Top

12-03-2025 | ORIGINAL PAPER

Development and Validation of the Scale of Motives for Faith in Japan

Authors: Jun Miyashita, Hitoshi Kishigami, Naoki Nabeshima, Yozo Taniyama, Toji Kamata, Kazuyoshi Terao, Katsuhiro Kohara, Junya Shinohe, Yosuke Yamamoto

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health

Abstract

Previous religiousness scales have been developed in Christian contexts; we developed in Japan, where diverse religions coexist, the Scale of Motives for Faith comprising novel dimensions to facilitate intercultural comparison studies between Western and Eastern religions including monotheistic, polytheistic, and atheistic ones. In Phase 1, items were extracted using an adapted Delphi method; in Phase 2, validity and reliability were tested in a nationwide survey. In Phase 1, twenty experts representing Buddhism, Christianity, Shinto, Islam, and new religions extracted 16 items; in Phase 2 using a pilot scale, 1093 respondents’ beliefs were analyzed. After one item was excluded, confirmatory factor analysis evaluating the 15-item-5-factor model indicated acceptable goodness of fit. In hypothesis testing, 78% were accepted. Cronbach’s alpha ranged 0.79–0.93 and the intraclass correlation coefficient ranged 0.50–0.65. The Scale of Motives for Faith may serve to compare motives for religious faith worldwide and to identify motives for faith in relation to social, psychological, and health impacts across countries, religions, and cultures.

Available only for authorised users

Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432–443. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021212CrossRefPubMed

Anthoine, E., Moret, L., Regnault, A., Sébille, V., & Hardouin, J.-B. (2014). Sample size used to validate a scale: A review of publications on newly-developed patient reported outcomes measures. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 12(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-014-0176-2CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Batson, C. D., Schoenrade, P., & Ventis, W. L. (1993). Religion and the individual: A social-psychological perspective. Oxford University Press.

Braam, A. W., & Koenig, H. G. (2019). Religion, spirituality and depression in prospective studies: A systematic review. Journal of Affective Disorders, 257, 428–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.06.063CrossRefPubMed

Cho, G., Hwang, H., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2020). Cutoff criteria for overall model fit indexes in generalized structured component analysis. Journal of Marketing Analytics, 8(4), 189–202. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41270-020-00089-1CrossRef

Clobert, M. (2021). East versus west: Psychology of religion in East Asian cultures. Current Opinion in Psychology, 40, 61–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.021CrossRefPubMed

Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/14805-018CrossRefPubMed

De Meyer, D., Kottner, J., Beele, H., Schmitt, J., Lange, T., Van Hecke, A., Verhaeghe, S., & Beeckman, D. (2019). Delphi procedure in core outcome set development: Rating scale and consensus criteria determined outcome selection. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 111, 23–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2019.03.011CrossRefPubMed

Evans, J., Starr, K. J., Corichi, M., Miner, W., & Lesage, K. (2024). Religion and spirituality in East Asian societies. Pew Research Center.

Eysenbach, G. (2004). Improving the quality of web surveys: The checklist for reporting results of internet E-surveys (CHERRIES). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 6(3), e34. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6.3.e34CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Fitch, K., Bernstein, S. J., Aguilar, M. D., Burnand, B., LaCalle, J. R., Lazaro, P., Loo, M., McDonnell, J., Vader, J. P., & Kahan, J. P. (2001). The RAND/UCLA appropriateness method user’s manual. RAND Corporation.

Flere, S., & Lavrič, M. (2008). Is intrinsic religious orientation a culturally specific American protestant concept? The fusion of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation among non-protestants. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38(3), 521–530. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.437CrossRef

Goretzko, D., Pham, T. T. H., & Bühner, M. (2021). Exploratory factor analysis: Current use, methodological developments and recommendations for good practice. Current Psychology, 40(7), 3510–3521. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00300-2CrossRef

Hooper, D., Coughlan, J., & Mullen, M. (2008). Evaluating model fit: A synthesis of the structural equation modelling literature. In 7th European conference on research methodology for business and management studies (pp. 195–200). Academic Conferences and Publishing Limited.

Huber, S., & Huber, O. W. (2012). The centrality of religiosity scale (CRS). Religions, 3(3), 710–724. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel3030710CrossRef

Iacobucci, D., Ruvio, A., Román, S., Moon, S., & Herr, P. M. (2022). How many factors in factor analysis? New insights about parallel analysis with confidence intervals. Journal of Business Research, 139, 1026–1043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.09.015CrossRef

Jackson, J. E. (2005). Oblimin rotation. Encyclopedia of biostatistics. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/0470011815.b2a13060CrossRef

Kambara, T., Umemura, T., Ackert, M., & Yang, Y. (2020). The relationship between psycholinguistic features of religious words and core dimensions of religiosity: A survey study with Japanese participants. Religions, 11(12), 673.CrossRef

Keeney, S., Hasson, F., & McKenna, H. (2011). The Delphi technique in nursing and health research. Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRef

King, M., Jones, L., Barnes, K., Low, J., Walker, C., Wilkinson, S., Mason, C., Sutherland, J., & Tookman, A. (2005). Measuring spiritual belief: Development and standardization of a beliefs and values scale. Psychological Medicine, 36(3), 417–425. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329170500629XCrossRefPubMed

Kobayashi, T. (2019). How have Japanese attitudes and behavior on religion changed?: From the ISSP survey on religion: Survey results in Japan. The NHK Monthly Report on Broadcast Research, 69(4), 52–72. https://doi.org/10.24634/bunken.69.4_52CrossRef

Koenig, H. G., & Al Zaben, F. (2021). Psychometric validation and translation of religious and spiritual measures. Journal of Religion and Health, 60(5), 3467–3483. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01373-9CrossRefPubMed

Koenig, H. G., & Büssing, A. (2010). The Duke university religion index (DUREL): A five-item measure for use in epidemiological studies. Religions, 1(1), 78–85.CrossRef

Koenig, H. G., & Carey, L. B. (2024). Religion, spirituality and health research: Warning of contaminated scales. Journal of Religion and Health, 63(5), 3729–3743. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-024-02112-6CrossRefPubMed

Koenig, H. G., VanderWeele, T. J., & Peteet, J. R. (2024). Handbook of religion and health (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.CrossRef

Koenig, H. G., Wang, Z., Al Zaben, F., & Adi, A. (2015). Belief into action scale: A comprehensive and sensitive measure of religious involvement. Religions, 6(3), 1006–1016. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel6031006CrossRef

Koo, T. K., & Li, M. Y. (2016). A guideline of selecting and reporting intraclass correlation coefficients for reliability research. Journal of Chiropractic Medicine, 15(2), 155–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcm.2016.02.012CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Marx, R. G., Menezes, A., Horovitz, L., Jones, E. C., & Warren, R. F. (2003). A comparison of two time intervals for test-retest reliability of health status instruments. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 56(8), 730–735. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-4356(03)00084-2CrossRefPubMed

Miyatake, S., & Higuchi, M. (2017). Does religious priming increase the prosocial behaviour of a Japanese sample in an anonymous economic game? Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 20(1), 54–59. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12164CrossRef

Pearson, R., Mundfrom, D. J., & Piccone, A. (2013). A comparison of ten methods for determining the number of factors in exploratory factor analysis. General Linear Model Journal, 39(1), 1–15.

Saroglou, V. (2014). Religion, personality, and social behavior. Psychology Press.

Saroglou, V., Clobert, M., Cohen, A. B., Johnson, K. A., Ladd, K. L., Van Pachterbeke, M., Adamovova, L., Blogowska, J., Brandt, P.-Y., Çukur, C. S., Hwang, K.-K., Miglietta, A., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Muñoz-García, A., Murken, S., Roussiau, N., & Tapia Valladares, J. (2020). Believing, bonding, behaving, and belonging: The cognitive, emotional, moral, and social dimensions of religiousness across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 51(7–8), 551–575. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022120946488CrossRef

Stark, R. (2002). Gods, rituals, and the moral order. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(4), 619–636. https://doi.org/10.1111/0021-8294.00081CrossRef

Steadman, L. B., Palmer, C. T., & Tilley, C. F. (1996). The universality of ancestor worship. Ethnology, 35(1), 63–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/3774025CrossRef

Tapanya, S., Nicki, R., & Jarusawad, O. (1997). Worry and intrinsic/extrinsic religious orientation among Buddhist (Thai) and Christian (Canadian) elderly persons. The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 44(1), 73–83. https://doi.org/10.2190/enqg-hnv4-5g0d-cq88CrossRefPubMed

Terwee, C. B., Bot, S. D., de Boer, M. R., van der Windt, D. A., Knol, D. L., Dekker, J., Bouter, L. M., & de Vet, H. C. (2007). Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 60(1), 34–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2006.03.012CrossRefPubMed

Tillich, P. (1957). Dynamics of faith. Harper.

Tillich, P. (1963). Kirisutokyôto bukkyôto Taiwa [Christianity and the encounter of the world religions]. Ôfusha.CrossRef

Wild, D., Grove, A., Martin, M., Eremenco, S., McElroy, S., Verjee-Lorenz, A., & Erikson, P. (2005). Principles of good practice for the translation and cultural adaptation process for patient-reported outcomes (PRO) measures: Report of the ISPOR task force for translation and cultural adaptation. Value Health, 8(2), 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1524-4733.2005.04054.xCrossRefPubMed

Title: Development and Validation of the Scale of Motives for Faith in Japan
Authors: Jun Miyashita
Hitoshi Kishigami
Naoki Nabeshima
Yozo Taniyama
Toji Kamata
Kazuyoshi Terao
Katsuhiro Kohara
Junya Shinohe
Yosuke Yamamoto
Publication date: 12-03-2025
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-025-02292-9

Podcast | Sexual health in older age

Springer Medicine

Development and Validation of the Scale of Motives for Faith in Japan

Abstract

Podcast | Sexual health in older age

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content