Browsing by Author "Bjorck, Jeffrey P."

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    Religious Support and Psychological Functioning in a Polish Sample
    (2021) Zarzycka, Beata; Tychmanowicz, Anna; Korulczyk, Tomasz; Bjorck, Jeffrey P.
    A growing body of research shows that religious support is relevant to psychological functioning. The Religious Support Scale (RSS; Fiala et al., 2002) measures this construct. Reliability and validity for the RSS have been supported in Protestant and Jewish samples. We examined religious support’s relationship to psychological functioning in a Polish Catholic sample in two studies. To do so, we developed a Polish translation (the Polish Religious Support Scale; PRSS). In Study 1, we examined the PRSS’s internal structure using exploratory factor analyses and assessed reliability. Based on favorable results, we used the PRSS to examine the effects of religious support on psychological functioning after controlling for instrinsic religiousness. Results supported convergent and incremental validity, whereby religious support remained significantly associated with psychological well-being after controlling for religiousness. In Study 2, we replicated the reliability of the PRSS, further supported its factorial validity via confirmatory factor analyses, and also supported convergent validity via religious support’s association with multiple measures of religious and psychological well-being. Moreover, religious support remained significantly related to well-being even after controlling social support variance, again supporting incremental validity and extending religious support’s generalizability to Polish Catholics. Findings are discussed in terms of clinical and/or pastoral applications, with implications for future research.