The Development and Preliminary Validation of the Belief in Divine Intervention Scale

Abstract

The primary purpose of the present study was to create and validate a scale assessing the extent to which people believe in divine intervention. A six-item Belief in Divine Intervention Scale (BDIS) was one of six scales administered to 204 students at a community college and a Christian liberal arts college. The BDIS displayed a high level of internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .910), and a principal components analysis strongly supported its unidimensionality. There was a large primary component with high loadings of all items on the primary component (.811 - .845). BDIS scores were significantly correlated to self-reported importance of religion and were significantly higher among students from the Christian college. BDIS scores were not significantly related to locus of control measures or belief in a just world. Overall, the BDIS revealed good psychometric properties and provides a short, easily administered measure of belief in divine intervention.