Reliance on God’s Help Scale as a Measure of Religious Trust—A Summary of Findings

Abstract

This paper gives a summary of findings from studies using the five-item Reliance on God’s Help (RGH) scale, which was developed a decade ago as an integral part of a comprehensive measure to differentiate between external and internal adaptive coping strategies. It has been used for both healthy and diseased persons. We will summarize data on internal reliability scores and the distribution of mean values for the respective items in the different study samples. Also, we will present a structural equation model (SEM) to confirm the scale’s validity. Our analysis shows that the RGH scale is a short, valid, and reliable measure of a person’s strong basic trust in God (faith), regardless of what life brings. The items do not address aspects such as well-being, inner peace, or specific moods. Thus, it is important to note that the RGH scale was not per se associated with indicators of well-being or health-related quality of life, indicating distinct dimensions.

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