Reliability and validity studies of the Turkish version of the children's attitudes toward the environment scale-preschool version (CATES-PV) and the analysis of children's pro-environmental behaviors according to different variables

Abstract

In Turkey, the number of environmental education studies on young children is not sufficient. This is primarily due to the fact that scales for measuring the pro-environmental behaviors of young children are quite limited in number and are not common. This research has two aims which to carry out the reliability-validity studies of preschool environment scale, and to analyze the pro-environmental behaviors of 5-6 years old children with regard to different variables (age, gender, socio-economic level). The research included 171 children of 5-6 years of age receiving preschool education in the province of Denizli, Turkey. The Children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version (CATES-PV) is a 15-item scale that one can use to assess the degree to which children's attitudes are pro-environmental. Study results have indicated that the CATES-PV Turkish Version is a reliable and valid measurement tool. The scale may be used to determine the pro-environmental behaviors of 5-6 years old Turkish children. This study provides a significant contribution to the field for further studies to be conducted in Turkey on the pro-environmental behaviors of young children. It is observed that the pro-environmental behaviors of the children included in the research differ according to age and socio-economic level. No difference was found between pro-environmental behaviors of children in terms of the gender variable.