Development of a spirituality rating scale for Japanese Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to create a spirituality rating scale for the youth of Japan. A questionnaire was developed based on the “Concept of Spirituality” and was filled in by 271 university students. After excluding statistically inappropriate items, a factor analysis (Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Promax Rotation) was conducted. As a result, five factors for twenty-seven items were obtained. These five factors were termed as follows: Harmonizing with Nature, Ikigai (Japanese word for one＇s sense of purpose in life), A Feeling of Awe Regarding Invisible Existence, Connecting with One＇s Ancestors and finally Self-determination. The questionnaire consisting of five categories with their twentyseven items was defined as the Japanese Youth Spirituality Rating Scale (JYS). The cumulative contribution percentage after extracting the factors was 53.03％ . The reliability coefficient of the JYS obtained after applying the Cronbach's alpha was 0.89. The construct validity of the scale was confirmed by using the Comparative Fit Index (CFI=0.91), the Goodness of Fit Index (GFI=0.86), the Adjusted Goodnessof-Fit Index (AGFI=0.83) and Root Mean Squares Error of Approximation (RMSEA=0.061). The criterion-related validity of the scale was confirmed by the correlation coefficients with STS( r =0.69 p＜.01), and PIL( r =0.55 p＜0.001). In addition, a relation of the JYS to the Scale of Life and Death View was also shown. Through these overall findings, it was found that the JYS could be a useful scale to measure the spiritual tendency of Japanese youth.