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Background: Studies investigating the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and mental health have suggested both positive and negative associations, highlighting the importance of multifaceted assessment of these rather broad constructs. The present study aims at contributing to this field of research by providing a validated Swedish version of the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB-S) and further examining how this instrument relates to Big Five personality factors, Sense of Coherence (SOC), and religiosity.Methods: Data were collected from a total of 1,011 Swedish students (747 females; age range 18–40) via completion of an online survey, including a new Swedish Version of the MI-RSWB-S, the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13), and the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS-5).Results: Results revealed adequate estimates of internal consistency and substantial evidence for the postulated six-dimensional structure. However, confirmatory factor analysis yielded poor fit indices, resulting in the development and validation of a revised measure of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (RSWB), comprising the subscales General Religiosity and Connectedness. Most of the MI-RSWB-S dimensions were positively correlated with the personality domains Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness and negatively related to Neuroticism. SOC was positively linked to Hope Immanent, Forgiveness, Hope Transcendent, and Experiences of Sense of Meaning, whereas CRS exhibited positive correlations with all MI-RSWB-S subscales except Hope Transcendent.Conclusion: The findings of the current study support the validity and reliability of the Swedish adoption of the MI-RSWB and confirm previously reported associations with the Big Five personality traits, SOC, and CRS. More in general, our results underline the putative substantial link between RSWB dimensions and mental health. Further research especially in clinical surroundings as well as by employing more representative samples is now warranted.

BackgroundIn the field of mental health, religiosity and spirituality have gained particular attention in recent decades. However, only a few studies to date have investigated the effects of different types of religiosity and spirituality. In association with the recent introduction of a Swedish version of the multidimensional inventory of religious/spiritual well-being (MI-RSWB-S), the present study aimed to identify possible types of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being by using cluster analyses and to examine the extracted groups for differences in the sense of coherence (SOC), the Big Five personality factors, and central aspects of religiosity. Additionally, the study design was intended to further contribute to the validation of the MI-RSWB-S.MethodsBased on a convenience sample of Swedish students (N = 1,011), initially obtained for the development of the MI-RSWB-S, the study included the MI-RSWB-S, the 13-items sense of coherence scale, the 10-item personality inventory, and the centrality of religiosity scale. For the statistical analysis, cluster analyses and one-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted.ResultsThe cluster analyses yielded the following four groups: Religiosity and spirituality high (n = 124), religiously oriented (n = 200), spiritually oriented (n = 149), and religiosity and spirituality low (n = 538). The groups differed in most aspects of well-being, in the personality dimensions agreeableness and openness to experience, as well as in central aspects of religiosity. In contrast, no differences were found for SOC, extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional instability.ConclusionOur results suggest that different types of religious/spiritual well-being are associated with mental health and personality dimensions in substantially different ways, thus offering an interesting potential for future research.