To facilitate cross-cultural research in the psychology of religion, a sample of 453 young people from Grades 8, 9,10,11 and 12 attending a secondary school within the provincial education department in South Africa completed the Francis scale of Attitude Towards Christianity. The data provide preliminary evidence that supports the reliability and validity of this instrument, and commend it for further examination across a wider and more representative sample of learners within other ethnic and language groups in South Africa.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AjzenI. (1988). Attitudes, personality and behaviour.Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
EbelR. L. (1961). Must all tests be valid?American Psychologist, 16, 640–647.
4.
EdwardsA. L. (1957). Techniques of attitude scale construction.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
5.
EekJ. (2001). Religious facilitation through intense liturgical participation: A quasi-experimental study of Swedish pilgrims to Taizé.Lund: University of Lund Studies in Psychology of Religion.
6.
EiserJ. R.van der PligtJ. (1988). Attitudes and decisions.London: Routledge.
7.
EvansT. E.FrancisL. J. (1996). Measuring attitude Towards Christianity through the medium of Welsh. In FrancisL. J.KayW. K.CampbellW. S. (Eds), Research in Religious Education (pp. 279–294). Leominster: Fowler Wright Books.
8.
EysenckH. J.EysenckM. W. (1985). Personality and individual differences: A natural science approach.New York: Plenum Press.
9.
EysenckM. W. (1998). Personality and the psychology of religion. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 1, 11–19.
10.
FishbeinM.AjzenI. (1975). Belief attitude, intention and behaviour: An introduction to theory and research.Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
11.
FrancisL. J. (1978). Attitude and longitude: A study in measurement. Character Potential: A Record of Research, 8, 119–130.
12.
FrancisL. J. (1987). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity among 12–18-year-old-pupils in Catholic schools. Educational Research, 29, 230–233.
13.
FrancisL. J. (1988). The development of a scale of attitude Towardss Christianity among 8 to 16-year-olds. Collected Original Resources in Education, 12, 3, fiche 1, A04.
14.
FrancisL. J. (1989). Measuring attitude Towardss Christianity during childhood and adolescence. Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 695–698.
15.
FrancisL. J. (1992a). Reliability and validity of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towardss Christianity (adult). Panorama, 4, 1, 17–19.
16.
FrancisL. J. (1992b). Reliability and validity of a short measure of attitude Towardss Christianity among nine to eleven year old pupils in England. Collected Original Resources in Education, 16, 1, fiche 3, A02.
17.
FrancisL. J. (1993). Reliability and validity of a short scale of attitude Towardss Christianity among adults. Psychological Reports, 72, 615–618.
18.
FrancisL. J. (1997). The psychology of gender differences in religion: A review of empirical research. Religion, 27, 81–96.
19.
FrancisL. J.EngerT. (2002). The Norwegian translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 43, 363–367.
20.
FrancisL. J.GreerJ. E. (1990). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity among pupils in Protestant secondary schools in Northern Ireland. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 853–856.
21.
FrancisL. J.GreerJ. E.GibsonH. M. (1991). Reliability and validity of a short measure of attitude Towardss Christianity among secondary school pupils in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Collected Original Resources in Education, 15, 3, fiche 2, G09.
22.
FrancisL. J.HermansC. A. M. (2000). Internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Dutch translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity among adolescents. Psychological Reports, 86, 301–307.
23.
FrancisL. J.KwiranM. (1999). Werthalttungen (einstellungen) gegenüber dem Christentum bei heranwachsenden: Die francis-skala (Assessing attitute Towards Christianity among German adolescents: The Francis Scale). Braunschweiger Beiträge, 89, 50–54.
24.
FrancisL. J.LewisC. A.NgP. (2002). Assessing attitude Towards Christianity among adolescents in Hong Kong: The Francis scale. North American Journal of Psychology, 4, 431–440.
25.
FrancisL. J.LewisJ. M.PhilipchalkR.BrownL. B.LesterD. (1995). The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the Francis scale of attitude Towardss Christianity (adult) among undergraduate students in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. Personality and Individual Differences, 19, 949–953.
26.
FrancisL. J.LewisJ. M.PhilipchalkR.LesterD.BrownL. B. (1995). Reliability and validity of a short scale of attitude Towards Christianity among students in the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. Psychological Reports, 77, 431–434.
27.
FrancisL. J.McCarronM. M. (1989). The measurement of attitudes Towardss Christianity among Nigerian secondary school students. Journal of Social Psychology, 129, 569–571.
28.
FrancisL. J.QuesnellM.LewisC. A. (2002). Assessing attitude Towards Christianity among adolescents in the Czech Republic: The Francis Scale. Ceskoslovenská Psychologie. (in press).
29.
FrancisL. J.StubbsM. T. (1987). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity: From childhood to adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 8, 741–743.
30.
FrancisL. J.ThomasE. M. (2003). The reliability and validity of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity among Welsh-speaking 9 to 11-year-olds. The Psychologist in Wales, 16, 9–14.
31.
FrancisL. J.ZiebertzH-G.LewisC. A. (2002). The psychometric properties of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towardss Christianity among German students. Panorama, 14, 153–162.
32.
FulljamesP.FrancisL. J. (1987). The measurement of attitudes Towardss Christianity among Kenyan secondary school students. Journal of Social Psychology, 127, 407–409.
33.
GibsonH. M. (1989). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity among 11–16 year old pupils in non-denominational schools in Scotland. Educational Research, 31, 221–227.
34.
GibsonH. M.FrancisL. J. (1989). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity among 11 to 16 year old pupils in Catholic schools in Scotland. Educational Research, 31, 65–69.
35.
GreerJ. E.FrancisL. J. (1991). Measuring attitudes Towardss Christianity among pupils in Catholic Secondary schools in Northern Ireland. Educational Research, 33, 70–73.
36.
GuttmanL. (1944). A basis for scaling qualitative data. American Sociological Review, 9, 139–150.
37.
KayW. K.FrancisL. J. (1996). Drift from the churches: Attitude Towards Christianity during childhood and adolescence.Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
38.
KrechD.CrutchfieldR. S.BallackeyE. L. (1962). Individual in society, New York: McGraw-Hill.
39.
LewisC. A.MaltbyJ. (1995). The reliability and validity of the Francis scale of attitude Towardss Christianity among US adults. Psychological Reports, 76, 1243–1247.
40.
LewisC. A.MaltbyJ. (1997). Reliability and validity of the Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity (adult) among Northern Irish university students. Irish Journal of Psychology, 18, 349–354.
41.
LewisC. A.ShevlinM.LloydN. S. V.AdamsonG. (1998). The Francis Scale of Attitude Towards Christianity (short scale): Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis among English students. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 13, 167–175.
42.
LikertR. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 140, 1–55.
43.
LivingstonS. A. (1988). Reliability of test results. In KeevesJ. P. (Ed.), Educational research, methodology and measurement: An international handbook (pp. 386–392). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
44.
MaltbyJ. (1994). The reliability and validity of the Francis scale of attitude Towardss Christianity among Republic of Ireland adults. Irish Journal of Psychology, 15, 595–598.
45.
MaltbyJ.LewisC. A. (1997). The reliability and validity of a short scale of attitude Towards Christianity among USA, English, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland adults. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 649–654.
46.
MunayerS. J. (2000). The ethnic identity of Palestinian Arab Christian adolescents in Israel. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wales, Bangor.
47.
OrtonR. E. (1987). The foundations of construct validity: Towardss an update. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 21, 22–35.
48.
OsgoodC. E.SuciG. J.TannenbaumP. H. (1957). The measurement of meaning.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
49.
SPSS Inc. (1988). SPSSX user's guide.New York: McGraw-Hill.
50.
ThurstoneL. L. (1928). Attitudes can be measured. American Journal of Sociology, 33, 529–554.
51.
YoutikaA.JosephS.DiducaD. (1999). Personality and religiosity in a Greek Christian Orthodox sample. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 2, 71–74.
52.
ZellerR. A. (1988). Validity. In KeevesJ. P. (Ed.), Educational research, methodology, and measurement: An international handbook (pp. 322–330). Oxford: Pergamon Press.
