"Assessing religious/spiritual functioning: A neglected domain in clinical practice" by Hathaway, Scott, and Garver (2004). This study sought to determine if religious or spiritual functioning is addressed in clinical practice to an adequate degree. Two quasi-experimental studies using survey research were conducted. The first surveyed 25 clinicians at four clinics to provide a preliminary investigation related to the following questions: "do clinicians in these settings routinely address their client's religious and spiritual functioning; do they consider such functioning in endogenous perspective by evaluating the extent to which disorders adversely impact client religiousness; and have clinicians in such settings utilized the religious and spiritual problem V-code to identify a clinical focus of attention on aspects of their client's religious or spiritual functioning" (p. 99).
The statistics for this first study included the use of frequency distributions and percentages to describe the data. Findings were presented in a table. The relative frequency of the number of practice habits related to the research questions (six items each) were calculated. Findings showed that 56% reported asking clients about religiousness and 36% asked about spirituality. Some (48%) addressed the impact of the disorder on religious functioning in the client, 48% reported consulting with religious professionals, and 36% collaborated with religious processionals in clinical work. Survey items did not assess frequency or nature of consultations or collaborations. None of the participants reported ever diagnosing a religious or spiritual problem V-code. Self-reported beliefs about the clients religious/spiritual functioning were also listed in the table and text; 72% reported believing this issue to be a significant domain of functioning, 84% felt they were familiar with the religious/spiritual beliefs of their clients, 92% felt they could...