The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and Initial Validation Julie J. Exline Case Western Reserve University Kenneth I. Pargament Bowling Green State University Joshua B. Grubbs Case Western Reserve University Ann Marie Yali City College of New York Many people experience struggle around religious and spiritual aspects of life, as shown in a steadily growing body of research. A need now exists for more comprehensive, reliable, concise measure- ment of religious and spiritual (r/s) struggles through a scale that covers multiple domains. This article describes the development and initial validation of a 26-item measure, the Religious and Spiritual Struggles (RSS) Scale. The measure assesses six domains of r/s struggle: divine (negative emotion centered on beliefs about God or a perceived relationship with God), demonic (concern that the devil or evil spirits are attacking an individual or causing negative events), interpersonal (concern about negative experiences with religious people or institutions; interpersonal conflict around religious issues), moral (wrestling with attempts to follow moral principles; worry or guilt about perceived offenses by the self), doubt (feeling troubled by doubts or questions about one’s r/s beliefs), and ultimate meaning (concern about not perceiving deep meaning in one’s life). Study 1 used factor analytic techniques in two adult samples (Ns = 400 and 483) to refine the item pool for the RSS. Study 2, which sampled 1141 undergraduates, showed very good fit for a six-factor model using confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 also provided evidence of convergent, discriminant and predictive validity by relating RSS scores to measures of religiousness, r/s struggle and mental health. Several potentially important demographic differences emerged on the RSS. For example, undergraduates without committed romantic relationships and those who self-identified as homo- sexual reported greater r/s struggles across multiple domains. Keywords: religion, spirituality, God, spiritual struggles, religious coping Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0036465.supp Religion and spirituality (r/s) constitute a major domain of life for many people across the world. By spirituality, we are referring to a search for the sacred— elements of life that are seen as manifestations of the divine, transcendent or ultimate, either inside or outside of a specific religious context (Parga- ment, 1999; Pargament, Mahoney, Exline, Jones, & Shafranske, 2013). Religion takes place in the larger context of established institutions and structures that aim to facilitate spirituality (Pargament et al., 2013). Over the past several decades, many studies have pointed to potential benefits of r/s. For example, r/s can serve as a source of attachment security (see Granqvist & Kirkpatrick, 2013, for a review) or comfort (e.g., Exline, Yali, & Sanderson, 2000) or a facilitator of self-control (e.g., Mc- Cullough & Willoughby, 2009). Given these potential benefits, it may be easy to view r/s mainly as resources—as sources of comfort, social support or meaning, for example. Yet if r/s are framed exclusively in resource terms, one might miss another important point: Many people experience struggles around r/s, and these struggles have shown consistent associations with difficulties in the areas of mental health and well-being (for recent reviews, see Exline, 2013; Exline & Rose, 2013; Parga- ment, 2007). To date, there are few measures that have made r/s struggles their primary focus. A need now exists for a measure that can provide more comprehensive, reliable, concise mea- surement of multiple domains of struggle. This article describes the development and preliminary validation of a new self-report measure of r/s struggles, one that assesses six types of struggle. Religious/Spiritual (R/S) Struggles from a Psychological Perspective Religious/spiritual (r/s) struggles occur when some aspect of r/s belief, practice or experience becomes a focus of negative thoughts or emotions, concern or conflict (Exline, 2013). R/s struggle can take many forms (for reviews, see Exline & Rose, 2005, 2013; Pargament, 2007; Pargament, Murray-Swank, Julie J. Exline, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University; Kenneth I. Pargament, Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University; Joshua B. Grubbs, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University; Ann Marie Yali, Department of Psychology, City College of New York. We are grateful for funding support from the John Templeton Founda- tion, Grant # 36094. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Julie J. Exline, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44106-7123. E-mail: julie.exline@case.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 6, No. 3, 208 –222 1941-1022/14/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0036465 208