Measuring religiousness of parents of children with developmental disabilities.

A 12-item scale of religiosity was related to content analyses of interviews with mothers of children with developmental disabilities. Results indicated that mothers who spontaneously mentioned religion in their interview rated themselves higher on the religiosity scale than did mothers who did not mention religion. Moreover, mothers who spoke more positively about religion received higher scores on the religiosity scale, as did their spouses. Content analyses of the narrative data indicated that what mothers said about religion was mostly positive and provided details of how religiousness influences coping with the rearing of a child who has developmental disabilities.