نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسندگان English
The present study was conducted to design and validate a scale for assessing the spiritual health of primary school children. This research employed a developmental–instrumental design. The statistical population consisted of all students in grades four to six in primary schools of Namin, Sarein, Nir, Germi, and Hir counties during the 2024–2025 academic year (approximately 2,800 students). A sample of 338 children (182 girls and 156 boys) was selected through multi stage cluster random sampling. Initially, 42 items were developed based on theoretical foundations and interviews with eight experts; following content validity assessment by 12 specialists, 34 items with an average CVI of 0.87 were retained. Preliminary qualitative analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability were employed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the instrument. The KMO value was 0.926 and Bartlett’s test was significant, confirming sampling adequacy. Exploratory factor analysis extracted four factors—Connection with God, Connection with Self, Connection with Others, and Sense of Meaning and Purpose—with eigenvalues greater than 1, explaining approximately 62% of the total variance. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.79 to 0.92 for the subscales and was 0.90 for the whole scale. Confirmatory factor analysis also indicated a good model fit (χ²/df = 1.12, RMSEA = 0.019, CFI = 0.93). Convergent validity (AVE > 0.50, CR > 0.70) and discriminant validity (Fornell–Larcker criterion) were confirmed. The two week test–retest reliability was satisfactory (r = 0.84). Overall, the developed scale demonstrated strong content, construct, and reliability indices and can be used as a valid instrument for assessing spiritual health among Iranian children in educational, psychological, and school based planning contexts. Nonetheless, it is recommended that future studies employ more geographically diverse samples to enhance generalizability.
کلیدواژهها English
Extended Abstract
1. Problem statement
Spiritual health, as one of the fundamental dimensions of health, plays a decisive role in emotional regulation, psychological adjustment, and social development of children. In elementary school, spirituality is more manifested in the form of emotional experiences, a sense of connection, meaning, and simple purposefulness. Despite numerous research evidence on the role of spiritual health in promoting psychological well-being, most of the existing tools are designed for adults and are not linguistically, cognitively, and culturally appropriate for Iranian children. The lack of a valid indigenous tool has limited the accurate measurement of children's spiritual health and the design of evidence-based educational interventions. Therefore, the main issue of the present study is to answer the question of what is the structure of spiritual health of elementary school children and can a tool with desirable validity and reliability be designed to measure it?
2. Method
The present study was conducted using a developmental-instrumental and quantitative approach. The statistical population consisted of 2,800 fourth- to sixth-grade students in elementary schools in Sarein, Namin, Nir, Germi, and Hir counties in the 2024–2025 academic year. A sample of 338 (182 girls and 156 boys) was selected using a multistage cluster random sampling method. To examine the data distribution, skewness and kurtosis indices were examined, and their values were within ±2 for all variables, and the normality of the data was confirmed. Exploratory factor analysis was performed using the principal components method and Varimax rotation, and then confirmatory factor analysis was performed using LISREL software, and validity and reliability indices were calculated.
3. Findings and Results
The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that the KMO index value was 0.926 and Bartlett's sphericity test was significant (χ²=7655.896, df=561, p<0.001), which confirms the adequacy of the sample and the appropriateness of the data. Four factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were extracted, which explained a total of 62.16% of the total variance of children's spiritual health. These factors included:
1. Relationship with God (9 items, α=0.88, explaining 22.35% of the variance),
2. Relationship with self (8 items, α=0.82, explaining 14.08% of the variance),
3. Relationship with others (8 items, α=0.79, explaining 12.21% of the variance),
4. Sense of meaning and purpose in life (9 items, α=0.84, explaining 13.52% of the variance).
The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.90. Confirmatory factor analysis also showed a good fit of the model (χ²/df=1.12, RMSEA=0.019). Convergent validity was confirmed with AVE between 0.52 and 0.58 and CR between 0.83 and 0.87. Discriminant validity was also established based on the Fornell-Larker criterion. Test-retest reliability was reported to be r=0.84 (p<0.001) with an interval of two weeks on 50 independent students, indicating the favorable temporal stability of the instrument.
4. Acknowledgement & Funding
· The manuscript did not receive a grant from any organization.
5. Conflict of Interest
· The authors declare no conflict of interest.
6. Author contribution
All authors share equal responsibility for the content of this paper.
1. Majid Shahi Ganzagh; Email: majidshahi3344@gmail..com; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4387-7731
2. Armin Khodaei Anbaran; Email: khodaeiarmin66@gmail.com; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9513-994X
3. Mahsa Razmi; Email: mahsarazmi200@gmail.com; ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0400-1983
References
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3. Hinter Berger, T., & Walter, N. (2025). Spirituality and mental health – investigating the association between spiritual attitudes and psychosomatic treatment outcomes. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1497630. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1497630
