Development and validation of environmental protective behaviors scale for secondary school students

In this research, it was aimed to develop a reliable scale that will allow determining the environmental protective behavior levels of secondary school students. Relational screening model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research. The sample group of the research is composed of 1234 secondary school students whose between the fifth and eighth grade from two different middle school in İstanbul at the 2021-2022 academic year. After eliminating the data that were unsuitable for the statistical analysis due to missing data, a total of 967 data (537 boys and and 430 girls) were used for the analysis. The "Environmental Protective Behavior Scale" developed by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. For the draft of the developed environmental protective behavior scale, the compositions written by the students about the subject and the environmental protection scales in the literature were examined and a question pool consisting of 60 items was created. The prepared item pool was presented with an expert opinion, then again to the student's opinions to ensure compliance with the student level, and finally to the opinion of the Turkish teacher to check the compliance of the items with the grammar rules. As a result of the responses received, some items were removed from the question pool, and necessary arrangements were made on some items, and the draft Environmental Protective Behavior Scale consisting of 50 items was obtained. In order to ensure the structure validity of the "Environmental Protective Behavior Scale" developed in the research, first Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and then Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed. The data set was divided into two sample groups, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed on the first sample group (N= 624), via SPSS 24 program, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed on the second sample group (N= 315) via AMOS 22 program. According to the AFA data, the scale items were found to be suitable for factor analysis. According to their presentation as a result of the analysis of the scale items, due to the slope curve graph (Scree Plot) and MAP test (Minimum Averages Test) results, which have an eigenvalue greater than 1, it was found that 22 scale items were collected under 3 factors, these three factors explained 48.702% of the total variance. The accuracy of the 3-factor model determined as a result of the EFA. The path diagram and fit indices were analyzed, and according to the analysis results, it was seen that the three-factor structure formed by the 22-item item provided model fit. The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was calculated and was found as 0.937, the first factor was found as 0.911, the second factor was found as 0.791, and the third factor was found as 0.855. As a result of the research findings, it has been determined that the ÇKDÖ, which consists of 22 items with 3 factors, is a valid and reliable scale. One-way ANOVA test was used to determine the difference between the total scores obtained from the Environmental Protective Behavior Scale (ÇKDÖ) according to the grade level and the educational status of parents, and Independent groups t-Test was used to determine the difference between the total scores obtained from the ÇKDÖ according to gender. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the average ÇKDÖ score of girls was significantly higher than the average score of boys, while no statistically significant difference was determined between the total ÇKDÖ scores of students and the educational levels of parents. In addition, the total scores that the students received from the ÇKDÖ differed according to the grade level. This difference is between fifth grade students and seventh grade students, in favor of fifth grade students; between sixth grade students and seventh and eighth grade students in favor of sixth grades; between seventh grade students and eighth grade students it was found to be in favor seventh grade students.