title: Existential Well-Being: Spirituality or Well-Being?
abstract: Measures of spirituality often contain the dimension existential well-being (EWB). However, EWB has been found to overlap with emotional and psychological well-being. Using the Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL), we have further investigated the overlap between aspects of spirituality and of well-being among patients with cancer, by determining a) the divergent validity of the subscales of the SAIL compared with a well-being questionnaire and b) the differences in their associations to changes in pain and fatigue, and the occurrence of negative life events. Our findings suggest that a sense of trust that one is able to cope with difficulties of life belongs to the realm of well-being, instead of spirituality. Other aspects, such as a sense of meaning in life, seem more similar to spirituality than to well-being. These results can bring researchers a step further toward constructing "pure" spirituality and well-being measures, which will allow them to investigate the (causal) relationship between these constructs.
authors.affiliation: *Helen Dowling Institute, Centre for Psycho-Oncology, Bilthoven; and †Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Visser
authors.forename: Bert
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garssen
authors.forename: Ad Jjm
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Vingerhoets
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D029181:Spirituality; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult