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Psychometric Properties of the Climate Change Worry Scale - PubMed

  • ️Fri Jan 01 2021

Psychometric Properties of the Climate Change Worry Scale

Alan E Stewart. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021.

Abstract

Climate change worry involves primarily verbal-linguistic thoughts about the changes that may occur in the climate system and the possible effects of these changes. Such worry is one of several possible psychological responses (e.g., fear, anxiety, depression, and trauma) to climate change. Within this article, the psychometric development of the ten-item Climate Change Worry Scale (CCWS) is detailed in three studies. The scale was developed to assess proximal worry about climate change rather than social or global impacts. Study 1 provided evidence that the CCWS items were internally consistent, constituted a single factor, and that the facture structure of the items was invariant for men and women. The results from Study 1 also indicated a good fit with a Rasch model of the items. Study 2 affirmed the internal consistency of the CCWS items and indicated that peoples' responses to the measure were temporally stable over a two-week test-retest interval (r = 0.91). Study 3 provided support for the convergent and divergent validity of the CCWS through its pattern of correlations with several established clinical and weather-related measures. The limitations of the studies and the possible uses of the CCWS were discussed. The current work represents a starting point.

Keywords: climate; climate change; psychological measurement; psychometrics; weather; worry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1

Actual and modeled proportion of responses within each response category. Note: x represents data and smooth lines represent the Rasch model.

Figure 2
Figure 2

Wright map of the Climate Change Worry Scale item.

Figure 3
Figure 3

Test characteristic curve for the ten CCWS items.

Figure 4
Figure 4

Path analysis model predicting scores on the Climate Change Worry Scale. Note: Values displayed are standardized regression coefficients. *** p ≤ 0.001, and R2adj = 0.32.

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