Evidencias iniciales de validez y confiabilidad en población Peruana de una escala de repercusiones en las prácticas religiosas a causa de la COVID-19 (ERPR-Cov19)

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic forces social isolation and as a result religious communities are unable to meet for their routine programs and services in person, but the consequences of this change in religious practices are largely unstudied to date. Objective: To validate the scale of impact on religious practices due to COVID-19 (ERPR-Cov19). Objective: To validate the scale of impact on religious practices due to COVID-19 (ERPR-Cov19). Methods: Instrumental study conducted from June to August 2020 in the Coast, Highlands and Jungle of Peru, where 534 adults of both sexes participated voluntarily. The design of the scale was based on a bibliographic search of indicators of the construct. For the validation a first version was developed, which was evaluated by seven experts (theologians, doctors and psychologists) who qualified the relevance, representativeness and clarity of the items. The analyses contemplated the application of descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation, asymmetry and kurtosis, and to determine the internal structure of the test, Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied. Results: The analyses revealed the existence of only one factor that explains 68.8% of the total variance of the test, with factorial loads between 0.58 and 0.90, where, the contribution of the items to the scale was satisfactory (higher than 0.30). The robust analyses (X2 = 52,641; p = 0,001; CFI = 0,964, GFI = 0,994; AGFI = 992, TLI =0,964 y RMSR = 0,058) indicated that the unidimensional structure is satisfactory, besides, the reliability was acceptable (α = .93, 95% CI = .91-.94). Conclusions: The scale demonstrates both internal and external validity, indicating that the instrument is valid and reliable for measuring the impact on religious practices due to COVID-19, and can be used in future studies.