Adaptation of 'beliefs about climate change' (BACC) scale to Turkish students. Reliability and validity studies

Abstract

This study aimed to adapt the 'Beliefs about Climate Change' (BACC) scale developed by Liarakou, Athanasiadis and Gavrilakis (2011) to Turkish students by administering it to a group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. The scale was sent to expert academicians after translation to ensure equivalency across languages and language equivalency was evaluated according to the Kendall coefficient of concordance. Results of exploratory versus confirmatory factor analysis undertaken to determine the factor structure of the BACC showed a single dimensional structure. A relationship above 0.34 was found for all items of the scale as a result of item-total correlation for the BACC. Item factor loads of BACC for each item were between 0.34 and 0.61. The Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient and test-retest correlation for the scale were found to be 0.85 and 0.78, respectively. Correlation analysis implemented for criterion-related validity of the BACC also showed a meaningful relationship.