Environmental Efficacy (ISSP)

Environmental efficacy refers to whether people believe that they can engage in pro-environmental behavior and that this pro-environmental behavior has a positive impact on the environment. These efficacy beliefs are important predictors of pro-environmental behavior and environmental attitudes. Given the importance of environmental efficacy, the ISSP has measured environmental efficacy since 1993. In the most recent ISSP environmental module in 2020, the environmental efficacy scale consisted of seven items. The scale is available in 43 languages and has been fielded in 28 countries. However, we found that the psychometric properties were acceptable in only 12 countries. In these 12 countries, reliabilities varied between McDonald’s omega ω = .67–.78 and correlations with environmental attitudes were large (r = .30–.49). Partial metric measurement invariance held. This means that cross-cultural studies can compare latent variances and covariances across the 12 countries.