RELIGIOUS COPING ACTIVITIES SCALE

Abstract

The Religious Coping Activities Scale (RCAS) is a psychometric instrument developed by Pargament et al. (1990) to provide a sophisticated index of religiously based coping responses, moving beyond crude assessments like church attendance. The scale development involved consulting previous research, analyzing written accounts, and interviewing clergy, resulting in an initial list of 31 items. Administered to a sample of 528 churchgoers who had experienced recent stressful life circumstances, the RCAS utilizes a 4-point Likert scale format.

The measure monitors six distinct types of religious coping activities, five of which were identified through factor analysis, with a sixth added based on theoretical significance. The RCAS is a valuable research tool for investigators interested in the influence of religion on reactions to stress, demonstrating unique predictive validity for mental health and spiritual outcomes.

Keywords

Religious Coping, Stress, Coping, Spirituality, Factor Structure, Likert Scale, Psychological Assessment, Pargament.

Authors

Kenneth I. Pargament, Deborah S. Ensing, Karen Falgout, Holly Olsen, Brian Reilly, Karen Van Haitsma, Richard Warren.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Religious Coping Activities Scale (RCAS) is to precisely quantify how individuals utilize religious coping mechanisms when confronting stressful life circumstances. Prior research often relied on simplistic metrics, such as frequency of prayer or church attendance, which failed to capture the complexity and diversity of religiously based responses to stress.

The RCAS was designed specifically to supply a more sophisticated and multidimensional index, allowing researchers to differentiate between six distinct behavioral and cognitive strategies employed by individuals who draw upon their faith during periods of adversity.

Construct

The RCAS operationalizes religious coping as a multifaceted psychological construct encompassing six distinct dimensions. These dimensions capture both positive and negative religious engagements during times of stress. The six subscales are:

• Spiritually Based Activities: Measures reliance on a loving relationship with God and faith-guided action.
• Good Deeds: Assesses attempts to cope by aligning behavior more closely with religious commitments (e.g., confession, attending services).
• Discontent: Records feelings of anger, alienation, or distance from God and/or the church.
• Interpersonal Religious Support: Monitors the tendency to seek and lean on support provided by clergy members and fellow church adherents.
• Plead: Reveals tendencies toward questioning God and engaging in bargaining behaviors, often in pursuit of a miraculous solution to problems.
• Religious Avoidance: Measures religiously motivated attempts to divert attention away from stressful circumstances, such as focusing on the afterlife or relying entirely on God to solve problems.

Validity

The validity of the RCAS was robustly established through its predictive capabilities concerning three critical outcome domains of coping: mental health status, general nonreligious coping effects, and specific religious outcomes (e.g., spiritual growth). Data indicated that the Spiritually Based Activities subscale was an exceptionally strong predictor of successful coping across all three outcome categories.

Conversely, the Discontent subscale consistently demonstrated negative apparent influences on coping outcomes. The Plead subscale showed mixed consequences, correlating with poorer mental health but positive religious outcomes. Crucially, through multiple regression analysis, the six RCAS subscales accounted for unique variance in predicting outcomes, even when compared against a wide array of existing religious measures and nonreligious coping activities, thereby confirming the unique contribution and validity of the instrument.

Reliability

The internal consistency reliability for the six RCAS subscales was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, yielding values deemed adequate for research applications. The reliability coefficients spanned from low to moderately high, reflecting the different nature and scope of the measured constructs.

The specific alpha values reported for the subscales are: Spiritually Based Activities (alpha = .92), Good Deeds (alpha = .82), Interpersonal Religious Support (alpha = .78), Discontent (alpha = .68), and both Plead and Religious Avoidance (alpha = .61). These metrics support the internal consistency necessary for reliable measurement within each specific coping dimension.

Factor Analysis

The development of the RCAS structure was heavily reliant on factor analysis applied to the data collected from 528 churchgoers. This statistical procedure successfully extracted five of the six final subscales, collectively explaining almost all (close to 100%) of the measured variance in religious coping activities.

A sixth subscale, Religious Avoidance, comprising three items, was subsequently formed based on theoretical relevance, as these items did not load significantly onto the established five factors. The final item distribution across the six subscales is: Spiritually Based Activities (12 items), Good Deeds (6 items), Discontent (3 items), Plead (3 items), Interpersonal Religious Support (2 items), and Religious Avoidance (3 items), resulting in 29 items defining the six dimensions.

Instrument

Test Type: Psychometric Scale/Self-Report Questionnaire

Format: 31 items (29 items across six subscales) utilizing a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from “not at all” (1) to “a great deal” (4).

Language Available: English (Original Publication)

Population Group: Adults affiliated with various Christian denominations.

Age Group: Adults (Average age was 46 in the standardization sample).

Population Details: The standardization sample consisted of 586 participants primarily drawn from various Midwestern U.S. congregations (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, American Baptist, and nondenominational). The sample was 66% female, 96% white, 64% married, and 38% college-educated. Subjects were screened to ensure they had used religion to confront a stressful event in the past year, and those with high MMPI Lie scores were eliminated.

Test Methodology: Easy to administer, typically completed within 15 minutes. Subscale scores are derived by averaging the ratings of all activities within that specific subscale.

Keywords

Pargament, Religious Coping Activities Scale, Stress Response, Faith, Good Deeds, Discontent, Avoidance, Psychological Measurement.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1990

Permissions/Fee: Specific usage permissions and associated fees must be obtained directly from the primary author, Kenneth I. Pargament, or the publishing journal, the American Journal of Community Psychology.

Reference’s

• Pargament, K. I., Ensing, D. S., Falgout, K., Olsen, H., Reilly, B., Van Haitsma, K., & Warren, R. (1990). God help me: (I): Religious coping efforts as predictors of the outcomes to significant negative life events. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18, 793-824.
• Pargament, K. I., Ishler, K., Dubow, E. F., Stanik, P., Rouiller, R., Crowe, P., Cullman, E. P., Albert, M., & Royster, B. J. (1994). Methods of religious coping with the Gulf War: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 347-361.
• Pargament, K. I., Olsen, H., Reilly, B., Falgout, K., Ensing, D.S., & Van Haitsma, K. (1992). God help me (II): The relationship of religious orientations to religious coping with negative life events. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 504-513.
• Park, C. L., & Cohen, L. H. (1993). Religious and nonreligious coping with the death of a friend. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 17, 561-577.
• Shortz, J. L., & Worthington, E. L., Jr. (1994). Young adults’ recall of religiosity, attributions, and coping in parental divorce. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 172-179.

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Items of the RELIGIOUS COPING ACTIVITIES SCALE

Please read the statements listed below and for each statement please indicate to what extent each of the following was involved in your coping with the event. Please use the following scale to record your answers:

• 1 = not at all
• 2 = somewhat
• 3 = quite a bit
• 4 = a great deal

Spiritually Based Coping

1. Trusted that God would not let anything terrible happen to me.
2. Experienced God’s love and care.
3. Realized that God was trying to strengthen me.
4. In dealing with the problem, I was guided by God.
5. Realized that I didn’t have to suffer since Jesus suffered for me.
6. Used Christ as an example of how I should live.
7. Took control over what I could and gave the rest to God.
8. My faith showed me different ways to handle the problem.
9. Accepted the situation was not in my hands but in the hands of God.
10. Found the lesson from God in the event.
11. God showed me how to deal with the situation.
12. Used my faith to help me decide how to cope with the situation.

Good Deeds

13. Tried to be less sinful.
14. Confessed my sins.
15. Led a more loving life.
16. Attended religious services or participated in religious rituals.
17. Participated in church groups (support groups, prayer groups, Bible studies).
18. Provided help to other church members.

Discontent

19. Felt angry with or distant from God.
20. Felt angry with or distant from the members of the church.
21. Questioned my religious beliefs and faith.

Interpersonal Religious Support

22. Received support from the clergy.
23. Received support from other members of the church.

Plead

24. Asked for a miracle.
25. Bargained with God to make things better.
26. Asked God why it happened.

Religious Avoidance

27. Focused on the world-to-come rather than the problems of this world.
28. I let God solve my problems for me.
29. Prayed or read the Bible to keep my mind off my problems.