SPIRITUALITY OR SOCIO-ECOLOGY? – STUDY OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SPIRITUAL WELL-BEING QUESTIONNAIRE IN AN ECLECTIC SAMPLE OF BELIEVERS

Abstract

The Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire (SWBQ) was widely studied as a psychological instrument; yet, there is a lack of its use in non-religious research.  This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the SWBQ in a sample of practising believers, non-practising believers, sceptics and atheists. A total number of 279 participants aged between 17 and 69 ( M =24.42, SD =9.463) completed the SWBQ and socio-demographic measurements. The SWBQ’s factorial structure proved to be different from the original version, suggesting inconsistencies between content validity and factorial validity. Environmental Domain was the factor with the greatest statistical weight in the scale's total variance. SWBQ’s metrical properties are contrary to a synergic spirituality.