ABSTRACT

Objectives

Studies have shown that religiosity (R) and spirituality (S) can positively impact older adults’ life. Nevertheless, no validated tools for measuring these constructs in the older Italian population are currently available. This study investigates the psychometric properties of two of the most common measures of R and S in the literature: the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity short form (FSACsf) and the Behavioral Religiosity Scale (BRS).

Method

313 older Italians completed the questionnaires anonymously. The functioning of the items and the response scales, the factor structure, age invariance and internal consistency of both scales were investigated.

Results

Each scale defines a substantively unidimensional variable. Moreover, items seem, on the whole, to be well formulated. The values of the Rasch-Andrich thresholds suggest that the response scale of the FSACsf was adequate for measuring spirituality. However, this was not the case for BRS, where the response categories needed to be collapsed to measure behavioral religiosity properly. Age invariance was confirmed for each scale. Cronbach’s α, composite reliability and person separation reliability revealed both scales to be internally consistent.

Discussion

The results suggest that the scales have solid psychometric properties, and can therefore be considered valid, reliable tools for investigating religiosity and spirituality in older people.

中文翻译：

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意大利老年人的宗教评估：弗朗西斯基督教态度量表和行为宗教性量表的心理测量特性

摘要

目标

研究表明，宗教信仰 (R) 和灵性 (S) 可以对老年人的生活产生积极影响。然而，目前还没有用于在意大利老年人群中测量这些结构的经过验证的工具。本研究调查了文献中两种最常见的 R 和 S 度量的心理测量特性：弗朗西斯基督教态度简表 (FSACsf) 和行为宗教信仰量表 (BRS)。

方法

313 名年长的意大利人匿名完成了问卷。调查了项目和反应量表的功能、因子结构、年龄不变性和两个量表的内部一致性。

结果

每个尺度定义了一个实质上一维的变量。此外，总体而言，项目似乎制定得很好。Rasch-Andrich 阈值的值表明 FSACsf 的响应量表足以衡量灵性。然而，BRS 的情况并非如此，其中需要折叠响应类别以正确衡量行为宗教信仰。每个量表都确认了年龄不变性。Cronbach's α、复合信度和人员分离信度表明这两个量表在内部是一致的。

讨论

结果表明，这些量表具有可靠的心理测量特性，因此可以被认为是有效、可靠的工具，用于调查老年人的宗教信仰和灵性。