Maternal Spiritual Coping Scale: Development and Validation

This research intends to develop a spiritual coping strategies scale for childrearing mothers. The study has been conducted using 24 items and has been carried out on 217 mothers. As a result of factor analysis, items have been categorized under one factor, and the total explained variance has been found to be approximately 0.59. As a result of the study, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the scale has been found as .966. Item analysis indicates the item-total correlation to be significant (p < .001). All these results show that all items have the same structure. The upper and lower values of the item-total correlations range from .630 to .838. The relationship of the scores from the Religious Coping Scale with those from the Maternal Spiritual Coping Scale has been used for criterion validity. Statistically significant and positive correlations have been found between the subscales of the Maternal Spiritual Coping Scale and Religious Coping Scale; the sub-scales of positive coping (r = .72; p = .01) and negative coping (r = .35; p = .01) have been determined to significantly correlate. The results of the study show the scale to be a sufficiently valid and reliable measurement tool that can be used to assess the coping strategies mothers use while raising children.

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