The development of a scale to measure the experience of spiritual connection and the correlation between this experience and values

Abstract

Abstract: Previous research shows religiosity (across several religions) is associated with conservative values (tradition, conformity and security) from the Schwartz value scale and not with spiritually oriented, self‐transcendent values. The relationship between religiosity and spirituality is controversial. We developed a 48‐item scale, the Spiritual Connection Questionnaire (SCQ)‐48, to measure experience and beliefs of spiritual connection, an aspect of spirituality that is consistent with religious and non‐religious or New Age interpretations of spirituality. We selected 14 items (SCQ‐14) that best predicted health and then tested the correlation between the SCQ‐14 and the SVS in a student and an older population in the UK. In both populations the SCQ‐14 was negatively associated with values at the self‐enhancing value pole (power, security and hedonism) and in the older population was positively associated with a value at the self‐transcendent value pole (universalism, but not benevolence). Religiosity has been shown to be associated with values that enhance societal identification and hence inter‐group differentiation and conflict. By contrast, we found that the experience of spiritual connection is associated with values that reduce inter‐group differentiation. Despite these differences, we found that self‐reported religiosity enhances spiritual experience. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.