Psychometric testing of the daily spiritual experiences scale among African Americans in the Jackson Heart Study.

This study provided the first examination of the psychometric properties of the 6-item Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) in a large African American sample, the Jackson Heart Study (JHS). The JHS included measures of spiritual (DSES) and religious practices. Internal reliability, dimensionality, fit indices, and correlation were assessed. DSES scores reflected frequent daily spiritual experiences (12.84 ± 4.72) and reliability scores were high (α = 0.85; 95% CI 0.84-0.86). The DSES loaded on a single factor, with significant goodness-of-fit scores (RMSEA = 0.094, P < 0.01). Moderate significant correlations were noted among DSES items. Our findings confirm that the 6-item DSES had excellent psychometric properties in this sample.