The debate on the secularism of State returns whenever the regulation of certain issues, such as the display of religious symbols in public buildings, same-sex marriage, or embryonic stem cell research, arise. In order to improve the knowledge of attitude toward secularism of State, the Secularism of State Scale was developed. It is composed of eight items investigating attitude toward a secular State. The scale was tested on two university students' samples (200 Italian and 200 Spanish). A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single factor structure of the scale fitted the data well. In order to test the concurrent validity, the following correlates were used: conservation, Catholic identity, political orientation, and desired status relation between State and Church. Results showed that desire to have a secular State negatively correlated with conservation and Catholic identity; moreover, the higher the desire to have a secular State, the higher the desired status of the State with respect to the Church, and the more the political orientation was left-wing. Finally, no correlation was found between the scale and social desirability. © 2012 Cises.
The secularism of state scale / Hichy, Zira; Espartal, Noelia Rodríguez; Trifiletti, Elena; DI BERNARDO, GIAN ANTONIO. - In: TPM. TESTING, PSYCHOMETRICS, METHODOLOGY IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY. - ISSN 1972-6325. - 19:3(2012), pp. 151-163. [10.4473/TPM19.3.1]
The secularism of state scale
DI BERNARDO, GIAN ANTONIO
2012
Abstract
The debate on the secularism of State returns whenever the regulation of certain issues, such as the display of religious symbols in public buildings, same-sex marriage, or embryonic stem cell research, arise. In order to improve the knowledge of attitude toward secularism of State, the Secularism of State Scale was developed. It is composed of eight items investigating attitude toward a secular State. The scale was tested on two university students' samples (200 Italian and 200 Spanish). A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the single factor structure of the scale fitted the data well. In order to test the concurrent validity, the following correlates were used: conservation, Catholic identity, political orientation, and desired status relation between State and Church. Results showed that desire to have a secular State negatively correlated with conservation and Catholic identity; moreover, the higher the desire to have a secular State, the higher the desired status of the State with respect to the Church, and the more the political orientation was left-wing. Finally, no correlation was found between the scale and social desirability. © 2012 Cises.
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