The Relationship of Spiritual Coping with Resilience and Perceived Stress: Validation of the Dutch Spiritual Coping Questionnaire

The aim of this study is to translate and validate the Spiritual Coping Questionnaire (SCQ) in Dutch, compare this questionnaire with a religious coping questionnaire, and assess levels of religious and spiritual coping in association to resilience and perceived stress because these are important determinants in mental health issues. The Dutch-speaking respondents (N = 651, Mage = 45, SDage = 14, Range = 18 - 80) answered the SCQ, Brief RCOPE, Perceived Stress Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale. Validation of the SCQ showed that it is a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess positive and negative spiritual coping in Dutch-speaking individuals. Although the positive and negative religious coping scales are associated with positive and negative spiritual coping questionnaires, religious coping was not predictive of perceived stress or resilience. Multiple regression analyses demonstrate that positive spiritual coping is associated with lower perceived stress and higher resilience levels; negative spiritual coping is associated with higher perceived stress and lower resilience levels in Dutch-speaking individuals. The outcome of this study is that the SCQ-nl is a valid and reliable measure to assess positive and negative spiritual coping in scientific psychological research and in a descriptive manner in clinical practice.