title: Reliability and validity of a bilingual measure of religiosity in English and Vietnamese: preliminary results from a pilot study.
abstract: This study reports preliminary psychometric findings for a seven-item religiosity scale in a community-based sample of Vietnamese Americans ages 18 to 83 years (N = 119; 58% women, 42% men). A bilingual survey was distributed to Vietnamese who were evacuated during Hurricane Katrina and had returned after the disaster. Internal consistency, factorial structure validity, and criterion validity were evaluated on the scale items. The bilingual scale had good internal consistency. While exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results provided support for a two-factor structure which captured Religious Involvement and Religious Coping, a one-factor model had slightly better fit. Individuals who scored high on the religiosity scale reported a significantly lower score on their stressful experiences during the hurricane, providing evidence of criterion validity.
authors: Graduate School of Social Work, Boston College, 1400 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA 02186, USA. vantran@bc.edu
authors: Thanh V
authors: TV
authors: Tran
authors: Keith
authors: K
authors: Chan
authors: Thuc-Nhi
authors: TN
authors: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001213:Asian / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D055867:Cyclonic Storms; D004190:Disasters; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008922:Mississippi; D019303:Multilingualism; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology; D055815:Young Adult