Development and validation of the Buddhist Patience Questionnaire

ABSTRACT

This investigation describes the development of a self-report questionnaire designed to assess the Buddhist Patience Questionnaire (BPQ). A three-dimension questionnaire was proposed based on the Ksanti paramita in Buddhism. First, we composed a questionnaire according to the information and data collected through theoretical interpretation, literature reviews, and structured interviews. The exploratory factor analysis of 168 valid responses revealed three dimensions of Buddhist patience: the patience to endure suffering willingly, the patience of non-retaliation in response to harm, and the patience realised through ascertaining the factors of existence. Next, we tested the BPQ and the Resilience Scale among 503 college students to analyse construct validity, criterion validity, and reliability of the questionnaire. The confirmatory factor analyses supported the three dimensions of the questionnaire, and the reliability and validity analyses showed the scales had a good level of reliability and validity.

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhist patience
• questionnaire development
• reliability
• validity

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the grant from Travis Research Institute, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology [project number FP03LTA].