Individual religiosity measures are used by researchers to describe and compare individuals and societies. However, the cross-cultural comparability of the measures has often been questioned but rarely empirically tested. In the current study, we examined the cross-national measurement invariance properties of generalized individual religiosity in the sixth wave of the World Values Survey. For the analysis, we used multiple group confirmatory factor analysis and alignment. Our results demonstrated that a theoretically driven measurement model was not invariant across all countries. We suggested four unidimensional measurement models and four overlapping groups of countries in which these measurement models demonstrated approximate invariance. The indicators that covered praying practices, importance of religion, and confidence in its institutions were more cross-nationally invariant than other indicators.

研究人员使用个人宗教信仰来描述和比较个人和社会。然而，这些措施的跨文化可比性经常受到质疑，但很少经过实证检验。在当前的研究中，我们检查了第六次世界价值观调查中广义个人宗教信仰的跨国测量不变性。对于分析，我们使用了多组验证性因素分析和对齐。我们的结果表明，理论上驱动的测量模型在所有国家都不是一成不变的。我们建议了四个一维测量模型和四个重叠的国家组，其中这些测量模型显示出近似不变性。涵盖祈祷实践的指标，宗教的重要性，