The Qualitative Assessment of Two Translated Dutch Spirituality Scales for Children

Abstract

Purpose: This article describes the translation and qualitative assessment and small scale validation of two spirituality scales designed for children from English to Dutch and includes the translation and validation process and the results of the two most commonly used and best validated measurement instruments for spirituality in children: the Feeling Good, Living Life scale (FGLL) by Fisher (2004, 2009) and the Spirituality Sensitivity Scale for Children by Stoyles et al. (2012).

Design and methods: The translation process was designed according to Beaton et al. (2000) and both the translation and the validation process followed the instructions of the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN, 2018). The qualitative validation was done by a three-step test-interview eliciting the face validity of both questionnaires.

Results and conclusions: The results show that both instruments were reliably translated, are face valid with some minor alterations and structurally validated overall in the small-scale pilot.

Practice implications: More attention from healthcare professionals and educators should be directed at using spiritual measuring instrument to develop the spiritual vocabulary of children. A larger study is needed to also confirm the cultural validity of the translated scales.

Keywords: Children; Spirituality scale; Translating questionnaires; Validation study.