title: Measuring meaning and peace with the FACIT-spiritual well-being scale: distinction without a difference?
abstract: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp; Peterman, Fitchett, Brady, Hernandez, & Cella, 2002) has become a widely used measure of spirituality; however, there remain questions about its specific factor structure and the validity of scores from its separate scales. Specifically, it remains unclear whether the Meaning and Peace scales denote distinct factors. The present study addresses previous limitations by examining the extent to which the Meaning and Peace scales relate differentially to a variety of physical and mental health variables across 4 sets of data from adults with a number of chronic health conditions. Although a model with separate but correlated factors fit the data better, discriminant validity analyses indicated limited differences in the pattern of associations each scale showed with a wide array of commonly used health and quality-of-life measures. In total, the results suggest that people may distinguish between the concepts of Meaning and Peace, but the observed relations with health outcomes are primarily due to variance shared between the 2 factors. Additional research is needed to better understand the separate and joint role of Meaning and Peace in the quality of life of people with chronic illness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Health Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
authors.forename: Amy H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Peterman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Health Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
authors.forename: Charlie L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Reeve
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Health Psychology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
authors.forename: Eboni C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Winford
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Sian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cotton
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Social Sciences, Northwestern University.
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Salsman
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Oncology Program, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: McQuellon
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Cincinnati.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsevat
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Oncology Program, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
authors.forename: Cassie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D060685:Sense of Coherence; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires