From Military to Civilian Context: Adaptation of the SOCOM Spiritual Fitness Scale and Its Associations with Positive Mental Health and Depression in Poland #MMPMID41391058
Mamcarz P; Alexander D
J Relig Health 2025[Dec]; ? (?): ? PMID41391058show ga
The SOCOM Spiritual Fitness Scale (SSFS), originally developed to assess spiritual readiness in U.S. military populations, measures preparatory spiritual capacity within the Human Performance Optimization framework. This study investigated whether the SSFS could be successfully adapted to a civilian, non-American, non-English-speaking cultural context. Two studies with Polish adults examined the scale's psychometric properties and cultural validity. Study 1 (N = 1,145; 59.7% female; Mage = 37.64) employed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, revealing that while the three-factor structure was maintained, empirical refinement from 17 to 14 items improved factorial clarity by eliminating problematic cross-loadings. The refined scale demonstrated acceptable to excellent reliability (alpha = .70-.98) and measurement invariance across gender. Study 2 (N = 250) examined construct validity, revealing culturally specific patterns: horizontal spiritual dimensions-Pursuing Meaning, Purpose, and Values (PMPV) and Service and Sacrifice for the Greater Good (SSGG)-showed strong positive correlations with positive mental health (r = .603, p < .001; r = .452, p < .001, respectively) and negative correlations with depression (r = -.375, p < .001; r = -.257, p < .001, respectively). In contrast, vertical spirituality (Personal Connection to a Higher Power; PCHP) showed weak correlation with positive mental health (r = .188, p < .001) and no significant correlation with depression (r = .020, p > .05). Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that PMPV was the strongest predictor of both positive mental health (beta = .55, p < .001) and depression (beta = -.40, p < .001), while SSGG contributed no unique predictive variance beyond PMPV. Notably, PCHP emerged as a positive predictor of depression (beta = .14, p = .031), suggesting a paradoxical pattern whereby stronger personal divine connection predicted elevated depressive symptoms, particularly among believers, despite negligible bivariate correlation. Six-month test-retest confirmed temporal stability across all dimensions. These findings demonstrate that spiritual fitness assessment can successfully cross cultural and contextual boundaries while revealing important cultural variations in how spiritual resources function.
J+Relig+Health 2025 ; ? (?): ?
