Abstract:

This study aims to develop an attitude scale to determine the cognitive, affective and behavioral attitudes of high school students in terms of recycling which covers reducing, reusing and recycling packaging wastes. 380 students going to the 9th, 10th, and 11th grades of public high schools in Ankara, which are subjected to the Ministry of National Education have participated in the research. Literature was reviewed during the process of developing the scale which resulted in the emergence of the items on cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects of recycling. Expert opinion for the first draft was obtained and the pilot study was conducted. More than one method was employed in validity and reliability studies of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were employed to collect evidence for structure validity. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that the final scale with 10 items had a structure of two factors named as “Giving Emotional Reactions” and “Awareness and Performing Appropriate Behavior”. It also showed that the final scale explained 57.955% of total variance. It is seen that factor loading value of each item changes between .521 and .871. The identified factor structure was validated through the confirmatory factor analysis in the process of scale development, in other words, in the exploratory factor analysis. Internal consistency (Cronbach Alfa) coefficient and test-retest coefficient were calculated to figure out scale reliability. Cronbach Alfa coefficient for the whole scale was found as .845, test-retest coefficient was found as .773. The findings of the research show that “Attitude Scale for Recycling” can be used as a valid and reliable evaluation tool.

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