Psychometric Evaluation of an Arabic Version of the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale in Jordanian Muslim College Nursing Students

Abstract

A review of the nursing and health-related literature on spirituality revealed that no valid and reliable research tool exists in Arabic for measuring spiritual beliefs and practices for Arab Muslim population. This study translated the Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale (SIBS) into Arabic and examined the psychometric properties of the Arabic version in a sample of Jordanian Arab Muslim nursing students by examining  its factorial validity,  convergent-related validity, and internal reliability. A convenience sample of 394 Jordanian nursing college students (all Muslims) were recruited from governmental universities in the northern region of Jordan. The SIBS was translated from English to Arabic using a back-translation method, reviewed by an expert panel for lingual, cultural and spiritual consistency, and was piloted with 15 Jordanian nursing college students. Correlational and factor analysis were used. The internal consistency reliability of the Arabic SIBS was acceptable, with alpha coefficient of 0.76. Evidence of construct validity was supported by significant moderate to high positive correlations between the Arabic SIBS and both religiosity and the spiritual well-being (convergent validity), and by a resultant three-factor structure to the SIBS which was simple, easily interpretable and had a conceptual meaning. The resultant three factors were labeled as “Spiritual Beliefs”, “Spiritual Involvement”, and “Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Outcomes” subscales. In conclusion, these preliminary findings suggest that the Arabic version of the SIBS can be used as an instrument to measure levels of spiritual beliefs and practices in Arab Muslim populations. In addition, it would appear that spiritual beliefs and practices, spiritual well-being, and religiosity are important dimensions for Jordanian Muslim nursing students which have potential implications for nursing education, practice, and research.

Keywords: Arab Muslims, nursing students, translation, Arabic Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale, psychometric properties