Measuring religious social capital: the scale properties of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) among cathedral congregations

The theoretical construct of social capital remains contested in terms of conceptualisation and measurement. The present paper follows the convention of distinguishing between trust, bonding, bridging and linking social capital, to conceptualise how religious communities promote and develop social capital within a specifically religious cohort. Developing this construct of religious social capital further, this paper proposes a measure for use specifically among religious communities to assess individual-level social capital. The Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) provides a unidimensional construct of religious social capital taking into consideration the four elements highlighted. A sample of 720 members of six cathedral congregations in England and Wales completed a battery of items concerning social capital. Factor analysis procedures produced a 12-item index of religious social capital. Reliability analyses demonstrated that this index achieved satisfactory levels of internal reliability consistency. Construct validity was supported by the clear association between frequency of attendance and levels of assessed religious social capital

Personality and attitude toward Christianity among churchgoers: a replication

A sample of 158 churchgoers attending eight Anglican churches in the United Kingdom completed the abbreviated Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity in order to replicate an earlier study by Carter, Kay and Francis (1996). The data confirm that scores of attitude toward Christianity were significantly negatively related to psychoticism, but neither to extraversion nor neuroticism scores

Drawing back the veil: the socio-psychological correlates of paranormal belief among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents

This study examines the socio-psychological profile of young people who believe that it is possible to contact the spirits of the dead. Data provided by 33,982 13- to 15-year-old pupils throughout England and Wales demonstrated that almost one in three young people (31%) held this particular belief in the paranormal. The level of belief was higher among females than among males, among year-ten pupils than among year-nine pupils, among pupils of lower academic expectations, among pupils who had experienced the death of a parent or whose parents had separated or divorced, among pupils from lower social class backgrounds, and among those who watched more than four hours television in a day. The level of belief was higher among pupils who had had a religious experience, but lower among pupils who attended church most weeks

Adolescent television viewing and belief in vampires

A total of 1133 13-15-year-old pupils in six secondary schools in South Wales were invited to complete questions concerning vampire belief and amount of television watching. The data demonstrate that belief in vampires was positively associated with higher levels of television watching

Living in sin? : religion and cohabitation in Britain 1985-2005

Frequency of cohabitation among 13,703 adults from the British Social Attitudes dataset for 1985-2005 peaked at around 26-30 years of age, and increased significantly over the period of study. Cohabitation frequency was compared between those of no religious affiliation and Christian affiliates who (a) attended church at least once a month, (b) attended church, but less than once a month, and (c) never attended church. Active Christians were 3.2 times less likely to cohabit than non-affiliates, and rates of cohabitation have remained stable over time in this group. Christian affiliates who never attended church were 1.2 times less likely to cohabit than non-affiliates, suggesting that even affiliation without attendance may indicate greater affinity to Christian moral attitudes compared with non-affiliates

Personality and paranormal belief: a study among adolescents

A sample of 279 13- to 16-year-old adolescents completed the Short-form Revised Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQR-S) and a six-item Index of Paranormal Belief. The data demonstrate that neuroticism is fundamental to individual differences in paranormal belief, while paranormal belief is independent of extraversion and psychoticism

Church attendance and self-esteem among adolescents

A total of 279 young people (123 males and 156 females) aged between 12 and 16 years of age attending one school in Wales completed the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory alongside a measure of frequency of church attendance. The data indicate a small positive correlation (r = .18) between self-esteem and church attendance

Introducing the modified paranormal belief scale: distinguishing between classic paranormal beliefs, religious paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity among undergraduates in Northern Ireland and Wales

Previous empirical studies concerned with the association between paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity have produced conflicting evidence. Drawing on Rice's (2003) distinction between classic paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs, the present study proposed a modified form of the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale to produce separate scores for these two forms of paranormal belief, styled 'religious paranormal beliefs' and 'classic paranormal beliefs'. Data provided by a sample of 143 undergraduate students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, demonstrated that conventional religiosity is positively correlated with religious paranormal beliefs, but independent of classic paranormal beliefs. These findings provide a clear framework within which previous conflicting evidence can be interpreted. It is recommended that future research should distinguish clearly between these two forms of paranormal beliefs and that the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale should be routinely modified to detach the four religious paranormal belief items from the total scale score

Rejection of Christianity and self-esteem

A sample of 279 13- to 16-year-old secondary school pupils in Wales completed the Rejection of Christianity Scale and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. After controlling for sex differences a small but significant correlation was found between the two variables, indicating that low self-esteem is associated with the rejection of Christianity

The usefulness of Visitor Expectations Type Scales (VETS) for tourist segmentation : the case of cathedral visitors

This study applies Jungian psychological type theory to assess and to interpret the expectations of cathedral visitors. The Visitor Expectations Type Scales were developed among 35 individuals trained and qualified as type practitioners and then tested among a sample of 157 visitors who also completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated: the coherence and internal consistency reliability of the Visitor Expectations Type Scales; the particular emphases placed by cathedral visitors on introverted expectations, feeling expectations, and perceiving expectations; and the complex relationship between visitor expectations (conceptualised in psychological type categories) and their personal psychological type profile. The Visitor Expectations Type Scales are commended as providing a more valid assessment of the psychographic segmentation of cathedral visitors than could be provided simply by the administration of a recognised measure of psychological type. Such assessment has implications for the marketing and management of cathedrals within the tourism industry