Abstract:

In the contemporary world individuals are expected not only to fulfill their personal responsibilities but also to act with social responsibility. It is thus important to conduct research about how to educate individuals to be socially responsible in order to meet this expectation. In order to carry out this research, data collection tools with specific characteristics are required. One data collection tool often used by the researchers is the scale. When the literature was examined, a scale assessing social responsibility specifically developed for secondary school students could not be found. As a result, this study aimed to develop a valid and reliable Social Responsibility Scale for secondary school students. The Likert method was adopted in the development of the scale: an item pool was created, the items were subjected to expert opinion and analyzed using Lawshe’s method, and a content validity study was conducted. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to determine the construct validity of the scale. In the exploratory factor analysis EFA , the principal components analysis and oblimin rotation were applied. Confirmatory factor analysis CFA was performed to confirm the structure resulting from the EFA. After modification, the fit indices were found to be above the acceptable level. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient was calculated using the Cronbach's alpha value and the test-retest method for reliability of the scale. As a result, a 4- factor, 17-item valid and highly reliable Social Responsibility Scale was developed for secondary school students. Researchers can use the Social Responsibility Scale to investigate the relationship between students' levels of social responsibility and the variables determined in their experimental studies.

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