A psychometric evaluation of Poloma and Pendleton's (1991) and Ladd and Spilka's (2002, 2006) measures of prayer

Michael J. Breslin, Christopher Alan Lewis, Mark Shevlin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Prayer has increasingly been used as an empirical measure of religiosity. Recent developments include Ladd and Spilka's Inward, Outward and Upward Prayer Scale, which measures what respondents think about while praying, and Poloma and Pendleton's Measure of Prayer Type, which measures four different dimensions of prayer as well as degree of intimacy with the divine. The present study provides a factor analytical evaluation of both measures, including an examination of total scale and subscale reliability. The measures were administered to a sample of 518 Irish respondents. Although the total scales and subscales were found to be reliable, confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the hypothesized factor structures were a less than optimal fit of the data, while correlational analysis revealed a conceptual overlap between the measures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)710-723
Number of pages14
JournalJournal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Volume49
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2010
Externally publishedYes

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