# Psychometric Properties of the Dutch Surrender to God Scale: Relationships with Religious Behavior, God Representation, Well-being, and Health

## TL;DR

This study validates a Dutch version of the Surrender to God Scale and a shorter version, showing they reliably measure surrender to God and its links to well-being and religious behavior in Christian samples.

## Contribution

The study provides validated Dutch scales for measuring surrender to God, suitable for use in research with time constraints.

## Key findings

- Both scales showed strong internal consistency and validity, linking surrender to lower stress and depression.
- Surrender was associated with more positive God representations and higher religious behavior.
- Factor analysis confirmed two dimensions of surrender: Imitation of God’s will and Peace through God’s will.

## Abstract

Given that surrender to God has been associated with health and well-being in believers, research in this area would benefit from the availability of scales outside the United States, where these were first developed. To this end, we conducted two studies (N = 130 and N = 574) in Christian samples in the Netherlands to test the psychometric properties of a Dutch translation of the Surrender to God Scale (D-StGS). In addition, the abbreviated Religious Surrender Scale-2 was tested to examine whether the two-item scale would show validity and reliability, as this would benefit research in which there are time (and other) constraints on assessment. Both scales showed adequate to excellent internal consistency, convergent validity with religious coping and religious orientation, and predictive validity; specifically with (I) lower anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms and (II) higher scores on religious behavior and meaning in life. Likewise, both scales were related to (III) more positive, supportive, and ruling, and less passive, anxious, and angry God representations. However, explorative factor analysis of the D-StGS in the first study resulted in two factors (Imitation of God’s will and Peace through God’s will), which were confirmed with confirmatory factory analysis in the second study. It can be concluded that the D-StGS and abbreviated scale are useful for future research in Christian samples.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10943-024-02144-y.