Translation and psychometric testing of the Persian version of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to investigate the translation process and assess the psychometric properties of the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS) in Persian, focusing on health care settings. The scale was translated using the “forward-backward” procedure. The BMMRS, Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scales were completed by 200 undergraduate students of Qom University of Medical Sciences selected by using a multistage cluster sampling method. Convergent validity results demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between most dimensions of the BMMRS and spiritual well-being (p < .05). The negative association between the BMMRS and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (r = −.27 to −.48, p < .05) mostly supported divergent validity. The BMMRS had a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .81 for the total score and .41 to .81 for the subscales. The Persian version of the BMMRS appears to be a valid and reliable scale for assessing religious and spiritual dimensions among Iranian Muslims.

KEYWORDS:

• Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality
• religion
• spirituality
• validity
• reliability

Acknowledgements

This research was supported financially by Qom University of Medical Sciences. The researchers are grateful to the students for their participation in this study and to the deputy of research, Qom University of Medical Sciences for funding and supporting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Qom University of Medical Science: [grant no IR.MUQ.REC.1394.083].