Dimensions of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being, Personality, and Mental Health Initial Results from Italian College Students

The purpose of this study was to adapt the Austrian-German version of the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB) into the Italian language and culture, and to investigate possible associations between the RSWB dimensions, "Big Five" personality factors and mental illness within an Italian student sample. Hence, the first Italian translation of the MI-RSWB scale was applied on a sample of 412 undergraduate students in three different cities and regions of Italy: Padova (northern Italy), Rome (central Italy), and Palermo (southern Italy). Like the original Austrian-German scale, we were able to find convincing psychometric properties for the new Italian version of the scale. By mirroring previous research, the RSWB-dimensions turned out to be substantially associated with personality dimensions, as well as negatively related with a global measure of mental illness. Our initial results confirm that these RSWB-dimensions are important facets of personality and mental health.