Psychometric Properties of Turkish Adaptation of the Environmental Risk Coping Scale

Objective: This study aims to adapt Environmental Risk Coping Scale into Turkish and examine its psychometric properties. Method: For this aim, the psychometric properties of the scale adapted into Turkish were tested in a sample of 230 participants living in 6 cities with high earthquake risk in Türkiye. Participants responded to the Environmental Risk Coping Scale, Environmental Risk Perception Scale, questions on Present Fatalistic and Future Time Orientation, and a demographic information form (i.e., age, gender, education level, city of residence, and homeowner/renter status, past earthquake experience, extent of earthquake damage). Results: The findings of the analyses (i.e., confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis) showed that this 12-item scale is reliable and valid in the Turkish sample. Specifically, desirable fit indices (χ2 / sd = 2.06, p < .001, CFI = .96, TLI = .95, RMSEA = .07, 90 % CI [.05, .09], SRMR = .04) demonstrated that the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure (problem focused and emotion focused coping strategies) and Cronbach α values (.89 for 9-item problem focused coping strategies factor and .72 for 3-item emotion focused coping strategies factor) indicate that the internal consistency of the scale is high. In addition, the sub-dimensions of the Turkish version of the scale were correlated with variables such as risk perception, present-fatalistic time orientation, future time orientation, and demographic factors such as age, earthquake experience, and the extent of damage in earthquake(s) in line with the literature. Conclusion: The Turkish adaptation of the Coping with Environmental Risk Scale was found to be a reliable and valid scale in the Turkish sample.