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Environmental Attitude Scale for Secondary School, High School and Undergraduate Students: Validity and Reliability Study

Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 79 - 90, 15.01.2019
https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.491259

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable
“Environmental Attitude Scale” (EAS) for secondary school (5th, 8th grade),
high school (11th) and undergraduate college students. The reliability and
validity studies of the scale were carried out in three different countries
(Finland, USA and Turkey). The sampling size was 1687 students. For the
construct validity, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was run and in order to
test the accuracy of the obtained factor structure. The scale was composed of
three sub scales: “Environmental Behaviour Sub Scale (EBSS)”, “Environmental
Opinion Sub Scale (EOSS)” and “Environmental Emotion Sub Scale (EESS)”. The
EBSS and EESS consist of two factors each and the EOSS consists of one factor.
The EBSS had 13 items, EOSS 11 items and EESS 16 items, all using a 5-point
Likert scale. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient for the whole scale
was found to be α=.94, and reliability coefficient of the first subscale was
found to be α=.91, second subscale α=.82 and third subscale α=.94 and the
Spearman Brown coefficients were found to be .85, .83, .80 and .85,
respectively. Reliability and validity results of the study show that the
“Environmental Attitude Scale” can be used to measure the environmental
attitudes of the different levels of students.

References

  • Ballard, M., & Pandya, M. (1990). Essential learnings in environmental education. Troy, OH: North American Association for Environmental Education.
  • Bögeholz, S. (2006). Nature experience and its importance for environmental knowledge, values and action: Recent German empirical contributions. Environmental Education Research, 12(1), 65-84.
  • Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2005). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı [Handbook of data analysis for social sciences] (5. Baskı). Ankara: Cantekin Matbaası.
  • Coyle, K. (2005). Environmental literacy in America: What ten years of NEETF/Roper research and related studies say about environmental literacy in the U.S. The National Environmental Education & Training Foundation. Retrieved September 30, 2018, from http://www.neetf.org/pubs/ELR2005.pdf.
  • Dietrich, H. (2013). The role of emotion in environmental decision making. Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.
  • Digby, B. L. C. (2010). An Examination of the Impact of Non-formal and Informal Learning on Adult Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the Unıversıty of Minnesota.
  • Dunlap, R. & Van Liere, K. (1978). The “new environmental paradigm.” The Journal of Environmental Education 9(4), 10-19.
  • Dunlap, R. E., Van Liere, K. D., Mertig, A. G., & Jones, R. E. (2000). Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 425-442.
  • Ewert, A., Place, G., & Sibthorp, J. (2005). Early-life outdoors experiences and individual’s environmental attitudes. Leisure Sciences, 27, 225-239.
  • Flynn, B., Schroeder, R., & Sakakibara, S. (1994). A framework for quality management research and an associated measurement instrument. Journal of Operations Management, 11, 339-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(97)90004-8.
  • Fraj-Andrés, Elena & Martínez-Salinas, Eva (2007). Impact of environmental knowledge on ecological consumer behavior: An empirical analysis. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 19(3), 73-102.
  • Franzen, A. (2003). Environmental attitudes in international comparison: An analysis of the ISSP surveys 1993 and 2000*. Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 84(2), 297-308.
  • Frick, J., Kaiser, F. G., & Wilson, M. (2004). Environmental knowledge and conservation behavior: Exploring prevalence and structure in a representative sample. Personality & Individual Differences, 37(8), 1597-1613.
  • Himmelfarb, S. (1993). The measurement of attitudes. In A. H. Eagly, & S. Chaiken (Eds.), The psychology of attitudes. Orland, FL: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.
  • Hodgkinson, S. P., & Innes, J. M. (2001). The attitudinal influence of career orientation in 1st-year university students: Environmental attitudes as a function of degree choice. Journal of Environmental Education, 32(3), 37.
  • Holahan, C., J. (1982). Environmental psychology. 1st ed. Random House: New York.
  • Kals, E., Schumacher, D. & Montada, L. (1999). Emotional affinity toward nature as a motivational basis to protect nature. Environment & Behavior, 31(2), 178-202.
  • Keles, O. (2011). Evaluation of primary school students’ thought about and behaviors and attitudes towards environment. Energy Education Science and Technology Part B: Social and Educational Studies, 3(3): 343-358
  • Knapp, D. (1996). Evaluating the impact of environmental interpretation: a review of three research studies. In Coalition for Education in the Outdoors Research Symposium Proceedings (Bradford, Woods, Indiana, January 12-14, 1996). (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED413132).
  • Krosnick, J. A., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2005). The measurement of attitudes. In D. Albarracȋn , B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 21–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Leeming, F., Bracken, B., & Dwyer, W. (1995). Children’s environmental attitude and knowledge scale: construction and validation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 26, 22-33.
  • Ma, X., & Bateson, D. (1999). A multivariate analysis of the relationship between attitude toward science and attitude toward the environment. The Journal of Environmental Education, 31, 27-32.
  • Malkus, A. (1992). Children’s attitudes towards the environment: relationship with parent’s environmental attitudes, family environmental practices, and children’s personality characteristics. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN.
  • Maloney, M., Ward, M., & Braucht, G. (1975). A revised scale for the measurement of ecological attitudes and knowledge. American Psychologist, 30, 787-790.
  • Milfont, T. L., & Duckitt, J. (2010). The environmental attitudes inventory: A valid and reliable measure to assess the structure of environmental attitudes. Journal of environmental psychology, 30(1), 80-94.
  • Murphy, T. P. (2004). The second Minnesota report card on environmental literacy: A survey of adult environmental knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Hamline University, Center for Global Environmental Education.
  • Musser, L., & Malkus, A. (1994). The children’s attitude toward the environment scale. The Journal of Environmental Education, 25, 22-26.
  • North American Association for Environmental Education. (1996). Environmental education materials: Guidelines for excellence. Troy, OH: NAAEE.
  • Orr, D. (1990). Environmental education and ecological literacy. Education Digest, 55, 49-54.
  • Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy. Education and the transition to a postmodernpost modern world. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  • Palmer, J. (1998). Environmental education in the 21st century: Theory, practice, progress and promise. New York: Routledge.
  • Ponting, C. (1991). A green history of the world: The environment and the collapse of great civilizations. New York: Penguin.
  • Smith, J. M., Rechenberg, C., Cruey, L., Magness, S., & Sandman, P. (1997). The impact of recycling education on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of grade school children. Education, 118(2), 262-266.
  • Solomon, R. C. (2008). The philosophy of emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 3-16). New York: Guilford. Press.
  • Stern, P. C. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407-424.
  • Uzun N. & Sağlam, N. (2006). Ortaoğretim öğrencileri icin çevresel tutum ölçeği geliştirme ve geçerliliği [Development and validation of an environmental attitudes scale for high school students]. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 30, 240-250.
  • Uzun N. (2007). Ortaöğretim öğrencilerinin cevreye yönelik bilgi ve tutumları üzerine bir çalışma [A study on the secondary school students’ knowledge and attitudes towards the environment]. Ph.D. Thesis. Hacettepe University. Institute of Sciences, Ankara.
  • Worsley, A., & Skrzypiec, G. (1998). Environmental attitudes of senior secondary school students in South Australia. Global Environmental Change, 8, 209-225.
  • Zimmermann, L. (1996). The development of an environmental values short form. The Journal of Environmental Education, 28, 32-37.
Year 2019, Volume: 5 Issue: 1, 79 - 90, 15.01.2019
https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.491259

Abstract

References

  • Ballard, M., & Pandya, M. (1990). Essential learnings in environmental education. Troy, OH: North American Association for Environmental Education.
  • Bögeholz, S. (2006). Nature experience and its importance for environmental knowledge, values and action: Recent German empirical contributions. Environmental Education Research, 12(1), 65-84.
  • Büyüköztürk, Ş. (2005). Sosyal bilimler için veri analizi el kitabı [Handbook of data analysis for social sciences] (5. Baskı). Ankara: Cantekin Matbaası.
  • Coyle, K. (2005). Environmental literacy in America: What ten years of NEETF/Roper research and related studies say about environmental literacy in the U.S. The National Environmental Education & Training Foundation. Retrieved September 30, 2018, from http://www.neetf.org/pubs/ELR2005.pdf.
  • Dietrich, H. (2013). The role of emotion in environmental decision making. Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.
  • Digby, B. L. C. (2010). An Examination of the Impact of Non-formal and Informal Learning on Adult Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors. A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the Unıversıty of Minnesota.
  • Dunlap, R. & Van Liere, K. (1978). The “new environmental paradigm.” The Journal of Environmental Education 9(4), 10-19.
  • Dunlap, R. E., Van Liere, K. D., Mertig, A. G., & Jones, R. E. (2000). Measuring endorsement of the new ecological paradigm: A revised NEP scale. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 425-442.
  • Ewert, A., Place, G., & Sibthorp, J. (2005). Early-life outdoors experiences and individual’s environmental attitudes. Leisure Sciences, 27, 225-239.
  • Flynn, B., Schroeder, R., & Sakakibara, S. (1994). A framework for quality management research and an associated measurement instrument. Journal of Operations Management, 11, 339-366. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(97)90004-8.
  • Fraj-Andrés, Elena & Martínez-Salinas, Eva (2007). Impact of environmental knowledge on ecological consumer behavior: An empirical analysis. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 19(3), 73-102.
  • Franzen, A. (2003). Environmental attitudes in international comparison: An analysis of the ISSP surveys 1993 and 2000*. Social Science Quarterly (Blackwell Publishing Limited), 84(2), 297-308.
  • Frick, J., Kaiser, F. G., & Wilson, M. (2004). Environmental knowledge and conservation behavior: Exploring prevalence and structure in a representative sample. Personality & Individual Differences, 37(8), 1597-1613.
  • Himmelfarb, S. (1993). The measurement of attitudes. In A. H. Eagly, & S. Chaiken (Eds.), The psychology of attitudes. Orland, FL: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.
  • Hodgkinson, S. P., & Innes, J. M. (2001). The attitudinal influence of career orientation in 1st-year university students: Environmental attitudes as a function of degree choice. Journal of Environmental Education, 32(3), 37.
  • Holahan, C., J. (1982). Environmental psychology. 1st ed. Random House: New York.
  • Kals, E., Schumacher, D. & Montada, L. (1999). Emotional affinity toward nature as a motivational basis to protect nature. Environment & Behavior, 31(2), 178-202.
  • Keles, O. (2011). Evaluation of primary school students’ thought about and behaviors and attitudes towards environment. Energy Education Science and Technology Part B: Social and Educational Studies, 3(3): 343-358
  • Knapp, D. (1996). Evaluating the impact of environmental interpretation: a review of three research studies. In Coalition for Education in the Outdoors Research Symposium Proceedings (Bradford, Woods, Indiana, January 12-14, 1996). (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED413132).
  • Krosnick, J. A., Judd, C. M., & Wittenbrink, B. (2005). The measurement of attitudes. In D. Albarracȋn , B. T. Johnson, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), The handbook of attitudes (pp. 21–76). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Leeming, F., Bracken, B., & Dwyer, W. (1995). Children’s environmental attitude and knowledge scale: construction and validation. The Journal of Environmental Education, 26, 22-33.
  • Ma, X., & Bateson, D. (1999). A multivariate analysis of the relationship between attitude toward science and attitude toward the environment. The Journal of Environmental Education, 31, 27-32.
  • Malkus, A. (1992). Children’s attitudes towards the environment: relationship with parent’s environmental attitudes, family environmental practices, and children’s personality characteristics. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Purdue University. West Lafayette, IN.
  • Maloney, M., Ward, M., & Braucht, G. (1975). A revised scale for the measurement of ecological attitudes and knowledge. American Psychologist, 30, 787-790.
  • Milfont, T. L., & Duckitt, J. (2010). The environmental attitudes inventory: A valid and reliable measure to assess the structure of environmental attitudes. Journal of environmental psychology, 30(1), 80-94.
  • Murphy, T. P. (2004). The second Minnesota report card on environmental literacy: A survey of adult environmental knowledge, attitudes and behavior. Hamline University, Center for Global Environmental Education.
  • Musser, L., & Malkus, A. (1994). The children’s attitude toward the environment scale. The Journal of Environmental Education, 25, 22-26.
  • North American Association for Environmental Education. (1996). Environmental education materials: Guidelines for excellence. Troy, OH: NAAEE.
  • Orr, D. (1990). Environmental education and ecological literacy. Education Digest, 55, 49-54.
  • Orr, D. (1992). Ecological literacy. Education and the transition to a postmodernpost modern world. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  • Palmer, J. (1998). Environmental education in the 21st century: Theory, practice, progress and promise. New York: Routledge.
  • Ponting, C. (1991). A green history of the world: The environment and the collapse of great civilizations. New York: Penguin.
  • Smith, J. M., Rechenberg, C., Cruey, L., Magness, S., & Sandman, P. (1997). The impact of recycling education on the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of grade school children. Education, 118(2), 262-266.
  • Solomon, R. C. (2008). The philosophy of emotions. In M. Lewis, J. M. Haviland-Jones, & L. F. Barrett (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 3-16). New York: Guilford. Press.
  • Stern, P. C. (2000). Toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 56(3), 407-424.
  • Uzun N. & Sağlam, N. (2006). Ortaoğretim öğrencileri icin çevresel tutum ölçeği geliştirme ve geçerliliği [Development and validation of an environmental attitudes scale for high school students]. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 30, 240-250.
  • Uzun N. (2007). Ortaöğretim öğrencilerinin cevreye yönelik bilgi ve tutumları üzerine bir çalışma [A study on the secondary school students’ knowledge and attitudes towards the environment]. Ph.D. Thesis. Hacettepe University. Institute of Sciences, Ankara.
  • Worsley, A., & Skrzypiec, G. (1998). Environmental attitudes of senior secondary school students in South Australia. Global Environmental Change, 8, 209-225.
  • Zimmermann, L. (1996). The development of an environmental values short form. The Journal of Environmental Education, 28, 32-37.
There are 39 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Naim Uzun 0000-0002-2304-7421

Kenneth L. Gilbertson This is me

Ozgul Keles

İlkka Ratinen This is me

Publication Date January 15, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 5 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Uzun, N., Gilbertson, K. L., Keles, O., Ratinen, İ. (2019). Environmental Attitude Scale for Secondary School, High School and Undergraduate Students: Validity and Reliability Study. Journal of Education in Science Environment and Health, 5(1), 79-90. https://doi.org/10.21891/jeseh.491259