Validation of the Short Forms of Centrality of Religiosity Scale in Russia

Abstract

Since the end of the Soviet Union, Christian Orthodoxy has regained importance in Russian society. Considering the religious dynamics in the decades after 1990, scholars working in the field have been debating about a reliable measuring tool for religiosity. The present study provides a validation of two short forms of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS), the CRS-5, and CRSi-7 in Russia, as well as its corresponding translated items. Therefore, data from two large-scale sociological surveys from 2008 (N = 894) and 2019 (N = 1768) were used. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis with restrictions on the variance and covariance structure of the model shows good results in terms of absolute, parsimony, and relative model fit for the CRS-5 and CRSi-7. Moreover, the models indicate time-invariance, which is a consistent psychometric characteristic of both short forms. The time-invariance is accompanied by the good internal consistency of the scales: The CRS-5 with α=0.85 and the CRSi-7 with α=0.84. The results of the analysis encourage the use of the CRS-5 and the CRSi-7 for research on religiosity in Russia. While the CRS-5 is especially suitable for the Orthodox-dominated religious landscape, the CRSi-7 should be used if non-monotheistic private religious practice and religious experience are the focus of the scientific investigation.

Validation of the Abrahamic Forms of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS-5, CRS-10, and CRS-15): Evidence from Selected University Students in the Philippines

“…Although the Abrahamic forms of the CRS have been validated and applied in numerous studies, it is still noteworthy to look at its current validations from different religious and sociocultural contexts. Ackert et al (2020a) validated the short forms of CRS in Russia and concluded that the CRS-5 is suitable for the Orthodox-dominated religious landscape. Esperandio et al (2019) validated the Brazilian version CRS-10BR and CRS-5BR and concluded that the CRS-10BR captures the CRS full construct.…”

Centrality of Buddhist Religiosity Scale: Adaptation and Validation of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale in a Buddhist Sample in Vietnam

“…Thus, the CRS five core dimensions were generally constructed such that they could be found in many different religious cultures. Indeed, past studies (Ackert et al 2020a(Ackert et al , 2020bdel Castillo et al 2020;Demmrich 2020;Esperandio et al 2019;Lee and Kuang 2020;Huber and Huber 2012;Huber and Krech 2009;Ju et al 2018;Stanford and Jong 2019) also reported empirical evidence for these core dimensions in many different religions and cultures. Of particular relevance are the studies by Ju et al (2018) and Stanford and Jong (2019).…”

Short Forms of the Centrality of Religiosity Scale: Validation and Application in the Context of Religious Individualism of Orthodox and Pentecostal Christians in Romania

“…The CRS is widely used in various studies related to religiosity (e.g., some recent publications, Zarzycka et al 2020;Riegel 2020;Ackert et al 2020aAckert et al , 2020bEsperandio et al 2019;Huza 2018;Fradelos et al 2018). The Centrality of Religiosity Scale has a comprehensive and economic way of assessing personal religiosity by including the dimensions associated with ideology, intellect, religious experience, private, and public religious practices.…”

“…The CRS has undergone confirmatory factor analyses many times in different linguistic and cultural contexts (some recent examples: e.g., Esperandio et al 2019;Huza 2018;Ackert et al 2020aAckert et al , 2020b. In Huza's case, the CRS-15 was tested in Romania with 4 different confessions (Orthodox, Catholic, Pentecostal, and Seventh-day Adventist), whereby the Orthodox element comprised 68% of the total sample (n = 215).…”

“…The authors intentionally leave out the exploratory factor analysis of the short forms of the CRS in this study before the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) because of the empirical evidence of the one-factor model with the CRS-5 and the CRSi-7 in the literature (e.g., Ackert et al 2020aAckert et al , 2020bKambara et al 2020). Nevertheless, the correlations of the core dimensions are reported and checked for suitability for the CFA.…”