Cancer patients face many sources of stress during the course of their illness; this stress is often magnified for lower income and ethnic minority patients. Reducing stress has been shown to result in better quality of life and improved physical and psychological functioning for many cancer patients, and may ultimately reduce medical and mental health care costs. Religion as a resource for managing stress may be particularly important for lower income and ethic minority groups. Most studies find religion to be a source of comfort, yet religious life also brings with it the potential for stress or strain. The objective of the current pilot project is to develop a measure that will allow us to understand both the positive and negative role that religion plays in the life of a diverse sample of lower income patients on Medicaid. Specifically, the project will be conducted in three phases: Elicitation, Psychometric Assessment, and Cross-Sectional Validation. The Elicitation phase will consist of a qualitative interview to capture culture-specific aspects of religious experience. These interviews will e used to generate a preliminary scale. The Psychometric Assessment phase will consist of administering the scale and determining its psychometric properties, including distribution of responses, inter-item correlation coefficients, and scaling properties. The Cross-Sectional Validation phase will consist of administering an interview to test hypotheses designed to determine construct validity, convergent and discriminant validity, and criterion validity. The long-term objective is to create a population-appropriate religious comfort and strain measure with psychometric properties necessary for use in future longitudinal outcome studies including interventions.
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