Psychometric Properties of the Serenity Scale:

Harmony found: Serenity's crucial role in alleviating death anxiety through attachment styles among community-dwelling older adults

OBJECTIVE

Explore the mediating effect of serenity in the relationships between attachment styles and death anxiety among older adults DESIGN: A descriptive correlational research design following Strengthening Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology guidelines.

METHODS

Data were collected from 250 older adults attending three clubs.

TOOLS

Arabic Scale of Death Anxiety, Brief Serenity Scale, and Revised Adult Attachment Scale were used to collect data.

RESULTS

Most participants exhibited high levels of serenity, with varying degrees of attachment styles and death anxiety. Correlation analysis indicates significant negative associations between death anxiety and serenity, as well as attachment styles. Secure attachment styles were positively correlated with serenity and negatively with death anxiety. Path analysis revealed that serenity partially mediated the relationship between attachment styles and death anxiety.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Fostering secure attachments and promoting serenity to mitigate death anxiety in older adults, enhancing later-life psychological well-being through informed interventions.

Parents living with a child afflicted by a life-limiting medical condition: Typology of their narrative identity

Parents of children suffering from a life-limiting medical condition struggle with difficult existential questions. Our objective was to understand why those parents’ interactions with the medical world were so different, ranging from hostile to collaborative, with the themes of identity, spirituality and serenity. A grounded theory design based on the narrative identity framework was used to interview sixteen parents. Three categories emerged: i) Parents in the Almighty category delegate all their power to God or medicine and are the most suffering parents as they do not author their life; ii) Parents in the Me category make every decision on their own causing much anxiety, and they become rebarbative to the medical world; iii) Parents in the Guide category take advice from others, while remaining the authors of their stories and are the most serene parents. Understanding and recognizing these categories can have a major impact on communication with those families.

Achieving peace and harmony in life: Thai Buddhists living with HIV/AIDS

This study aimed to reveal the process of achieving peace and harmony in life by Thai Buddhists living with HIV/AIDS in Southern Thailand. Data were gathered from 28 Thai Buddhist participants aged 18 years or older, who had lived with HIV/AIDS for 5 years or more. Purposive, snowball and theoretical sampling techniques were used to recruit the participants. Data collection, using in-depth interviews, was carried out over a 7 month period between 2011 and 2012. Grounded theory was used to guide the process of data analysis. Two categories emerged to describe the core category 'Achieving Peace and Harmony in life': (i) understanding and accepting that nothing is permanent and (ii) living life with contentment. Findings are valuable for health professionals in enhancing peace and harmony for their patients.

Evaluation of quality-of-life measures for use in palliative care: a systematic review

PURPOSE

In this literature review we evaluated the feasibility and clinimetric quality of quality-of-life (QoL) measurement instruments suitable for use in palliative care.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic literature review to identify instruments measuring (at least one domain of) QoL. We selected articles that present data on patients receiving palliative care and at least one measurement property. A checklist was used to describe the characteristics of the instruments, and a widely accepted rating list was used to evaluate the clinimetric aspects.

RESULTS

29 instruments were identified and evaluated, most of which were targeted at palliative patients in general. None of the instruments demonstrated satisfactory results for all measurement properties. Fourteen instruments received positive ratings for construct validity. Thirteen instruments were tested for reliability, but only two were tested adequately and had positive results (ICC>0.70). Responsiveness was not tested adequately for any of the instruments. Very few of the studies provided information on the interpretation of the scores. Overall, the MQOL, followed by the QUAL-E and the QODD, received the best ratings for their measurement properties.

CONCLUSIONS

Many measurement instruments were identified, but most had not yet been adequately evaluated. The evaluation of existing instruments with good content validity should have priority over the development of new instruments.

The brief serenity scale: a psychometric analysis of a measure of spirituality and well-being

PURPOSE

This article describes a factor analysis of a 22-item version of the Serenity Scale, a tool that measures spirituality and well-being.

METHOD

A sample of 87 participants, enrolled in a National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trial examining the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction on symptom management post-solid organ transplantation, completed the abbreviated instrument.

FINDINGS

Exploratory factor analysis yielded three subscales: acceptance, inner haven, and trust. The Serenity Scale was positively associated with positive affect and mindful awareness and inversely related to negative affect, anxiety, depression, health distress and transplant-related stress.

CONCLUSIONS

Serenity, a dimension of spirituality that is secular and distinct from religious orientation or religiosity, shows promise as a tool that could be used to measure outcomes of nursing interventions that improve health and well-being.

IMPLICATIONS

Spirituality is recognized as being an essential component of holistic nursing practice. As nurses expand their use of spiritual interventions, it is important to document outcomes related to nursing care. The Serenity Scale appears to capture a dimension of spirituality, a state of acceptance, inner haven and trust that is distinct from other spirituality instruments.