Measurement and Conceptualization of Christian Nationalism: A Critical Examination and Alternative Approach

Abstract

In recent years there has been an abundance of research on the role of Christian nationalism in the United States. Critics of this research have argued that typical survey measures in this work do not reflect the concept of Christian nationalism as theorized. In this study, we use exploratory factor analysis to extract a scale from a novel set of survey items from the Neighborly Faith data set intended to measure the concept more directly. We then use confirmatory factory analysis to compare the psychometric properties of this scale to the more typical measure from the Baylor Religion Survey. We find that the Neighborly Faith scale exhibits superior validity. We proceed to qualitatively assess interpretations of the survey items from high-scoring respondents on each scale, finding responses to Neighborly Faith items more directly reflect support for Christian nationalism. We recommend that the alternative scale be used in future research, and call for reassessment of conclusions from existing research given the questionable construct validity of common measures.