Construction and validation of parental religious training scale for Pakistani Muslim adults

Parental religious training encompasses teachings, rituals, and guidance aimed at instilling faith, values, and religious behaviours in children. Despite its importance, culturally sensitive and empirically validated tools to measure this training within a Muslim context are scarce. This study aimed to develop and validate the Parental Religious Training Scale (PRTS) for Muslim adults. Guided by relevant theoretical perspectives on religious socialization, the study followed a mixed-method exploratory sequential design across two phases. Study 1 utilised qualitative methods, including focus group discussions and open-ended questionnaires, to generate 71 preliminary items, which were refined through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with a sample of 461 Pakistani Muslim adults. A four-factor structure emerged, comprising 38 items across subscales of religious faith, practice, values and morals, and parental rules. Study 2 validated this structure using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a sample of 703, confirming the scale’s reliability and construct validity. The PRTS demonstrated significant positive correlations with parental religious emphasis, authoritative parenting, tawakkul (trust in God), and religious coping, while negatively correlating with mistrust in God. These findings establish the PRTS as a reliable, valid tool. Future research should explore its utility across diverse sects and ethnic groups.