Development and Validation of Religious Tolerance Scale for Youth

The objective of the present research was to develop and validate an indigenous scale of religious tolerance for young adults, based on Van der Walt (2014) model of religious tolerance. The two independent studies were conducted in this regard. In the first study, a pool of 81 items was generated and after qualitative analysis and pilot study, 53 items were retained for exploratory factor analysis. Using the data from the sample of (N = 500) students, the items were then subjected to principal component analysis using varimax rotation method. A factor solution based on 25 items and 7 well-structured factors was obtained. Afterward, a similar sample of (N = 282) students was obtained for confirmatory factor analysis that confirmed the factor structure of the scale with 23 items. In the second study, validation of the scale was determined by examining its convergent and discriminant validity with the original religious tolerance questionnaire and balanced dogmatism sale, respectively. The results of the study uphold religious tolerance scale as a promising indigenous psychometric measure for religious tolerance.