The Dedication to the Sacred (DS) Scale: Adapting a Marriage Measure to Study Relational Spirituality

We describe the development of the Dedication to the Sacred Scale (DS). The measure was created to test a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness. Items from a measure of commitment in couples (Stanley & Markman, 1992) were adapted to assess a victim's dedication to a relationship with the Sacred. In Study 1 (N = 171), confirmatory factor analysis revealed good fit to a single-factor model. We removed poor items and replicated the factor structure on an independent sample in Study 2 (N = 201). In Study 3 (N = 134), the five-item DS showed evidence of construct validity. It was positively related to religious commitment and uncorrelated with social desirability. The DS predicted forgiveness after the variance from religious commitment, desecration, and offender's spiritual and human similarity were removed. Those who viewed the Sacred as a personal being had higher scores than those who viewed the Sacred as impersonal.