Person. individ. D@ Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 741-743, 1987 0191~8869/87 $3.00 + 0.00 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved Copyright 0 1987 Pergamon Journals Ltd

Measuring attitudes towards Christianity: from childhood into adulthood

LESLIE J. FRANCIS and MICHAEL T. STUBBS

Senior Research Oficer, Culham College Institute, The Malthouse, 60, East Saint Helen Street, Abingdon. Oxon OX14 5EB and 5 Almsford Road, Harrogaie, North Yorkshire HG2 8EQ, England

(Received 4 Augusf 1986)

Summary-The Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity Form ASC4B was developed originally for use among 8-16-year olds. A slightly modified version of this scale ASC4B (Adult) was completed by 185 men and women between the ages of 18 and 64 years. The results support the unidimensionality, reliability and validity of this attitude scale among an adult population.

INTRODUCTION

Cross-sectional surveys are frequently employed to compare the attitudes of different age groups towards a common referent. Not infrequently inferences are drawn regarding possible age developmental trends from differences in mean attitude scores recorded by specific age groups. The key methodological condition underlying such age comparisons is the requirement that the measuring instrument should be shown to meet the same criteria of reliability and validity among the different age groups. Such a requirement is particularly problematic when the survey includes children, young people and adults.

In order to monitor the changes in attitudes towards Christianity of a school age population, Francis (1976, 1978) developed a series of attitude scales according to the four different sets of criteria proposed initially by Thurstone (1928), Likert (1932), Guttman (1944) and Edwards (1957). Testing the reliability and validity of these scales among different age groups of English school pupils, Francis concludes that it is the Likert technique which is able to provide a consistently reliable and valid measure over the widest age span. The resultant Likert-type attitude towards Christianity scale, ASC4B, composed of 24 short items concerning God, Jesus, Bible, prayer, church and religion in school, behaves in a similar fashion for each year band from the age of 8 until the minimum school leaving age of 16. The scale did not function satisfactorily among children below the age of 8 years. While the initial research did not examine the properties of the scale over the age of 16, subsequent research has supported its use among 17 and 18 year olds (Francis, 1987). The usefulness of the scale has been confirmed, for example, among 10-l l-year olds by Francis (1979, 1986), l&lS-year olds by Greer (1981). 1 I-17-year olds by Francis, Pearson-and Kay (1983) and Pearson,.Francis and Lightbown (1986), 12-13-yea; olds by‘loyie (1984). 12-16-year olds bv Greer (1985). 12-18-year olds bv Rhymer (1983). 15-vear olds bv Francis and Pearson 11985). i5-l&ear olds by Francis, Pearson, darter and Kay (198i), l&year blds b; Carter (1979).and among low ability‘pupiis in residential schools by Stubbs (1978) and Francis, Pearson and Stubbs (1985).

The present paper explores the properties of this scale among an adult population. Before submitting the scale to an adult population two of the items required slight modification, since in the original form they referred directly to religion in school. The item “I like school lessons about God very much” was modified to read “I like to learn about God very much”; the item “I think saying prayers in school does no good” was modified to read “I think saying prayers does no good”.

METHOD

One hundred and eighty-five adults, between the ages of 18 and 64 years (mean age = 32.7 years, SD = 11.43 years) working within various capacities in residential schools belonging to a church-related foundation completed the Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity ASC4B (Adult), together with a range of questions about their personal religious background and practice. The sample comprised 58 males and 127 females. The data were analysed by means of the SPSSX statistical package (SPSS Inc., 1983).

RESULTS

Table 1 presents the item rest of test correlation coefficients in respect of all 24 attitude items, together with the loadings on the first factor of the unrotated solution proposed by principal component analysis. The item rest of test correlations vary between 0.3917 and 0.9054, while the individual item factor loadings vary between 0.4137 and 0.9247. The first principal factor on the unrotated solution accounts for 59.8% of the variance. The alpha coefficient (Cronbach, 1951) for the scale is 0.9683. These statistics confirm the unidimensionality and reliability of the attitude scale among an adult population.

While the formal statistics of reliability are relatively easy to calculate for an attitude scale, the question of validity is more problematic (Ebel, 1961). Steps towards assessing the construct validity of the scale among adults can be made by examining the extent to which certain predictions about the theoretical variations in attitude score are reflected empirically. The present data enable four such hypotheses regarding variations in attitude towards Christianity to be explored. First, there is a general consensus in the psychology of religion that females display more favourable attitudes towards religion than males (Argyle and Beit-Hallahmi, 1975); this hypothesis is supported by the present data (r = +0.1297, P -z 0.05).

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742 NOTES AND SHORTER COMMUNICATIONS

Table I. Item. rest of test correlation coefficients and factor loadmgs for attitude

towards Christianitv scale ASC4B (Adult)

Scale item

Correlation Factor

coefficients loadmas

1 find it boring to listen to the Bible

I know that Jesus helps me

Saymg my prayers helps me a lot

The church is very “nportant to me

I think going to church is a waste of my time

I want to love Jesus

I think church services are boring

I think people who pray are stupid

God helps me to lead a better life

I like to learn about God very much

God means a lot to me

I believe that God helps people

Prayer helps me a lot

I know that Jesus is very close to me

I think praying is a good thing

I think the Bible is out of date

I believe that God listens to prayers

Jesus doesn’t mea” anything to me

God is very real to me

I think saying prayers does no good

The idea of God means much to me

1 beheve that Jesus still helps people

I know that God helps me

I find It hard to believe m God

+0.5035

+0.8573

+0.8107

+0.7354

+ 0.6084

+0.7332

+0.4306

+0.3917

t0.8540

+O.Sl I3

+ 0.8847

+0.7493

+ 0.8606

f0.8740

f0.8453

+0.5029

+0.X239

+0.7360

+ 0.8232

+0.6426

+0.X036

+0.7741

+ 0.9054

f0.7361

-0.5182

+0.8781

+0.8368

+0.7490

--0.6201

+0.7610

-0.441 I

0.4137

+0x737

+0.X297

+ 0.9068

+0.7X04

+0.8833

+0.8929

+ 0.8642

--0 5290

f0.8531

-0.7569

f0.8477

-0 6747

+o 8310

+ 0.8007

+ 0.9247

-0.7646

I” order to compute the item rest of test correlation coefficients the negative item5

were reverse scored.

Second, while attitudes alone may not be direct predictors of behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) there is substantial evidence to suggest a close relationship between attitudes towards religion and religious practice (Francis, 1976); this hypothesis is supported by the present data (church attendance, r = f0.5852, P < 0.001; personal prayer, r = +0.7375, P < 0.001; personal Bible reading, r = +0.6307, P < 0.001). Third, while attitudes and beliefs are both conceptually and empirically distinct (Fishbein, 1967) there is substantial evidence to suggest a close relationship between religious attitudes and religious beliefs (Greer, 1982); this hypothesis is supported by the present data (certainty of belief in God, r = +0.6274, P < 0.001; belief in life after death, r = +0.6117, P < 0.001). Fourth, it is reasonable to hypothesise a close positive relationship between scores on the attitude scale and the subjects’ self assessment of their personal religiosity on a seven point continuum, ranging from very religious, through neutral to very much against religion; this hypothesis is supported by the present data (I = +0.6803, P < 0.001). These statistics help to support the construct validity of the attitude scale among an adult population.

CONCLUSION

The data support the reliability and the validity of the scale of attitude towards Christianity ASC4B (Adult) among an adult population. However, since two items have been slightly modified from the child form of the scale. it is not totally clear that it is appropriate to make direct comparisons between scores recorded on the child and the adult versions of the scale. Before this issue can be properly assessed, it would be necessary to administer an instrument incorporating both the child and the adult versions of these two items to a sample in the overlap period between a school-based population and a post-school adult population, say l&18-year olds, in order to test the similarity of overall scale scores computed on the adult form and the child form of the scale.

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Argyle M. and Beit-Hallahmi B. (1975) The Social Psychology of Religion. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Boyle J. J. (1984) Catholic children’s attitudes towards Christianity. Unpublished M.Sc. dissertation, University of

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Unpublished M. Phil. dissertation, University of Nottingham. Cronbach L. J. (1951) Coefficient-Alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika 16, 297-334. EbeI R. L. (1961) Must all tests be valid? Am. Psychol. 16, 64@647. Edwards A. L. (1957) Techniques of Attitude Scale Construcrion. Appleton-Century-Crofts. New York. Fishbein M. (1967) A consideration of beliefs, and their role in attitude measurement. In Readings in Altitude Theory and

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NOTES AND SHORTER COMMUNICATIONS 743

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