Abstract

Objectives: There are few scales developed to measure spiritual coping, which are not fit to the special situation and culture of Iranian adolescents. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable scale to measure spiritual coping in institutionalized adolescents. Method: This methodological research was conducted in two stages: qualitative and quantitative. In the qualitative stage to develop scale items, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with institutionalized adolescents. In the quantitative stage (psychometric testing), content validity index, face, construct and criterion-related validity as well as reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha and test-retest) were assessed. Results: Exploratory factor analysis for assessing factor structure revealed that the three factors could explain 55.29% of the variance. Correlation of the scale scores with scores of “Institutionalized Adolescents Spiritual Attitude Scale” and “Hopefulness Scale for Adolescents” were 0.897 and 0.274 respectively. According to reliability measurement, internal consistency of the scale was coefficient alpha=0.964 and test-retest reliability with a 3-week time interval was 0.712. Conclusion: Institutionalized Adolescents Spiritual Coping Scale measures various dimensions of spiritual coping in this group of adolescents and has a high degree of reliability and validity.