The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity among 8- to 11-year-old students in Wales

Abstract

The Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was designed in the mid-1970s to assess individual differences in attitude through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood from the age of 8 years upwards. This study examines the internal consistency reliability, factor structure, and construct validity of the instrument 40 years later among 1,511 year 4 students (8-9 years), 1,544 year 5 students (9-10 years), and 1,526 year 6 students (10-11 years) in Wales attending Church in Wales voluntary aided and voluntary controlled primary schools. The data support the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the instrument among the age range and commend the instrument for continued use in research.

Religion and Personal Happiness among Young Churchgoers in Australia: The Importance of the Affective Dimension

“…The item with the lowest correlation (.52) is the one reverse-coded item in the measure (Going to church is a waste of my time). This is consistent with the recognised poorer performance of reverse-coded items among younger participants (see Francis, McKenna, & Powell, 2020). The item endorsements demonstrate an overall high positive level of religious affect among the young participants: 92% agreed that God means a lot to them; 91% agreed that Jesus helps them; 89% agreed that God helps them lead a better life; and 86% agreed that Jesus is very close to them.…”

“…Responses to each item are assessed on a five-point scale: disagree strongly (1), disagree (2), THE IMPORTANCE OF THE AFFECTIVE DIMENSION 11 not certain (3), agree (4), and agree strongly (5). The psychometric properties of this modified form of the short Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity have been fully explored by Francis, McKenna, and Powell (2020).…”

Assessment of mental health, religion, and culture: the development and examination of psychometric measures (Part III)

“…Third, two articles are presented that have focused on the reporting of supplementary psychometric data on developed scales in different cultural contexts and religious samples. Francis, Lankshear, and Eccles (2017) report among a sample of 1511 year 4 students (8-9 years), 1544 year 5 students (9-10 years), and 1526 year 6 students (10-11 years) in Wales attending Church in Wales voluntary aided and voluntary controlled primary schools, the satisfactory psychometric properties of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity (Francis, 1978a(Francis, , 1978b. Francis, Laycock, and Brewster (2017) report among a sample of 772 Anglican clergy in England, the satisfactory psychometric properties of the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005(Francis, , 2009.…”

The Internal Consistency Reliability of the Katz-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Judaism among Australian Jews

“…Developed first in English in the late 1970s, as reported by Francis [5,6], the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity is currently available in Arabic [7], Czech [8], Chinese [9,10], Dutch [11], French [12,13], German [14,15], Greek [16], Italian [17], Norwegian [18], Portugese [19], Romanian [20], Slovenian [21], Spanish [22], Swedish [23], and Welsh [24,25].…”