Development of a Measure of Black Liberation Religiosity

Abstract

While researchers have explored numerous aspects of religiosity, one unexplored aspect was Black Liberation Theology. Based on the works of James Cone, Black Liberation Theology applied ideas of Christianity to the struggle of Black people for social, political and economic equality. As Black Liberation Religiosity was a nexus of social, political, economic and theological issues, several measurement issues which impacted Black Liberation Religiosity, specifically issues pertaining to factors and dimensionality were reviewed. Given the complex and multifaceted nature of Black Liberation Theology, three predicted models were proposed which defined Black Liberation Theology as a one-factor, three-factor, or six-factor construct. As the present literature did not provide exhaustive evidence for any particular factor structure, I employed a hybrid approach using Exploratory Factor Analysis and the Rasch Model to assess Black Liberation Theology as well as determine the factor structure of this instrument. In the present dissertation, participants were recruited from an HBCU in Maryland and online from a variety of sources (i.e., Facebook) as well as from various Black Churches in the Greater Baltimore area. All participants were allowed to participate in the present dissertation regardless of race or religious affiliation in order that discriminant validity could be established. All participants completed a brief demographics questionnaire and the initial draft of the Assessment of Black Liberation Religiosity. Contrary to expectation, the Assessment of Black Liberation Religiosity was a unidimensional instrument. The final version of the Assessment of Black Liberation Religiosity was a six-item one-factor unidimensional instrument. All 6-items displayed sufficient item properties and no differential item functioning was observed with respect to gender. Preliminary reliability analyses revealed moderately acceptable reliability through the addition of two additional items is expected to increase reliability to acceptable levels. Preliminary validity analyses revealed inconsistent support for the discriminant validity of this instrument. Specifically, White Christians displayed greater adherence to Black Liberation Theology compared to Black Christians. Deficiencies in discriminant validity were attributed in part to social desirability bias and religious fundamentalism. Subsequent studies may seek to further validate the Assessment of Black Liberation Religiosity by including measures of religious fundamentalism and social desirability.