The Purpose-in-Life Scale (PILS): internal consistency reliability,concurrent validity and construct validity among Catholic priests in Italy

ABSTRACT

The Purpose in Life Scale was designed to provide a 12-item unidimensional measure of purpose in life employing a five-point Likert rating for each item. The present study supports the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of this instrument among 155 Catholic priests (mean age?=?46 years, SD?=?12.16). Internal consistency reliability generated an alpha coefficient of .90. The first factor generated by principal component analysis accounted for 49.5% of variance. Concurrent validity against the Purpose in Life Test was supported by a correlation of .63. Construct validity was supported by a correlation of .54 with the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale and by a correlation of ?.51 with the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry. These properties commend the scale for future use among Catholic priests.     

Sustaining churchgoing young Anglicans in England and Wales: Assessing influence of the home

ABSTRACT

Responding to the problem facing the Church of England, as identified by the Church Growth Research Programme, regarding sustaining churchgoing young Anglicans, and also responding to the Renewal and Reform agenda to address this problem, the present study discusses the roles of three agencies in delivering effective Christian education and Christian formation: local churches, local schools, and the home. Building on a fruitful stream of research within Australia and the UK, the present study drew on two samples of young Anglicans: 2,019 9- to 11-year-old students attending church primary schools in Wales, and 2,323 13- to 15-year-old students attending church secondary schools mainly in England. The data demonstrated that young Anglicans who practised their Anglican identity by attending church did so primarily because their parents were Anglican churchgoers. Moreover, young Anglican churchgoers were most likely to keep going to church if their churchgoing parents (especially mother) talked with them about their faith. The implications from these findings, for an Anglican Church strategy for ministry among children and young people, is that alongside resourcing local churches and promoting deeply Christian schools, it may also be wise for the Church to invest in the education and formation of churchgoing Anglican parents.     

Modifying the gestalt factor of proximity: theories compared

A theoretical controversy between adaptation-level (AL) theory and response-frequency-equalization (RFE) theory was examined. The stimulus presented for judgment was a matrix of dots which varied in appearance as the relative horizontal and vertical separation between the dots was altered. The matrix appeared to be columns of dots (larger horizontal separation), rows of dots (larger vertical separation), or neither row-like nor column-like (when the two separations were equal). A stimulus with an extreme row organization was presented on alternate trials and resulted in more vertical judgments. Both AL theory and RFE theory are shown to be inadequate on two counts. They both predict that the response latencies to the vertical stimuli should be affected, whereas these were unaffected. They both predict that in terms of the categorical decision, 'horizontal' or 'vertical', the responses to both horizontal and vertical stimuli should be affected. It is shown that the context effect is almost entirely on the horizontal stimuli. These results are consistent with a spatial-adaptation model.