Spiritual struggles check (RSS-14-R)

A quick, private check based on the RSS-14-R. Free, scored on your device, and yours to keep.

Start the check
14 questions, takes about 2 minutes. Nothing is saved.
14 questions Takes about 2 minutes Scored privately in your browser

Within the past month, to what extent have you struggled with each of the following?

felt troubled by doubts or questions about religion or spirituality
felt angry at God
felt hurt, mistreated, or offended by religious/ spiritual people
felt attacked by the devil or by evil spirits
questioned whether life really matters
had conflicts with other people about religious/spiritual matters
wrestled with attempts to follow my moral principles
felt angry at organized religion
felt confused about my religious/spiritual beliefs
felt as though God was punishing me
worried that the problems I was facing were the work of the devil or evil spirits
felt as though God had abandoned me
questioned whether my life will really make any difference in the world
felt guilty for not living up to my moral standards

Looking up the trunk of a very tall fir into low cloud, ferns at its base

What this check measures

The RSS-14-R asks about six kinds of religious and spiritual struggle: with God, with the demonic, with other people around faith, with your own moral standards, with doubt, and with whether life means anything. Two or three questions cover each one. They are asked in a mixed order on purpose, so the six groups only appear when you see your result.

How the scoring works

Each answer is worth 1 for not at all up to 5 for a great deal, and each of the six groups is averaged rather than added. There is no total and no pass mark. The researchers decline to publish a cut-off, saying it depends on what a given setting is trying to do, so your six numbers are shown against the averages from the group the measure was tested on:

Struggles with God
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.32The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.
Struggles with the demonic
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.33The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.
Struggles with other people
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.5The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.
Moral struggles
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.48The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.
Struggles with doubt
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.36The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.
Struggles with meaning
ScoreWhat it means
1 to 5The whole range for this part.
1.7The average for the comparison group: 2,781 US adults, Exline et al. (2026), Table 3.

What it cannot tell you

This cannot tell you whether your faith is in good repair, and it is not a test of belief. The researchers found that many people report some struggle, and that modest amounts may mean very little. What it can do is give a recognised name to something that often gets carried alone.

Your faith has become a place of strain rather than steadiness. This is a free, fourteen-question check built on the RSS-14-R, developed over more than a decade of research. It looks at six kinds of struggle: with God, with the demonic, with other people around faith, with your own moral standards, with doubt, and with whether life means anything. It takes about two minutes and is scored privately in your browser. There is no pass mark and no cut-off; the researchers deliberately decline to set one.

Questions people ask

Does struggling mean my faith is failing?

No. This measures struggle, not strength of belief, and the two are not opposites. The researchers who built it have spent a career showing that struggle is a normal part of a serious spiritual life, and that what matters is whether a person is left alone in it.

What if I am not religious?

The measure still works. Several of the six kinds of struggle, particularly doubt and questions about meaning, have nothing to do with belonging to a religion. For any question that does not fit your beliefs, choose not at all or does not apply; the authors built that option in for exactly this reason.

Why is there no score out of anything?

Because the researchers decline to set one. They say a threshold depends on what a particular clinic or study is trying to do, and a free public check has no such purpose. So the six numbers are shown against the group averages instead, with no line drawn.

Who was the comparison group?

A nationally representative sample of 2,781 US adults, aged 19 to 96, about half of them Christian and over a third not religious. It is a US sample, not a Canadian one, which is worth holding lightly.

Who sees my answers?

No one. Everything is scored in your browser, and nothing you choose is stored or sent anywhere.

Working on faith and meaning, with support

Spiritual & existential exploration
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This is a free screening tool, not a diagnosis. It can help you notice patterns and decide whether to reach out. Your answers stay on your device; nothing is sent or saved.

References
  • Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., Wilt, J. A., & Yali, A. M. (2026). A brief, broad measure of six spiritual struggles: Initial validation of the six-item Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS-6), comparisons with the new RSS-14-R, and demographic differences using a nationally representative sample from the United States. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Advance online publication. DOI:10.1037/rel0000623.
  • Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2014). The Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale: Development and initial validation. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 6(3), 208-222. DOI:10.1037/a0036465.
  • Exline, J. J., Pargament, K. I., Wilt, J. A., Grubbs, J. B., & Yali, A. M. (2022). The RSS-14: Development and preliminary validation of a 14-item form of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Advance online publication. DOI:10.1037/rel0000472.

About this tool. Introspectus Counselling is a counselling practice. Sean Lewis is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC), not a physician or registered psychologist. This tool is educational and cannot provide a diagnosis. For a formal diagnosis or a disability assessment, please see a physician or registered psychologist.

Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale, revised 14-item form (RSS-14-R), Exline, Pargament, Grubbs, Wilt and Yali (2026), Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Used with written permission from Julie Exline, the first author, given on 12 August 2026. She asked that the RSS-14-R be used rather than the earlier RSS-14, and it is. Items, response options and the instruction are reproduced exactly as she supplied them, in the mixed order the authors intend. The six group averages are shown against the published means for a nationally representative sample of 2,781 US adults; no cut-off is shown, because the authors deliberately publish none. Free to complete, always; your answers are never stored.

Reviewed by Sean Lewis, Canadian Certified Counsellor · Introspectus Counselling, Colwood BC · Last updated July 2026