Confirmatory factor analysis of the five-item version of the Francis scale of attitude towards Christianity in adolescent students

ABSTRACT

The brief scale of Francis for religiosity (Francis-5) has shown acceptable psychometric performance in Colombian adolescents. However, a confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA) has not been performed. The objective of the researche was to make a CFA to the Francis-5 in a sample of students of Santa Marta, Colombia. A validation study was performed. 350 students between 10 and 17 years old, and 54% were female. A CFA was performed to test the dimensionality of different versions of five and four items of the scale. Authors calculated five goodness of fit indexes indices (Chi square, RMSEA, CFI, TLI, and SMSR). The Francis-5 presented as goodness-of-fit coefficients, chi squared = 18.5, gl = 5, p = .002, RMSEA = .09 (CI90% .05 to .13), CFI = .99, TLI = .99, and SMSR = .01. And the version with the best coefficients of goodness was the Francis-5 without the fourth item (‘Pray helps me a lot’) with chi squared = .55, gl = 2, p = .76, RMSEA = .00 (CI90% .00 to .07), CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.00, and SMSR = .01. As conclusions, the dimensionality of the Francis-5 is questionable. For a version without the item 4 the data are better fit.