Centrality of religiosity scale (CRS) confirmatory factor analysis

Abstract

The intention of the current study was to translate and cross language validate the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CSR) from English (source language) to Urdu (target language) by forward-back translation1 method. This scale was made by Huber S & Huber2 having 15 item along with five subscales namely Ideology, Intellect, Experience, Public practice and Private practice. The Urdu version of Centrality of Religiosity Scale was verified and confirmed on a sample of N=300 shrine believers (n=159) and non-shrine believers (n=141) of Abbottabad district, Pakistan by using convenient sampling technique. For psychometric properties of scale statistical analysis revealed that Urdu translation of CRS has satisfactory alpha reliability (α=.77) and three subscales that is exclusive, inclusive and collective religious beliefs significantly correlated with each other. Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported the original exploratory factor analysis after excluding four items and two dimensions which did not fulfill the factor loading criterion and confound that Goodness of Fit Indices (CRS GFI, AGFI, CFI) fall in the range of .95 to .97, p >.05, , χ²/df = 1.36 and RMSEA is .04. Convergent validity for present research for factor one, two and three is .44, .39 and .39 respectively on other hand composite reliability for factor one, two and three is .76,.72 and.65 and factor loadings of CFA for the CRS were above to .35. Confirmatory factor analysis’s result revealed that the final model of CRS in Urdu language, with 11 items and three dimensions is the best fit for Pakistani culture to assess the level of religiosity. Moreover present study findings also indicate that there was statistically significant difference in shrine believers and non-shrine believer’s religiosity level. Shrine believers attained higher scored on CRS as compare to non-shrine believers.