Introducing the Scale of Perceived Affect Response to Online Worship (SPAROW): a psychometric assessment of ritual innovation during the pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in the use of online platforms for Christian worship and emphasised the need for a simple psychometric instrument that is sufficiently general to assess affect responses to a range worship services. This paper reports on the development of the six-item Scale of Perceived Affect Response to Online Worship (SPAROW) during the third UK pandemic lockdown in 2021. The scale items were included in an online survey completed from January to July 2021 by 2,017 Anglicans living in England and 1713 Roman Catholics from the UK or the Republic of Ireland. Exploratory Factor Analysis (principal components extraction and varimax rotation) in the Anglican sample indicated a single-dimensional scale that had excellent internal consistency reliability for those who accessed pre-recorded services (α = .90, n = 1238) and live-streamed services (α = .91, n = 1492). Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the Roman Catholic sample using a Structural Equation Model showed a good fit to a single-dimensional scale.