Development and Validation of an Attitude Scale Towards Sustainable Development for Middle School Students

This study aims to develop the “Attitude Scale Towards Sustainable Development” (ASTSD), which covers the cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, to determine middle school students' attitudes towards sustainable development within the framework of sustainable development education. The research was conducted using a survey model, and the study group consists of 757 students attending various middle schools in a city in the Central Anatolia Region during the 2022-2023 academic year. The scale items were developed considering the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, and data were collected for validity and reliability analyses through expert opinions. In this process, in addition to descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed, and the internal consistency coefficient, Cronbach's Alpha, was calculated. As a result, the developed ASTSD is designed as a 5-point Likert-type scale consisting of a total of 41 items. The affective dimension of the scale consists of 15 items, the behavioral dimension of 14 items, and the cognitive dimension of 12 items. Teachers can use ASTSD to assess middle school students' attitudes towards sustainable development from various perspectives.