Assessing religion and spirituality in a cross-cultural sample: development of religion and spirituality items for the Global Flourishing Study

Abstract

The Global Flourishing Survey (GFS) was initiated to provide an open-access, longitudinal study of health and well-being using a participant panel from 22 countries around the world. At the core of the GFS are questions on religion and spirituality—notoriously difficult to assess in a cross-cultural context. Additionally, the longitudinal aspect will allow for tests of within-person change over time. In developing the religion and spirituality items, we received suggestions and feedback from over 130 scholars, and the items underwent several rounds of peer-review by experts in the field. The preliminary survey items were also made publicly available to gather more feedback. Experts at Gallup then translated candidate items to ensure consistency across languages/cultures. Here, we present the results of cognitive interviews of 230 participants in 22 religiously diverse countries regarding the efficiency, efficacy, and difficulty of our candidate items. In the spirit of open science, we wish to share our findings from the interviews and provide recommendations regarding Likert scale usage, item specificity, assessment of God representations, and inclusivity when assessing religion and spirituality across cultures. In this, we aim to assist other researchers and support confidence in the reliability and validity of GFS data when it becomes publicly available.