The development of an attitude scale to assess the attitudes of high school students towards renewable energy sources

Abstract

The aim of this study was to develop a scale that can assess the attitudes of high school students regarding renewable energy sources. The study data were obtained from a total of 433 high school students enrolled in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades of a high schools in a provincial capital in northern Turkey. The five-point Likert type scale with 48 items that was developed assessed the attitude of high school students regarding renewable energy sources. To determine the construct validity of the scale, a factor analysis was performed with the 48 items. Based on the factor analysis, eleven more items were removed from the scale, and the remaining 37 items were organized under seven dimensions. The reliability coefficient of the obtained factors varied 0.704 and 0.913, while the internal consistency coefficient for the 37-item scale was calculated as 0.753. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.