Page 113 - JSOM Spring 2021

An Ongoing Series

Aligning and Assessing Core Attributes of
Spiritual Fitness for Optimizing Human Performance

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David Alexander, PhD, DMin *; Patricia Deuster, PhD, MPH 2

ABSTRACT

The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM)’s as a key pillar under POTFF for optimizing the performance
Preservation of the Force and Family Program (POTFF) iden- of all SOF and their families. Enhancing SP is key to sustain-
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tifies spiritual performance (SP) as a key pillar for holistically ing core spiritual beliefs, values, awareness, relationships, and
caring for and optimizing the performance of all Special Op- experiences.
erations Forces (SOF) and their families. Enhancing SP is key
to sustaining core spiritual beliefs, values, awareness, relation- Likewise, Total Force Fitness (TFF) was developed by the De-
ships and experiences. The SOCOM Spiritual Fitness Scale partment of Defense (DoD) in an effort to more holistically
(SSFS) enables religious support teams in SOF communities look at the individual service members with SF as a key pillar.
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and beyond to reliably measure SP according to POTFF’s To that end, the Consortium for Health and Military Perfor-
definition of SP and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff mance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the
Instruction (CJCSI) on Spiritual Fitness (SF). The three sub- Health Sciences developed a SOCOM SSFS to assess SP/SF,
scales of the SSFS relate to core attributes of SP/SF, which enable religious support teams in the SOF communities, and
were identified through factor analysis during iterations of the reliably measure SP/SF. The SSFS is consistent with both the
tool’s development. Directly aligning SP/SF programs with the goals of POTFF and in line with the CJCSI on SF. 3
core attributes of SSFS will allow chaplains to support both
theists and nontheists and to retain certain traditional chap- Three subscales of the SSFS emerged through iterations of the
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lain activities which no longer have universal connection to tool’s development and relate to core attributes of SP/SF. These
religious ministry in the public discourse. Chaplains are also core attributes can and should be used to inform evidence-based,
empowered to immediately begin conducting relevant and operationalized, measurable, and multi dimensional SP/SF pro-
spiritual assessments. We will illustrate how a chaplain can grams. The proposed tool fills the gaps toward developing
align SP initiatives with the three core attributes of SP/SF and a metric to quantify and qualify SP/SF and is important as
leverage the SSFS to assess baseline unit needs, conceive and SP/SF programs are key to human performance optimization
develop evidence-based initiatives, conduct rolling program (HPO) – a core construct over the entire DoD. What is needed
assessments, and articulate program efficacy to key leaders are approaches to align and then evaluate such programs
and collaborators. within SOF and other communities. In this article, we discuss
alignment and assessment and then provide a sample scenario
Keywords: spiritual metric; spiritual fitness; human perfor- showing how to use this information to demonstrate value.
mance optimization; total force fitness; program evaluation
Alignment
Showing a return on investment (ROI) is essential across all
Introduction
DoD programs related to HPO, and for that to happen we
The SOCOM POTFF was initiated to develop and execute a need to establish and coordinate common metrics. The SSFS
holistic approach to restore performance after years of pres- serves as that metric for assessing SP/SF programs. However,
sure on SOF. The goals of POTFF are to continually identify for a holistically based SP program to be successful, it must be
and implement innovative and valuable solutions across the integrated across the three key areas represented by the core
USSOCOM enterprise to improve the short and long-term attributes of SF/SP. This should yield a number of new oppor-
well-being of SOF warriors and their families. SP is identified tunities for military chaplains. Two of the three core attributes
*Correspondence to Department of Military and Emergency Medicine, Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University, 4301 Jones
Bridge Rd., Bethesda, MD 20814; or david.alexander@usuhs.edu
1 CDR Alexander is a commander in the US Navy Chaplain Corps, an assistant professor in the Department of Military and Emergency Medi-
cine, and a research team leader at the Consortium for Health and Military Performance at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, MD.
2 Dr Deuster is a professor and director of the Consortium for Health and Military Performance in the Department of Military and Emergency
Medicine, Hébert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University.

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