Structural equivalence of an attitude toward religion scale in Mexico, Nicaragua and China/ Equivalencia estructural de una escala de actitud hacia la religion en Mexico, Nicaragua y China

The Attitude toward Catholicism, Judaism, Hinduism, and Islam scales (Francis & Enger, 2002; Francis & Katz, 2007; Francis, Santosh, Robbins, & Vij, 2008; Sahin & Francis, 2002) were adapted for this study into a single scale that measures overall attitudes towards religion. The resulting Attitude toward Religion (ATR) Scale was adapted into both Spanish and Chinese and administered in Mexico (n = 265), Nicaragua (n = 296), and China (n = 460) to a total of 1,021 individuals (59% women, 41% men; [M.sub.age] = 22.4 years, SD = 7.01 years). The scale's structural equivalence (i.e. Does the instrument measure the same construct in each country?) was assessed using Exploratory Factor Analyses and pairwise comparisons. Strong evidence for structural equivalence was provided by the analyses' results, as we obtained a one-dimensional solution (labeled Attitude Toward Religion, ATR) in all three countries and Tucker's Phi test was very close to 1. These findings support the unidimensional solution for attitudes toward religions obtained in previous scales and broaden the scope for these studies in several cultural contexts. Further implications are discussed.