Degrees of belief in god: a measure of belief for use in cross culture

Belief scales with good psychometric properties are relatively rare. Several scales that claim to measure levels of belief use behavioural indicators that do not necessarily reflect belief, and others refer to specific religions and do not consider ethnic factors or cultural differences. This paper introduces a 6-item multicultural belief scale (the Degrees of Belief in God Scale), based on the results of previous exploratory factor analyses. 2124 Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swiss, Turkish and ex-Yugoslavian subjects including Atheists, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Moslems and Protestants contributed to the development of the new instrument. Principal component analysis (PCA) followed by varimax-standardized rotation was used to identify (first order) dimensions of belief. In order to identify the shared or common variance in all groups defined by religion and culture of origin a hierarchical analysis of oblique factors was computed for each group. The paper also reports test–retest reliability as well as face, criterion and construct validity data. The resulting Degrees of Belief in God Scale has exceptional psychometric properties and the measurements are equivalent across the sampled cultures and religions.