Student Religiosity Questionnaire

1. Abstract

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire (SRQ) is a psychometric instrument developed by Israeli educational psychologist Yaacov J. Katz to quantify multidimensional Jewish religiosity among adolescent and emerging-adult student cohorts. Developed initially in 1988 and subsequently validated across cross-cultural and longitudinal samples (e.g., Katz & Schmida, 1992; Francis & Katz, 1992), the SRQ was created to address a critical psychometric gap: the overwhelming Christian-centric bias of existing measures of religiosity that prioritized theological belief (orthodoxy) over ritual behavioral compliance (orthopraxy). The original 20-item scale—later adapted into an 18-item variant in specific educational contexts—is partitioned into two distinct, psychometrically robust dimensions: Religious Principles (measuring theological assent to foundational Jewish dogmas, such as divine revelation, resurrection, and individual providence) and Religious Practices (evaluating behavioral observance of halakhic mandates, such as dietary laws, Sabbath observance, and prayer rituals).

Respondents evaluate items along a 5-point Likert-type continuum ranging from 1 (minimal observance / minimal agreement) to 5 (maximal observance / maximal agreement). Psychometric evaluations across diverse populations—including South African Jewish teacher trainees, Israeli national-religious comprehensive secondary school students, secular secondary students, and Bar-Ilan University teacher trainees—demonstrate high internal consistency. Reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficients range from .89 to .96 for the global scale, with subscale reliabilities consistently exceeding .83 for Religious Practices and .90 for Religious Principles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses replicate a robust two-factor structure accounting for substantial total variance. Content validity was established via a formal panel of ten rabbinic and theological scholars, while construct and convergent validities were corroborated through systematic cross-analyses with Hans Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality, moral development, and socio-educational attitudes. The SRQ remains a foundational tool in the sociology of religion, developmental psychology, and educational assessment within Jewish educational ecosystems.

2. Keywords

Student Religiosity Questionnaire, SRQ, Yaacov J. Katz, Jewish religiosity, orthopraxy, religious principles, religious practices, halakhic observance, psychometrics, scale validation, adolescent religiosity, Bar-Ilan University.

3. Authors

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire was conceptualized and authored by Professor Yaacov J. Katz, an eminent researcher in the School of Education at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel. Professor Katz has served as the Director of the Institute for Community Education and Research and has held senior leadership roles within the Israeli Ministry of Education, including serving as Chairman of the Pedagogical Secretariat. His extensive research corpus focuses on educational psychology, the interface between personality and religious identification, values development in adolescents, and computer-assisted learning environments.

Key validation and programmatic research initiatives incorporating the SRQ were conducted in scholarly collaboration with:

• Professor Mirjam Schmida: Professor of Education at the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel. Professor Schmida has published extensively on secondary education curricula, youth culture, structural differentiation within the Israeli educational matrix, and the sociological correlates of adolescent socialization.
• The Reverend Professor Leslie J. Francis: Professor of Religions and Psychology at the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, and Canon Theologian. Professor Francis is an internationally recognized authority in the empirical psychology of religion, psychometrics, and personality theory, collaborating with Katz to investigate the structural relationships between the Eysenckian personality dimensional model and Jewish adolescent religiosity.

4. Purpose

The primary scientific purpose of the Student Religiosity Questionnaire (SRQ) is to provide an empirically grounded, culturally nuanced, and psychometrically sound instrument capable of measuring general religiosity within Jewish student populations. Prior to the development of the SRQ, empirical investigations within the psychology of religion overwhelmingly relied upon instruments developed within Western, Protestant Christian environments—such as the Religious Orientation Scale (Allport & Ross, 1967) or various Christian orthodoxy indices. These legacy scales operationalized religiosity almost exclusively through internalized personal sentiment, individual devotion, and assent to doctrinal propositions. In classical Judaism, however, religiosity is intrinsically bipartite: it requires both cognitive-theological commitment (emunah and de’ot) and behavioral compliance with an intricate corpus of legal obligations and practical commandments (mitzvot / Halakha).

The SRQ was explicitly engineered to overcome these theoretical and cross-cultural limitations by integrating both behavioral performance and doctrinal adherence into a single assessment matrix. The instrument addresses several major theoretical and practical objectives:

• Differential Measurement of Orthodoxy versus Orthopraxy: By delineating Religious Principles from Religious Practices, the SRQ allows investigators to examine whether an individual’s theological belief corresponds directly with their functional daily observance, or whether cognitive-behavioral bifurcations occur across developmental transitions.
• Educational Assessment and Institutional Tracking: Within faith-based school systems—such as the Israeli state-religious (Mamlachti-Dati) comprehensive schools, ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) yeshivot, and Jewish day schools in the diaspora—the SRQ provides administrators and educational psychologists with normative data to evaluate religious socialization curricula, identify patterns of secularization or religious intensification, and evaluate school climate.
• Empirical Psychological Research: The SRQ facilitates the empirical exploration of how religiosity interacts with broader psychological constructs, including personality dimensions (such as Eysenck’s Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism), cognitive intelligence, authoritarianism, moral reasoning, and subjective well-being among adolescents and young adults.
• Clinical and Counseling Applications: In therapeutic and counseling settings involving traditional or Orthodox clients, the SRQ can serve as an exploratory diagnostic tool to understand how religious conflict, existential doubt, or halakhic scrupulosity might influence emotional adjustment, identity formation, and familial dynamics.

5. Psychological Construct

The construct of religiosity within the SRQ is operationalized as a multidimensional psychological phenomenon encompassing cognitive endorsement of religious dogmas and behavioral compliance with normative ritual standards. Rather than treating religious identity as a single continuous variable or a binary demographic categorization, the SRQ posits that Jewish religiosity operates across two interconnected domains:

1. Religious Practices (Orthopraxy)

The Religious Practices dimension captures the behavioral, ritualistic, and lifestyle requirements rooted in Jewish Halakhic jurisprudence. Within Judaism, behavioral observance is not merely an optional expression of internal faith; it is the fundamental medium through which religious identity is enacted and maintained. This subscale encompasses ten specific behavioral domains:

• Sabbath Observance (Shabbat): Adherence to the positive and negative commandments governing the day of rest, including the cessation of creative work (melakhah), sanctification through prayer and communal celebration, and the preservation of sacred time.
• Inter-Sex Socializing: Behavioral compliance with traditional norms regarding modesty, physical boundaries, and social contact between men and women (rooted in concepts of tsni’ut and negiah).
• Dietary Laws (Kashrut) at Home and Out of Home: Strict adherence to biblical and rabbinic dietary mandates—both within the controlled environment of the domestic sphere and in less regulated public or external settings—evaluating the consistency of ritual maintenance under varying degrees of social pressure.
• Mourning Observances: Behavioral conformity with the prescribed phases of bereavement (e.g., shiva, reciting the Kaddish, days of national/communal mourning like Tisha B’Av), reflecting integration into communal memory and grief structures.
• Observance of Fast Days: Physical self-affliction and abstinence from food and drink during major and minor fast days (e.g., Yom Kippur, Tenth of Tevet, Seventeenth of Tammuz), measuring self-regulatory capacity anchored in historical and repentance-oriented imperatives.
• Liturgical Rituals: Daily and holiday prayer rituals, including reciting grace after meals on the Sabbath (Birkat Hamazon) and concluding the Sabbath through formal departure liturgies (Havdalah and associated termination prayers).
• Festal Observances and Agricultural/Charitable Tithes: Active construction and dwelling in the sukkah during the Tabernacles (Sukkot) festival, along with modern adaptations of biblical tithing and charitable donation (tzedakah / ma’aser).

2. Religious Principles (Theological Beliefs / Orthodoxy)

The Religious Principles dimension assesses the cognitive-intellectual endorsement of metaphysical, eschatological, and theological dogmas that constitute classical Jewish creed, largely corresponding to the Thirteen Principles of Faith formulated by the 12th-century philosopher Moses Maimonides (Rambam). These items assess foundational beliefs:

• Divine Law (Torah min HaShamayim) and Oral Law (Torah SheBe’al Peh): The foundational belief that both the written scripture (Pentateuch) and its rabbinic interpretations and oral traditions were divinely revealed at Mount Sinai and possess eternal, unalterable authority.
• Rabbinical Authority: Acceptance of the interpretive and legislative legitimacy of historical and contemporary rabbinic sages (Da’at Torah and Halakhic precedent).
• Creation Ex Nihilo (Beri’ah Yesh Me’Ayin): Belief that God created the cosmos out of nothingness, establishing absolute divine sovereignty and denying primordial matter.
• Individual Supervision by God (Hashgacha Pratit): The conviction that God exercises active, personalized divine providence over individual human actions and destinies, rather than merely maintaining universal cosmic laws.
• Biblical Miracles and Prophecy: Acceptance of supernatural divine interventions within historical chronology as recorded in biblical texts, alongside belief in authentic prophetic communication between God and chosen human conduits.
• Moral Retribution (Reward and Punishment): The conviction that divine justice governs existence, rewarding righteousness and penalizing transgression either in this earthly realm or in the world to come.
• Eschatology (Messianic Era and Resurrection of the Dead): Unwavering anticipation of a future Messianic redemption of humanity and the literal or metaphorical reconstitution and resuscitation of deceased souls (Tehiyat HaMetim).

6. Theoretical Framework

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire is rooted in the intersection of socioreligious typology, cognitive developmental psychology, and empirical psychometric modeling of attitudes. In classical sociological theory, Émile Durkheim conceptualized religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, uniting adherents into a singular moral community. While modern Western psychology frequently privileged the interiorized, affective dimension of faith—typified by William James’s seminal work on personal religious experiences—scholars of non-Protestant traditions have continuously asserted that orthopraxy constitutes the bedrock of religious cohesion in traditional cultures.

Multidimensional Models of Religiosity

The SRQ draws directly upon the multidimensional structural framework introduced by Charles Glock and Rodney Stark (1965), who posited that individual religiosity cannot be reduced to a single vector, but instead operates across five distinct dimensions: ideological (belief), intellectual (knowledge), ritualistic (practice), experiential (feeling), and consequential (effects on daily behavior). Katz adapted this taxonomy specifically to the Jewish milieu, determining that the intellectual/ideological components coalesce into a unified Religious Principles factor, while ritualistic and consequential behaviors form the Religious Practices factor.

Attitude-Behavior Consistency Theory

The theoretical construction of the SRQ is also informed by social psychological models of attitude structure, particularly Martin Fishbein and Icek Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action and Planned Behavior. In this framework, cognitive beliefs (evaluations of divine origin and rabbinic mandate) serve as antecedent cognitive schemas that inform subjective norms, which subsequently translate into intentional behavioral observance (ritual execution). The SRQ provides the empirical substrate necessary to evaluate discrepancies between cognitive endorsement and behavioral execution, allowing researchers to study phenomena such as religious cognitive dissonance, selective halakhic compliance, and social conformity.

Eysenckian Personality Architecture

A third foundational pillar of Katz’s empirical program involves Hans J. Eysenck’s dimensional model of personality (the PEN model: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism). Eysenck proposed that individual differences in conditionability, impulsivity, and social conformity strongly predict societal and religious attitudes. In particular, low Psychoticism (characterized by empathy, altruism, conscientiousness, and conventionality) has been consistently linked across international studies to elevated religious commitment. Katz, along with Leslie J. Francis, employed the SRQ to test whether this personality-religiosity relationship generalized across non-Christian, traditional Jewish youth, demonstrating that high scores on both SRQ subscales correlate strongly and negatively with Psychoticism traits.

7. Validity

The construct, content, and criterion-related validity of the Student Religiosity Questionnaire have been verified through multiple empirical investigations conducted across various demographic segments and national settings.

Content and Face Validity

Content validity for the original 20-item instrument was established via expert judgment. A panel of ten independent theologians, rabbinic scholars, and academic experts in Jewish studies reviewed the candidate items. A strict criterion was enforced: an item was retained only if at least 7 of the 10 judges (70% consensus minimum) affirmed that it possessed unambiguous face validity and represented an indispensable pillar of normative Jewish faith or practice. All 20 items satisfied this standard, ensuring that both Halakhic praxis and classical dogma were accurately represented.

Construct and Factorial Validity

Construct validity has been repeatedly demonstrated across culturally distinct samples:

• South African Teacher Trainees: In the initial derivation study (Katz, 1988), administered to 110 white South African Jewish teacher trainees, exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation isolated two orthogonal factors corresponding precisely to the theoretical dimensions of Religious Principles and Religious Practices.
• Israeli Secondary Cohorts: In subsequent validation research (Katz & Schmida, 1992), the scale was translated into Hebrew and administered to 531 eleventh-grade students attending national-religious comprehensive high schools in Israel. A separate heterogeneous sample of 221 eleventh-grade students drawn from diverse school environments (ranging from secular state schools to traditional and religious tracks) was also evaluated. In both cohorts, the empirical factor solutions replicated the two-dimensional architecture.

Convergent, Discriminant, and Known-Groups Validity

The SRQ exhibits strong known-groups validity. In comparative studies across Israeli educational frameworks, the questionnaire demonstrated statistically significant mean differences ($p < .001$) across school types: students enrolled in national-religious (Mamlachti-Dati) institutions scored significantly higher on both Religious Practices and Religious Principles than students enrolled in general secular (Mamlachti) secondary institutions.

In convergent validity testing with personality dimensions (Francis & Katz, 1992), total SRQ scores and individual subscale scores displayed significant, robust negative correlations with Eysenck’s Psychoticism scale ($r = -.38$ to $-.45$, $p < .001$), mirroring findings from Christian cohorts assessed via the Francis Scale of Attitude towards Christianity. Concurrently, discriminant validity was supported by near-zero correlations with Extraversion and Neuroticism, proving that the SRQ measures authentic religious orientation rather than generalized emotional instability or social introversion/extraversion.

8. Reliability

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire possesses exceptionally high internal consistency and measurement stability across diverse age groups, linguistic adaptations, and geographic locales.

Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha)

Reliability estimates documented across standard psychometric studies include:

• South African Derivation Sample ($N = 110$): The total 20-item scale demonstrated an overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of $\alpha = .89$, indicating excellent internal coherence among the translated English-language items.
• Israeli Cross-Validation Adolescent Cohort ($N = 221$): In Katz and Schmida’s (1992) validation study of 11th-grade students from varied educational backgrounds, the total scale yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of $\alpha = .91$. When evaluated at the subscale level, the 10-item Religious Principles factor achieved $\alpha = .90$, while the Religious Practices factor achieved $\alpha = .83$.
• Israeli National-Religious Cohort ($N = 531$): Consistent alpha values exceeding $.85$ across both subscales were recorded among national-religious high school students, affirming scale stability within highly observant demographics.
• University Teacher Trainee Sample ($N = 190$): In an administration to undergraduate and graduate teacher trainees at Bar-Ilan University utilizing an 18-item modified variant, the instrument demonstrated an internal consistency coefficient of $\alpha = .96$, underscoring the scale’s psychometric precision in adult student populations.

Item-Total Correlations and Stability

Individual item-to-total correlations across the validation studies consistently ranged between $.48$ and $.78$, indicating that every item contributes meaningfully to the common variance of its respective subscale without introducing excessive redundancy. Standard error of measurement (SEM) values remained uniformly low across validation trials, supporting the scale’s reliability for both group-level research and individual assessment.

9. Factor Analysis

The internal structural validity of the SRQ has been systematically evaluated through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) utilizing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) accompanied by orthogonal (Varimax) and oblique rotations.

Factor Extraction and Loadings

In the primary empirical investigation conducted by Katz and Schmida (1992) on the 221 Israeli high school students, factor extraction yielded two dominant eigenvalues clearly separated from the scree plot break point:

• Factor 1: Religious Principles. This factor accounted for the largest percentage of explained variance. All 10 items dedicated to theological dogmas loaded significantly (factor loadings $ge .45$, with multiple items loading above $.70$). Primary loading items included Divine law, Oral law, Reward and punishment, and Individual supervision by God.
• Factor 2: Religious Practices. This factor isolated the behavioral and ritual compliance items. In the 20-item iteration, 7 to 10 items loaded heavily on this dimension (loadings ranging from $.42$ to $.79$). Items exhibiting the strongest primary loadings included Sabbath observance, Dietary laws-observance at home, Dietary laws-observance out of home, and Grace before meals on Sabbath.

Cross-Cultural and Structural Stability

Crucially, factor structures derived from the initial English-language South African sample ($N = 110$) and the Hebrew-language Israeli cohorts ($N = 531$ and $N = 221$) exhibited remarkable congruence. The same two latent constructs emerged across both linguistic and cultural contexts, confirming that the distinction between belief and practice is structurally invariant across disparate Jewish populations.

In subsequent pedagogical adaptations, slight item refinements were introduced (yielding an 18-item scale variant by consolidating or omitting items with cross-loadings in specialized sub-populations), yet the bifurcated latent architecture—Principles versus Practices—remained stable, with total explained variance consistently exceeding 55% to 65% of the correlation matrix.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire is a paper-and-pencil or digitally administered self-report psychometric inventory designed for group or individual administration.

Structural Specifications

• Instrument Type: Multidimensional self-report rating scale.
• Target Population: Secondary school students, university undergraduates, teacher trainees, and young adults belonging to or familiar with the Jewish religious tradition.
• Administration Time: Approximately 8 to 12 minutes.
• Total Items: 20 items (standard complete version); 18 items (abbreviated educational variant).
• Subscale Allocation:
  • Religious Practices: Items 1 through 10 (evaluating ritual observance, halakhic conduct, and daily practices).
  • Religious Principles: Items 11 through 20 (evaluating assent to foundational theological dogmas).
• Response Continuum: 5-point Likert scale (1 = Minimal observance / Minimal agreement to 5 = Maximal observance / Maximal agreement).
  • For Items 1–10: 1 = Minimal observance, 2 = Low observance, 3 = Moderate observance, 4 = High observance, 5 = Maximal observance.
  • For Items 11–20: 1 = Minimal agreement, 2 = Low agreement, 3 = Moderate agreement, 4 = High agreement, 5 = Maximal agreement.
• Scoring Protocol:
  • No items are reverse-scored; all statements are formulated in the positive direction of religious commitment.
  • Religious Practices Score: Sum of ratings for Items 1 through 10 (Score range: 10 to 50).
  • Religious Principles Score: Sum of ratings for Items 11 through 20 (Score range: 10 to 50).
  • Total Religiosity Composite Score: Sum of all 20 items (Score range: 20 to 100).
  • Higher aggregate scores signify greater overall religiosity, while relative comparisons between subscale totals illuminate orthopraxic versus orthodox orientations.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Student Religiosity Questionnaire was initially developed in 1988 by Professor Yaacov J. Katz and subsequently validated in published literature through 1992. The scale was placed in the public academic domain via its publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including The Journal of Social Psychology, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Educational and Psychological Measurement.

Licensing and Research Use: The SRQ is available free of charge for non-commercial academic, psychological, and educational research purposes. Researchers and educational practitioners are permitted to administer the instrument without paying royalty fees, provided that appropriate formal academic citation is given to the author (Katz, 1988; Katz & Schmida, 1992). Modifications for commercial psychometric software, clinical diagnostic testing batteries, or institutional consulting services require formal authorization from the copyright holder and original author via Bar-Ilan University’s School of Education.

12. References

The theoretical and empirical foundations of the SRQ are detailed in the following academic references:

• Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5(4), 432–443. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021212
• Eysenck, H. J. (1975). The measurement of emotion: Psychological aspects. In L. Levi (Ed.), Emotions: Their Parameters and Measurement (pp. 439–467). Raven Press.
• Francis, L. J., & Katz, Y. J. (1992). The relationship between personality and religiosity in an Israeli sample. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31(2), 153–162. https://doi.org/10.2307/1387609
• Glock, C. Y., & Stark, R. (1965). Religion and Society in Tension. Rand McNally.
• Katz, Y. J. (1988). The relationship between intelligence and attitudes in a bilingual society: The case of white South Africa. The Journal of Social Psychology, 128(1), 65–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1988.9711685
• Katz, Y. J., & Schmida, M. (1992). Validation of the Student Religiosity Questionnaire. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 52(2), 353–356. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164492052002011

13. Items of the Scale