Folk Belief Of Middle School Students: Strcture And Measurement

Folk belief is analogous to "spirituality" but has further localization meaning. Discussing the theory of folk belief from the standpoint of psychology and developping a measurement tool , middle school students as the samples ,would not only be very important to extend the research field of Chinese mental health education , but also has important practical significance for strengthening the atheistic education to middle school students from the standpoint of curriculum and teaching methodology, and building up socialism core values for them.On the basis of exsisting research, this study proposed the definition and structure model of folk belief accordingy to the psychological perspective, developed Folk Belief Scale for Middle School Students (FBSMSS) by combing the quantative research and open interview, discussing the current status and influenicing factors of folk belief of 984 middle school students from Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces, and proposed corresponding educational countermeasures.The main results were as follows:(1) From the point of psychology, folk belief is close to religiosity. It is a integrative generalization of the unique character of individual personality on general public and non-traditional religion believers, which closes to the secularization of religious belief. The four elements of folk belief are "divinity belief, "mysterious experience", "morality pursuit" and "open participation". Here, divinity belief refers to the individual believes that some higher beings live in the real life as well as the unknown world. It is the cognitive factor of folk belief. Mysterious experience refers to the individual has experienced the strong power of some mysterious strength, and has the experienced of communicating with such strength. It is the emotional factor of folk belief. Morality pursuit refers to the individual makes the moral idea of human beings as his own moral standard and ultimate goal. It is the personality dynamic factor of folk belief. Open participation refers to the individual who would not to accept the restriction of traditional religion and would want to be freedom and open in religious activities. It is the willing and behavior factor of folk belief.(2) FBSMSS has 25 items, each of divinity worship subscale, mysterious experience subscale and morality pursuit subscale includes 4 items, and open participation subscale includes 3 items. In order to improve the reliability, it includes lying subscale and interference subscale, each of them consists of 5 items.The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed the construct validity of FBSMSS was good. The follows were the main fit indexes of modified model: x~2/df=2.10 CFI=0.94,NNFI=0.94,NFI=0.90,RMSEA =0.050, and SRMR=0.067. between FBSMSS and the importance of high being subscale of Spirituality Scale for College Student,s the significant positive correlation was found (r=0.563, p<0.01). The internal consistency and 7-week test-retest reliability of FBSMSS were 0.857 and 0.715 respectively. The total score was 2 significant deviation higher (T> 70)than norm(average score),the questionnaire was invalidate. It was effective to ensure the reliability of the collected questionnaires.(3) In a small range, norm was made, the mean score of the T score was 50, and the standard deviation was 10. The T scores above 60 were high, below 40 were low. And some indispensable interpretation to the typical characteristic of the high were offered.(4)The results of the measurement showed that the level of middle school students' folk belief was below average. The folk belief levels of the dimensions from highest to lowest ranges were as follows: open participation > divinity worship> morality pursuit> mysterious experience. Significant differences were found in gender, grade, household register(urban or rural areas) and singleton. No significant differences in religion background in general folk belief. Significant interactions were found in the whole scale, mysterious experience subscale and morality pursuit subscale among gender, grade and singleton or not, while significant interaction between gender and gradewas found in the whole scale, divinity worship and morality pursuit. The results of regression analysis showed that buddhiam, toaism, coatholicism, gender(female) and grade(senior grade one) influenced folk belief, and the grade(senior grade one) influenced furthest.(5) The education countermeasures of this study were as follows: using FBSMSS in school psychological counseling could widen the service area of consultation effectively, building up socialism core values for middle school students according to their character of folk belief, ensuring the best growth of the students along the way of promoting science and opposing superstition by incorporating the science and antitheism into mental health education.