Religious assessment in Italian older adults: psychometric properties of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the Behavioral Religiosity Scale

Objectives: Studies have shown that religiosity (R) and spirituality (S) can positively impact older adults’ life. Nevertheless, no validated tools for measuring these constructs in the older Italian population are currently available. This study investigates the psychometric properties of two of the most common measures of R and S in the literature: the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity short form (FSACsf) and the Behavioral Religiosity Scale (BRS). Method: 313 older Italians completed the questionnaires anonymously. The functioning of the items and the response scales, the factor structure, age invariance and internal consistency of both scales were investigated. Results: Each scale defines a substantively unidimensional variable. Moreover, items seem, on the whole, to be well formulated. The values of the Rasch-Andrich thresholds suggest that the response scale of the FSACsf was adequate for measuring spirituality. However, this was not the case for BRS, where the response categories needed to be collapsed to measure behavioral religiosity properly. Age invariance was confirmed for each scale. Cronbach’s α, composite reliability and person separation reliability revealed both scales to be internally consistent. Discussion: The results suggest that the scales have solid psychometric properties, and can therefore be considered valid, reliable tools for investigating religiosity and spirituality in older people.