Construction and Evaluation of the Faith-Based Social Engagement Scale (VIDA) among Emerging Croatian Adults Cover Image

Konstrukcija i validacija Skale vjerom inspiriranoga društvenog angažmana (VIDA) među mladima u Hrvatskoj
Construction and Evaluation of the Faith-Based Social Engagement Scale (VIDA) among Emerging Croatian Adults

Author(s): Ivan Landripet, Goran Koletić, Luka Jurković, Siniša Zrinščak, Aleksandar Štulhofer
Subject(s): Family and social welfare, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Hrvatsko sociološko društvo
Keywords: faith-based social engagement; religiosity; religious practices; conservative social movement; emerging adults;

Summary/Abstract: Globally, religious institutions and faith-based civic associations are encouraging believers, particularly young people, to actively advocate and defend religious values. While in Croatia religious social engagement has been promoted and practised for decades, this form of religiosity remained unexplored. To facilitate research on the prevalence, background, types, and outcomes of such collective activity, this paper presents the construction and evaluation of a faith-based social engagement scale. Based on qualitative methods, 16 items indicating four dimensions of faith-based engagement (humanitarian, evangelical, civic, and political) were confirmatory factor analysed in a probability sample of emerging adults, aged 18–25 years (N = 552), selected from a commercial online panel. The scale’s validity was confirmed by associations with other measures of religiosity and religiosity-related attitudes and values. In addition to the satisfactory criterion, construct, and discriminative validity, the scale was gender-invariant and had high internal consistency. The conclusion features a brief discussion of limitations and a range of potential applications of this new measure.

  • Issue Year: 50/2020
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 407-434
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: English