Development and initial psychometric assessment of the Childhood Religious Experience Inventory – Primary Caregiver

Childhood religious experiences with primary caregivers are instrumental in the development of religiosity. However, the ways that primary caregivers influence these experiences have not been properly operationalized and measured. We addressed this limitation by developing the Childhood Religious Experiences Inventory – Primary Caregiver (CREI-PC). An act nomination procedure (Study 1, n=201) resulted in 120 items describing specific things a primary caregiver said to, did to, or did with, a participant during their childhood. In Study 2 (n=497), participants indicated how frequently each item occurred in their childhood. Principal Component Analysis yielded 16 items loading on four components: Assurance; Disapproval and Punishment; Social Involvement, and Encouraged Skepticism. The CREI-PC allows researchers to quantify primary caregiver influence on childhood religious experiences, enabling future investigation of whether and how these influences predict adult religiosity. •New scale measure was created to assess religious influence of primary caregivers.•No sex differences in reported religious experiences with primary caregivers•Religious affiliation related to types of experiences with primary caregivers•Measure allows investigation of how early religious experiences predict religiosity.