Measuring Five Dimensions of Religiosity Across Adolescence

This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external practice, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influ...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pearce, Lisa D. 1971- (Author)
Contributors: Hayward, George M. (Other) ; Pearlman, Jessica A. (Other)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage Publications [2017]
In: Review of religious research
Year: 2017, Volume: 59, Issue: 3, Pages: 367-393
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Teenagers (13-21 Jahre) / Religiosity / Measurement
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AH Religious education
RF Christian education; catechetics
Further subjects:B Measurement
B Adolescence
B LATENT variables
B Religiosity
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Description
Summary:This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external practice, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influences of single items or dimensions of religiosity on outcomes such as adolescent sexual behavior, but rarely operationalizes the dimensions in a measurement model accounting for their associations with each other and across time. We use longitudinal structural equation modeling with latent variables to analyze data from two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. We test our hypothesized measurement model as compared to four alternate measurement models and find that our proposed model maintains superior fit. We then discuss the associations between the five dimensions of religiosity we measure and how these change over time. Our findings suggest how future research might better operationalize multiple dimensions of religiosity in studies of the influence of religion in adolescence.
ISSN:2211-4866
Contains:Enthalten in: Review of religious research
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s13644-017-0291-8