Spirituality Studies 163 Thijs Huijs et al. 3 Results The literature search was conducted on March 1, 2024, using the Web of Science, APA PsycInfo, Embase and Medline databases resulting in 6,577 articles. These articles were imported into Rayyan for screening. During the first step 2,364 articles have been excluded by the automation tool of Rayyan, due to duplicates, resulting in 4,213 unique articles advancing to the next step of the review process. During this step 4,124 articles have been excluded by the researcher because the keywords did not appear in the title or abstract of the articles. In the next step, exclusion criteria were applied: (1) containing specific religious items; (2) restricted to a particular group or situation; (3) identical questionnaires with different names; (4) questionnaires only mentioned, not investigated; (5) not available in English. The outcome of this article screening was twenty-nine questionnaires concerning measuring spirituality, meaningfulness and coping for people with spiritual and secular beliefs (Figure 1). 3.1 Questionnaires Evaluation The 29 questionnaires referenced in the articles were systematically screened at the item level, special attention is paid to all questionnaires that include subscales or items on vertical transcendence. As shown in Table 1, the majority (22 of the 29) of the questionnaires have origins in Northern America, whereas only six are from Western Europe. A total of 641 items were extracted from the questionnaires: 323 were considered relevant to the objectives of the review, while 318 were excluded as not applicable, because they lacked connotation with spirituality. Most of the selected items are related to spirituality connectedness (N = 207) and less to spiritual coping (N = 116). The most prevalent type of item on spiritual connectedness relates to vertical transcendence (N = 65). The most prevalent type of spiritual coping item pertains to connectedness with oneself (N = 86), whereas there less spiritual coping items pertaining to vertical transcendence (N = 27). The table also indicates that none of the questionnaires comprehensively address both spiritual connectedness and spiritual coping. None of the questionnaires have items on spiritual coping regarding connection with nature. With a maximum of two missing categories, three questionnaires come closest to comprehensively addressing both spiritual connectedness and spiritual coping: Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (de Jager Meezenbroek et al. 2012), Spirituality Scale (Delaney 2005) and the Spiritual Orientation Inventory (Elkins et al. 1988). The 26-item Spiritual Attitude and Involvement List (SAIL) was developed by de Jager Meezenbroek et al. (2012) to enable research on spirituality among religious and nonreligious people. Within the SAIL, spirituality is loosely defined as one’s striving for and experience of connection with the essence of life, which encompasses three main dimensions: connectedness with oneself, connectedness with others and nature, and connectedness with the transcendent. The SAIL consists of seven subscales that measure connectedness with oneself, with others and nature and with the transcendent. The SAIL lacks spiritual coping items related to transcendence and connection with nature. The 23-item Spirituality Scale (Delaney 2005) is a holistic instrument that attempts to measure the beliefs, intuitions, lifestyle choices, practices, and rituals representative of the human spiritual dimension and has been designed to guide spiritual interventions. Within the Spirituality Scale, spirituality was described as a multidimensional phenomenon that is universally experienced, in part socially constructed, and individually developed throughout the life span and that encompasses a personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal aspect. The Spirituality Scale does not contain items about spiritual coping regarding others and nature. The 85-item Spiritual Orientation Inventory (SOI) was developed by Elkins et al. (1988). The SOI consists of nine scales: (1) Transcendent Dimension; (2) Meaning and Purpose in Life; (3) Mission in Life; (4) Sacredness of Life; (5) Material Value; (6) Altruism; (7) Idealism; (8) Awareness of the Tragic and (9) Fruits of Spirituality. Despite the large number of items, items about spiritual coping regarding others and nature are missing. 3.2 Item Formulation, Vertical Transcendence The second research question focused on specific formulations and of items with respect to vertical transcendence. The series of items on spiritual connectedness and the series of items on spiritual coping were separately analyzed.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUwMDU5Ng==