The Research Process
What does it take to validate a survey measure?
The Spiritually Abusive Leadership and Climate (SALC) Survey is currently in development. It will undergo rigorous academic testing and statistical validation to ensure that it provides an accurate measure of spiritually abusive behavior in Christian organizations.
Step 1: Item Development
Survey items are created based on interviews with survivors, literature on spiritual abuse, and existing spiritual abuse assessments.
☑ STATUS: COMPLETED
Step 2: Expert Reviewers
Survey items are reviewed by experts in psychometrics and the field of spiritual abuse to test for their clarity and relevance to spiritually abusive leadership.
☑ STATUS: COMPLETED
Step 3: Small-Scale Pilot Test
The survey is prepared for testing and loaded into an online platform.
A small sample completes the survey to check for errors and clarity.
☑ STATUS: COMPLETED
Step 4: Large-Scale Pilot Test - Round 1
The survey is completed by at least 300 qualifying participants.
Statistical analysis (Chronbach's alpha) is used to internally validate the items and identify the strongest items for the final survey.
Statistics (EFA) determine the underlying themes or subscales for the final measure.
☑ STATUS: COMPLETED
Step 5: Large-Scale Pilot Test - Round 2
The final version of the SALC Survey will be tested a second time to confirm the validity (does it accurately measure what it's supposed to?) and reliability (does it produce consistent results every time?).
Additional validated measures will also be tested against the SALC Survey to provide a more robust understanding of spiritually abusive leadership.
☑ STATUS: COMPLETED
Step 6: Public Access
The final version of the SALC Survey will be made available for individuals to better understand their experience and the health of their institutions.
Leaders and organizations who wish to use the survey for diagnostic purposes can do so with a trained professional.
☐ STATUS: UPCOMING (EST. Fall 2025)
Step 7: Publishing
The research process and findings will be written and submitted to an academic journal for publishing.
This research may then be tested and expanded by other researchers.
☐ STATUS: IN PROGRESS
