The Multidimensional Measurement of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being: Recent Developments in Scale Validation and Clinical Applications

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I thank the author of the article for providing the mater, it was interesting to meet you. The topic is very important in today's world. For a complete picture of the religiosity / spirituality of the respondents, it still makes sense to study all religions, not just the Catholic one, and compare how spirituality affects their level of well-being.

In my experience as a religiously oriented psychotherapist, all religions support the mental and psychological level of health of patients and help them cope with difficult life situations, not through comfort, but through the pursuit of humanity and the development of love. This direction is worthy of attention not only at the level of the archetypes of C. Jung, but within the framework of social psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, clinical psychology, since work with human spirituality is a healing and verified tool for Russian religiously oriented psychotherapists.

Author Response

Thanks a lot for this very kind feedback - I really appreciate this. In my opinion it is only necessary to react on the first paragraph of the review. Therefore, the following sentence was included (Line 402):

"Here it would also be interesting to further investigate different R/S backgrounds, worldwide, in all possible religions (see e.g., Hiebler-Ragger et al., 2020 for further discussion)."

Reviewer 2 Report

I appreciate the aim of this manuscript, extending the information on the MI-RSWB. This manuscript shares clear details on the information to date on the measure, with appropriate considerations for applications. 

Concerns I have relate to minor issues noted in details below. 

1) I would highly suggest shifting the language when referring to individuals with mental health struggles of any kind. Using person-first language is highly encouraged. For example, one place where person first language could be used would be on line 77, where "depressive or substance use disordered patients" are referred to. The manuscript should be reviewed, correcting any instances that person-first language is not used.

2). On line 139, the world "always" is used to refer to the internal consistencies, despite there being an exception in the next sentence. I encourage changing this wording. Additionally, Table 3 includes the information about the Persian (Farsi) sample being a convenience sample, which could be further explored in relation to the exception noted lines 141-143, since it is the only convenience sample noted.

3) Please review recent literature that might support your manuscript. For example, from lines 305-325, the newest article is from 2014, despite the first line of this section noting the "prolific debate in the past two decades). Of the articles cited in this paper, there were only 2 from 2020, only 2 from 2021, and nothing newer. A review of the recent literature is important. 

No major concerns, other than those that relate to the comments above. 

Author Response

Thanks a lot for your efforts and the valuable feedback - I really appreciate this. Here is the list of changes, that were made based on the reviewer`s comments:

1) I would highly suggest shifting the language when referring to individuals with mental health struggles of any kind. Using person-first language is highly encouraged. For example, one place where person first language could be used would be on line 77, where "depressive or substance use disordered patients" are referred to. The manuscript should be reviewed, correcting any instances that person-first language is not used.

--> Ok. The sentence was altered as follows (line 77):

"Thereby, a significantly lower level of RSWB was observed in different psychiatric patient groups such as persons, who where diagnosed for depressive disorders or substance use disorders (Unterrainer et al., 2012b; Un-terrainer et al., 2013a).

Further changes were made throughout the manuscript.

2). On line 139, the world "always" is used to refer to the internal consistencies, despite there being an exception in the next sentence. I encourage changing this wording.

--> "Always" (line 139) was altered to "mostly".

Additionally, Table 3 includes the information about the Persian (Farsi) sample being a convenience sample, which could be further explored in relation to the exception noted lines 141-143, since it is the only convenience sample noted.

--> The following sentence was added (line 143): "It is noteworthy that the Persian sample was the only community sample".

3) Please review recent literature that might support your manuscript. For example, from lines 305-325, the newest article is from 2014, despite the first line of this section noting the "prolific debate in the past two decades). Of the articles cited in this paper, there were only 2 from 2020, only 2 from 2021, and nothing newer. A review of the recent literature is important.

The following citations were  added:

Arslan, G., & Yıldırım, M. (2021). Meaning-based coping and spirituality during the COVID-19 pandemic: mediating effects on subjective well-being. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 646572. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.646572 

Cook, C. C. (2020). Spirituality, religion & mental health: exploring the boundaries. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 23(5), 363-374. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674676.2020.1774525

Coppola, I., Rania, N., Parisi, R., & Lagomarsino, F. (2021). Spiritual well-being and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 626944. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.626944

Garssen, B., Visser, A., & Pool, G. (2021). Does spirituality or religion positively affect mental health? Meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 31(1), 4-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508619.2020.1729570

Kao, L. E., Peteet, J. R., & Cook, C. C. (2020). Spirituality and mental health. Journal for the Study of Spirituality, 10(1), 42-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726048

Lucchetti, G., Koenig, H. G., & Lucchetti, A. L. G. (2021). Spirituality, religiousness, and mental health: A review of the current scientific evidence. World journal of clinical cases, 9(26), 7620. https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i26.7620

Vuzic, X. D., Burkart, P. L., Wenzl, M., Fuchshuber, J., & Unterrainer, H. F. (2022). The relationship between religious/spiritual well-being, psychiatric symptoms and addictive behaviors among young adults during the COVID-19-pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.942149