Development and Factorial Structure of the Green Crescent Life Skills Scale for Turkish Adolescents

Background: The effectiveness of life skills-based prevention programs to prevent substance addiction has been underexplored in Türkiye, likely in part due to the lack of validated measurement tools developed specifically for that purpose. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop a tool to measure life skills for middle school students. The present study aims to test the factorial structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity, and measurement invariance across gender and age groups of the Green Crescent Life Skills (GCLS) Scale. Methods: The study was conducted in Istanbul with two different sample groups. The first sample consisted of 566 and the second sample consisted of 885 middle school students. In the study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was applied to the first sample, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to the second sample to test the factorial structure of the scale. Convergent and discriminant validity were examined to provide evidence for construct-based validity. The reliability of the scale was assessed with Cronbach’s α, composite reliability, McDonald’s ω, and test-retest. Results: The EFA results showed that the scale consisted of four factors (self-awareness, coping with negative emotions, thinking skills, and peer relations). CFA results also confirmed this structure. The results revealed a significant positive correlation (r = 0.52, p < 0.01) between life skills and avoidance self-efficacy scores, as well as a significant negative correlation (r = −0.53, p < 0.01) between life skills and attitude toward drug use scores. Additionally, it was found that measurement invariances based on gender and age groups were provided. It was determined that all sub-dimensions had sufficient reliability levels. Conclusion: The findings of this validation study show that the GCLS Scale, which assesses four skills in a self-reported format, is a valid and reliable scale with considerable potential utility in monitoring life skills in Turkish adolescent populations.