and university students, teachers, nurses, medical doctors, church-attenders, in industry and business settings, with abused women, troubled youth and alcoholics. SHALOM provides a unique way of assessing spiritual well-being as it compares each person’s ideals with their lived experiences, providing a measure of spiritual harmony or dissonance in each of the four domains.
Investigating Australian education students' views about spiritual well-being, as compared with teachers in schools
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Childrens Spirituality Vol. 14, no. 2 (2009), p. 151-167
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- Description: Education students in Australian state and Christian universities expressed their views on ideals, lived experience, and help expected from schools in four domains of spiritual well-being (personal, communal, environmental, and transcendental) (SWB), using the Spiritual Health and Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM). Students' lived experiences greatly affected their views on help provided by schools to nurture students' SWB. Currently, the more religious students in Christian universities reported support for their SWB from religious activities, whereas students in the state university gained support from more humanistic sources. But is this sufficient? Education students in state universities are likely to maintain the status quo regarding SWB in state schools. They report levels of help for students in line with current teachers' views. Christian university education students have lower expectations of schools than current teachers in Christian schools. However, some positive action is being taken in Christian universities to address the spiritual formation of their students. Further opportunities are needed within teacher education and schools in Australia for staff to address this area of vital concern for their own and students' SWB.
- Description: 2003007942
The impact of environment on spiritual wellbeing in school
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Religious Education Vol. 57, no. 1 (2009), p. 25-37
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- Description: Spiritual well-being can be revealed by the quality of relationships that people have in up to four domains of spiritual health, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. Many papers have been presented on the quality of relationships people have with self, others and God. This study concentrates on the views expressed by nearly 100 educators in a range of Victorian secondary schools about the impact of the environment on aspects of spiritual well-being in schools. It provides insights into Environmentalists, those people who see connection with the environment as the key component of spiritual well-being. Case studies and reports on variations between educators and school types are provided as well as suggestions about ways of developing spiritual well-being in schools.
Understanding and assessing spiritual health
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: International Handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing Chapter 4 p. 69-88
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- Description: This chapter explores awareness and compassion as essential elements in spiritual cultivation. Of the education of awareness, it describes the ideas of Aldous Huxley and J. Krishnamurthi as well as the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness. The practice of awareness would reveal a holistic experience and multiple dimensions of reality. This chapter briefly describes the author’s view of “the five dimensions of reality” that include dimensions from the surface to the deepest, infinite reality. Drawing on Eastern perspectives, it explains that “pure awareness” is identical with infinite reality and that “great compassion” emerges as a manifestation of pure awareness. In addition, as for cultivating compassion, this chapter explores such concepts as the Four Immeasurable Minds, bodhichitta, bodhisattva, and also the mind training called lojong in Tibetan Buddhism. Finally, it suggests a vision of “the education of enlightenment,” in which both awareness and compassion are of central importance.
- Description: 2003007949
Impacting teachers' and students' spiritual well-being
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Beliefs & Values Vol. 29, no. 3 (2008), p. 253-261
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- Description: Spiritual well-being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well-being of staff and students in schools.
- Description: 2003006386
Nurturing students' spiritual well-being : Caring for the whole child
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Christian Education Vol. 51, no. 1 (2008), p. 7-20
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- Description: Spiritual well-being is reflected in up to four sets of relationships that people have; namely with themselves, with others, with the environment, and/or with God. Details are provided about quantitative measures for spiritual well-being used with students and teachers in Victorian Christian primary and secondary schools. The results obtained are presented and discussed. Case studies illustrate how such quantitative measures can be used to inform pastoral care of students to help ensure the holistic development of each child in our schools.
Reaching the heart : Assessing & nurturing spiritual well-being via education
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Thesis , EdD
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- Description: Several quantitative measures of spiritual well-being were developed with primary and secondary school students and teachers, and university education students, namely the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure, Feeling Good, Living Life, and the Quality Of Life Influences Survey. Spiritual dissonance was revealed by comparing respondents’ ‘ideals’ with ‘lived experiences’ in four domains of spiritual well-being. Teachers and university education students reported a decline in help being provided in schools to develop the relationships which foster school students’ spiritual well-being.
- Description: Doctor of Education EdD
It's time to wake up and stem the decline in spiritual well-being in Victorian schools
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Children's Spirituality Vol. 12, no. 2 (2007), p. 165-177
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- Description: This paper reports the views of 820 teachers from state, Catholic, Christian and other independent schools in Victoria. The purpose of the study was to investigate what factors relate to teachers' views on spiritual well-being (SWB) personally, as well as the perceived help gained by students from school in this aspect of life. Spiritual well-being is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have in up to four domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. School type and year level contribute most to the variance in these four domains of spiritual well-being among teachers and in the help they provide to students in this area of life. Very few differences were found by gender, age or subject specialty among teachers. The teachers report that their lived experiences (how they feel) in each of the four domains of SWB do not generally measure up to their ideals. Both the teachers' ideals and how they feel were generally higher than the views they held of the help schools provide to students in each domain of SWB. A comparison with an earlier study shows a decline in the help being provided to secondary school students for SWB. It is time to stop, step aside from the busyness in schools, take stock of what is happening and find ways to nurture the relationships which enhance the SWB of students (and staff).
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003004997
Using secondary students’ views about influences on their spiritual well being to inform pastoral care
- Authors: Fisher, John
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Children's Spirituality Vol. 11, no. 3 (2006), p. 347-356
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- Description: Spiritual well-being is reflected in the quality of relationships that each person has in up to four different domains, namely with self, with others, with the environment and/or with God. This study investigated how secondary students perceived relationships with family, friends, school and church community (including God) impacted on their spiritual well-being. This paper reports the views of 1002 secondary school students aged from 12 to 18 years old in Catholic, Christian community and other independent schools in Victoria, Australia. ANOVA and multiple regression analyses of students’ responses on the Quality Of Life Influences Survey developed in this study, and the Spiritual Health And Life Orientation Measure, a spiritual well-being questionnaire for secondary students, revealed significant differences in perceptions students held about influences on their spiritual well-being. A case study illustrates how these instruments can be used to inform pastoral care of young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]