Development of the climate change anxiety scale for women's HEALTH

Climate change is the largest threat to human health in the twenty-first century. Climate changes disrupt the natural balance of the earth; air pollution, increase in infectious diseases, lack of clean water and food supply, vector-borne diseases cause negative physiological and psychological effects on human health. While the direct health effects of climate change on human life are dynamic research topics, the studies on psychological effects of climate change are fewer. Although women constitute nearly half of the population, disproportionately affected by climate change with the effect of their physiological and sociological needs. The socio-cultural, economic and gender effects of climate change increase the level of stress and anxiety in women, cause anxiety about the future and adversely affect psychological health. When searching the literature, it is seen that measurement tools have been developed for the evaluation of climate change anxiety, but there is no measurement tool evaluates the effects of climate change on women's health and anxiety level. This study aims to develop 'Climate Change Women's Anxiety Scale'. The research was carried out with a total of 779 women from 7 regions of Turkey by online access via Google Form. The findings were evaluated using IBM SPSS Statistics version 22 and MPlus7 statistical analysis software. As a result of the study The Climate Change Women's Anxiety Scale developed consisted of 18 items and 3 sub-dimensions as "physiological health'", "behavior" and "gender". The total Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of the scale was determined to be 0.969 and the subscales ranged from 0,920-0,951. As a result; The Climate Change Women's Anxiety Scale was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool. This study is important because of being its first contribution to evaluate anxiety level caused by climate change in women.