Using of ordinal coefficient alpha in the evaluation of spiritual coping questionnaires reliability

  Introduction: Spirituality is known as a factor affecting adjustment to stress conditions in adolescence period. To assess the spiritual coping, a questionnaire in Likert scale is applied. In this study, the ordinal alpha coefficient was used to test the reliability of questionnaire.   Materials and Methods: The data of spirituality coping scale in a semi-structured interview included 103 items developed in 5-point Likert scale. After validation and factor analysis to identify factors, a multiple-choice questionnaire with 39 items was designed. The reliability of this questionnaire was investigated on a sample consisting of 120 adolescents living in boarding centers, Tehran Province. FACTOR and SPSS softwares were used to measure the ordinal alpha and Cronbach's alpha, respectively.   Results: The factor analysis revealed the spiritual coping in 3 factors: "purposefulness of life", "connection with God "and "looking for spiritual protection". The reliability coefficients of factors by ordinal alpha were 0.834, 0.913 and 0.984, respectively, which were higher in comparison with Cronbach's alpha. The reliability coefficient of 39-item-questionnaire by ordinal alpha was 0.992.   Conclusion: If the data is normally distributed, Cronbach's alpha can be used to calculate the reliability of the data with ordinal scale. Otherwise, ordinal alpha is a more accurate coefficient for testing the reliability. Spiritual coping questionnaire measures the different dimensions of Spiritual coping in institutionalized adolescences and also has higher reliability.