title: Disentangling Wording and Substantive Factors in the Spiritual Well-Being Scale.
abstract: We evaluated the extent to which the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) may help to meet the need for multidimensional, psychometrically sophisticated measures of spiritual and religious traits. Although the various forms of validity of the scale have, for the most part, been supported by psychometric studies, conflicting evidence surrounding its dimensionality has called into question its structural validity. Specifically, numerous authors have suggested that a more appropriate factor structure for the SWBS includes further substantive factors in addition to the 2 factors that the scale was originally intended to measure. In the current study, we attempted to resolve these debates using a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis based investigations in the Lothian Birth Cohort, 1921 study. Our analyses suggested that the additional factors suggested in previous studies may not have reflected substantive constructs; but rather, common variance due to methodological factors.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: Aja L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, and Department of Psychology, Heriot-Watt University.
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Gow
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: Ian J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Deary
keywords: Spiritual Well-being Scale; dimensionality; method factors; religiosity