The paper describes the construction of a new religious motivation
questionnaire. The construction was proceeded by an analysis which revealed
that the existing instruments for assessing religious motivation have
deficiencies and, most importantly, may not be suitable for use with persons
in adolescence or younger. In the first phase of the questionnaire
construction, a semi-structured interview was used on a sample of 111
respondents aged 10-25 from Belgrade. The interview findings suggested the
presence of religious motivation dimensions which are not contained in the
existing instruments. In the second phase, an initial pool of items,
formulated based on interview answers, was administered to a sample of 354
secondary school and university students from Belgrade. Principal component
analysis revealed five dimensions of religious motivation measured by the
constructed questionnaire: religion as ultimate value; religion as a means of
wish-fulfillment; religion as a source of emotional well-being; ideals and
morality; religion as a part of tradition; and tendency to meet social
expectations regarding religion. The questionnaire scales show excellent
reliability.
Construction of a religious motivation questionnaire