Investigating the Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Attitudes Related to Spirituality Questionnaire (ARES) in the Elderly

The role of spirituality with its different levels in different countries and societies should be considered for investigating the elderly's health. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate spirituality with a scale specifically designed to measure spirituality. This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Attitudes Related to Spirituality Scale (ARES) in the elderly.

In this psychometrics study, the study population included all the elderly of Ardabil city, among whom 459 individuals were randomly selected to fill ARES. The data was analyzed by SPSS and Amos Software.

The reliability of ARES was 0.94 by Cronbach's alpha. Its construct validity, calculated by confirmatory factor analysis, showed that the model for measuring attitudes related to spirituality in the elderly had a suitable fit and its one-factor structure was confirmed (RMSEA=0.001, GFI=0.99, CFI=1).

The Persian version of the Attitudes Related to Spirituality has a one-factor structure, and could be used in psychological studies in Iranian samples due to its acceptable necessary validity and reliability.