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Development and Validation of the Climate Capability Scale
,
Helen Ross ,
R. Lyle Skains,
Ruth Horry
Sustainability, Volume: 15, Issue: 15, Start page: 11933
Swansea University Authors:
Jennifer Rudd , Ruth Horry
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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0).
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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/su151511933
Abstract
Climate change poses a serious existential threat to life on our planet. If we are to mitigate the most damaging impacts of climate change, there is a need for citizens who are willing and able to make changes to their individual behaviours, but who are also politically engaged and motivated to part...
| Published in: | Sustainability |
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| ISSN: | 2071-1050 |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64076 |
| Abstract: |
Climate change poses a serious existential threat to life on our planet. If we are to mitigate the most damaging impacts of climate change, there is a need for citizens who are willing and able to make changes to their individual behaviours, but who are also politically engaged and motivated to participate in, and advocate for, systemic change; there is a need for citizens who are Climate Capable. However, there is no scale currently available with which to measure the climate capability of adults and adolescents. Through an iterative process across three studies with 849 UK adults, we developed and validated a 24-item Climate Capability Scale. In a further study, with 458 UK adolescent participants (aged 12–15), we validated the scale for use with adolescents. We demonstrate that the scale is internally consistent, has good test–retest reliability, correlates with measures of related constructs such as environmental worldview and scientific literacy, and predicts self-reported pro-environmental behaviour. The Climate Capability Scale may have particular value in educational and public engagement contexts for measuring the effectiveness of programs and interventions designed to increase Climate Capability, as well as similar approaches to heighten engagement with the climate crisis. |
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| Keywords: |
Climate change; climate capability; climate literacy; adolescents; climate change education; scale; validation |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
This research was funded by UK EPSRC, through the Impact Acceleration Account grant EP/R511614/1 administered by Swansea University. |
| Issue: |
15 |
| Start Page: |
11933 |