Religious Support Scale

Abstract

The Religious Support Scale (RSS), developed by Neil Krause in 2003, is a widely utilized psychological instrument designed to measure the quality and nature of support exchanges within a religious context, specifically focusing on interactions among members of a congregation. This scale operationalizes religious support by dividing it into four distinct dimensions: emotional support received, emotional support provided, negative interactions, and anticipated support. It is available in both a 12-item long form and an 8-item short form, making it suitable for use in large-scale studies, particularly those investigating the links between religious involvement and health outcomes.

Keywords

Religious Support, Social support, Religious Support, Congregation, Health Research, Emotional Support, Negative Interactions, Fetzer Institute, Psychological Scale.

Authors

Neil Krause

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Religious Support Scale is to systematically quantify the multifaceted ways in which individuals experience and participate in social support within their religious communities. Unlike generic social support measures, the RSS focuses specifically on the congregation as the primary network, recognizing that religious groups often serve as crucial providers of emotional, instrumental, and informational aid, especially during times of stress or illness.

This instrument helps researchers distinguish between positive supportive exchanges (received and provided) and detrimental or stressful interactions (negative interactions), thereby offering a comprehensive view of the relational dynamics within a religious setting. By including a measure of anticipated support, the scale also captures the subjective sense of security and trust an individual places in their religious community for future needs.

Construct

The core construct measured is Religious Support, which is defined as a domain-specific form of social support derived from religious affiliations and participation. Krause structured the RSS around four theoretically distinct sub-constructs, reflecting the bidirectional and complex nature of interpersonal relationships within a religious community:

• Emotional Support Received: The degree to which an individual feels loved, cared for, and listened to by fellow congregation members.
• Emotional Support Provided: The degree to which an individual actively offers love, care, and a listening ear to others within the congregation.
• Negative Interactions: The frequency of stressful, critical, or demanding encounters with members of the congregation, which can undermine the benefits of positive support.
• Anticipated Support: The perceived availability and willingness of the congregation to provide aid (e.g., help when ill, comfort during difficult times) in future hypothetical situations.

Validity

The validity of the Religious Support Scale is generally well-established, particularly its construct validity, which is rooted in its development within the framework of the Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research—a rigorous effort by the Fetzer Institute and the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The clear separation of positive support (received/provided/anticipated) from negative interactions provides strong evidence for discriminant validity, ensuring that the scale measures distinct facets of religious social dynamics.

The scale’s theoretical foundation rests on existing literature concerning social support and stress proliferation, demonstrating its ability to correlate logically with related measures such as religious commitment, overall psychological well-being, and measures of stress. Subsequent research utilizing the RSS has confirmed its applicability across diverse religious populations, reinforcing its external validity in health and psychological research.

Reliability

The Religious Support Scale exhibits strong psychometric properties, particularly regarding internal consistency. Studies typically report high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the primary subscales (Emotional Support Received, Emotional Support Provided, and Anticipated Support), indicating that the items within each dimension reliably measure the same underlying construct.

While negative interactions often yield slightly lower but still acceptable alpha values—a common finding for scales measuring negative or low-frequency events—the overall reliability suggests that the RSS provides stable and consistent measures of religious social resources and strain. The reliability is maintained across both the 12-item long form and the 8-item short form, allowing researchers flexibility in administration while preserving measurement integrity.

Factor Analysis

Factor analyses conducted on the Religious Support Scale consistently support a multidimensional structure, aligning with the four hypothesized subscales. These analyses confirm that the items cluster into distinct factors corresponding to Emotional Support Received, Emotional Support Provided, Negative Interactions, and Anticipated Support.

This four-factor structure underscores the complex nature of religious support, confirming that positive and negative aspects of congregational relationships are statistically separate constructs. The distinct factor loadings demonstrate that the scale successfully differentiates between support that is actively experienced, support that is proactively offered, potential future aid, and interpersonal friction.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale

Format: Likert-type scales with varying response anchors depending on the subscale.

Language Available: Primarily English, though translations may exist in subsequent research applications.

Population Group: Adults affiliated with a religious congregation.

Age Group: Typically used with older adults, but applicable across the adult lifespan.

Population Details: Originally validated in studies focusing on older adults, particularly those examining health and well-being outcomes linked to religious involvement.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate the frequency (Items 1-9/1-6) or degree (Items 10-12/7-8) of specific interactions or expectations regarding their congregation.

The scoring methodology for the Long Form (12 items) is as follows:

Items 1-9 (Received, Provided, Negative Interactions): 4= Very often, 3= Fairly often, 2= Once in a while, 1= Never.

Items 10-12 (Anticipated Support): 4= A great deal, 3= Some, 2= A little, 1= None.

The scoring methodology for the Short Form (8 items) is as follows:

Items 1-6 (Received, Provided, Negative Interactions): 4= Very often, 3= Fairly often, 2= Once in a while, 1= Never.

Items 7 and 8 (Anticipated Support): 4= A great deal, 3= Some, 2= A little, 1= None.

Keywords

Neil Krause, Religious Support Scale, Psychometrics, Congregational Support, Emotional Support, Anticipated Support, Negative Social Exchanges, Health Psychology.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source material.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source material.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source material.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The scale was published in 2003 as part of the influential “Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research” report by the Fetzer Institute/National Institute on Aging Working Group. The instrument is generally considered part of the public domain tools promoted by the Fetzer Institute for research purposes, though citation of the original source (Krause, 2003) and the Fetzer report is mandatory. Copyright is held by the Fetzer Institute (2003).

Reference’s

The Religious Support Scale is documented in the following sources:

• Krause, N. (2003). Religious Support. In Fetzer Institute/National Institute on Aging Working Group’s (Ed.), Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research (pp. 60-62). Kalamazoo, MI: Fetzer Institute.
• Krause, N. (1995). Negative interaction and satisfaction with social support among older adults. J Gerontol: Psychol Sci, 50; 59-73.
• Krause, N., & Markides, K. (1990). Measuring social support among older adults. Int J Aging Hum Dev, 30:37-53.
• Krause, N. (1986). Social support, stress, and well-being among older adults. J Gerontol, 41; 412-519.

The full report detailing the instrument is available online: http://fetzer.org/resources/multidimensional-measurement-religiousnessspirituality-use-health-research

The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://caps.net/attachments/303_sAmongAdultEvangelicalProtestantChristians-Dissertation).pdf

Items of the Religious Support Scale

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Religious Support Scale (Long Form)

Emotional Support Received from Others

The following questions deal with the relationships you’ve had with the people in your congregation.

1. How often do the people in your congregation make you feel loved and cared for?
2. How often do the people in your congregation listen to you talk about your private problems and concerns?
3. How often do the people in your congregation express interest and concern in your well-being?

Emotional Support Provided to Others

The following questions deal with things you may do for the people you worship with.

1. How often do you make the people in your congregation feel loved and cared for?
2. How often do you listen to the people in your congregation talk about their private problems and concerns?
3. How often do you express interest and concern in the well-being of people you worship with?

Negative Interactions

Sometimes the contact we have with others is not always pleasant.

1. How often do the people in your congregation make too many demands on you?
2. How often are the people in your congregation critical of you and the things you do’?
3. How often do the people in your congregation try to take advantage of you?

Anticipated Support

These questions are designed to find out how much help the people in your congregation would be willing to provide if you need it in the future.

1. If you were ill, how much would the people in your congregation be willing to help out’?
2. If you had a problem or were faced with a difficult situation, how much comfort would the people in your congregation be willing to give you?
3. If you needed to know where to go to get help with a problem you were having, how much would the people in your congregation be willing to help out?

*********

RELIGIOUS SUPPORT SHORT FORM

Emotional Support Received from Others

The following questions deal with the relationships you’ve had with the people in your congregation.

1. How often do the people in your congregation make you feel loved and cared for?
2. How often do the people in your congregation listen to you talk about your private problems and concerns?

Emotional Support Provided to Others

The following questions deal with things you may do for the people you worship with.

1. How often do you make the people in your congregation feel loved and cared for?
2. How often do you listen to the people in your congregation talk about their private problems and concerns?

Negative Interaction

Sometimes the contact we have with others is not always pleasant.

1. How often do the people in your congregation make too many demands on you?
2. How often are the people in your congregation critical of you and the things you do?

Anticipated Support

These questions are designed to find out how much help the people in your congregation would be willing to provide if you need it in the future.

1. If you were ill, how much would the people in your congregation be willing to help out?
2. If you had a problem or were faced with a difficult situation, how much comfort would the people in your congregation be willing to give you?