IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i15p11933-d1209565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Development and Validation of the Climate Capability Scale

Author

Listed:
  • Ruth Horry

    (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human and Health Science, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK)

  • Jennifer A. Rudd

    (School of Management, Faculty of Human and Social Science, Swansea University, Swansea SA1 8EN, UK)

  • Helen Ross

    (Helen’s Place Education Consultancy, 34 Southwood Road, Wiltshire BA14 7BZ, UK)

  • R. Lyle Skains

    (Department of Communications and Journalism, Bournemouth University, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruth Horry & Jennifer A. Rudd & Helen Ross & R. Lyle Skains, 2023. "Development and Validation of the Climate Capability Scale," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11933-:d:1209565
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11933/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11933/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helen Ross & Jennifer A. Rudd & R. Lyle Skains & Ruth Horry, 2021. "How Big Is My Carbon Footprint? Understanding Young People’s Engagement with Climate Change Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    2. E. Keith Smith & Adam Mayer, 2019. "Anomalous Anglophones? Contours of free market ideology, political polarization, and climate change attitudes in English-speaking countries, Western European and post-Communist states," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 17-34, January.
    3. Christina Tobler & Vivianne Visschers & Michael Siegrist, 2012. "Consumers’ knowledge about climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 189-209, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shelley Boulianne & Mireille Lalancette & David Ilkiw, 2020. "“School Strike 4 Climate”: Social Media and the International Youth Protest on Climate Change," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 208-218.
    2. Islam, Moinul & Kotani, Koji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2016. "Climate perception and flood mitigation cooperation: A Bangladesh case study," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 117-133.
    3. Moinul Islam & Koji Kotani, 2014. "Perceptions to climatic changes and cooperative attitudes toward flood protection in Bangladesh," Working Papers EMS_2014_10, Research Institute, International University of Japan.
    4. Veysel Yilmaz & Pınar Guleç & Erkan Ari, 2023. "Impact of climate change information of university students in Turkey on responsibility and environmental behavior through awareness and perceived risk," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 7281-7297, July.
    5. Maria Carmela Aprile & Damiano Fiorillo, 2016. "Water Conservation Behavior and Environmental Concerns," Discussion Papers 6_2016, CRISEI, University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    6. Connor, Melanie & de Guia, Annalyn H. & Quilloy, Reianne & Van Nguyen, Hung & Gummert, Martin & Sander, Bjoern Ole, 2020. "When climate change is not psychologically distant – Factors influencing the acceptance of sustainable farming practices in the Mekong river Delta of Vietnam," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    7. Myoungsoon You & Youngkee Ju, 2020. "The Outrage Effect of Personal Stake, Familiarity, Effects on Children, and Fairness on Climate Change Risk Perception Moderated by Political Orientation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-14, September.
    8. Karel Nepraš & Tereza Strejčková & Roman Kroufek, 2022. "Climate Change Education in Primary and Lower Secondary Education: Systematic Review Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-20, November.
    9. Mortoja, Md. Golam & Yigitcanlar, Tan, 2022. "Understanding political bias in climate change belief: A public perception study from South East Queensland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Elfriede Penz & Eva Hofmann, 2021. "What Stirs Consumers to Purchase Carbon-Friendly Food? Investigating the Motivational and Emotional Aspects in Three Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, July.
    11. Rami H. Kacem & Abir Khribich & Damien Bazin, 2024. "Investigating the Nonlinear Relationship between Social Development and Renewable Energy Consumption: A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Based Method," GREDEG Working Papers 2024-07, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    12. Kathryn Stevenson & M. Peterson & Howard Bondell & Susan Moore & Sarah Carrier, 2014. "Overcoming skepticism with education: interacting influences of worldview and climate change knowledge on perceived climate change risk among adolescents," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 293-304, October.
    13. Sara Maestre-Andrés & Stefan Drews & Ivan Savin & Jeroen Bergh, 2021. "Carbon tax acceptability with information provision and mixed revenue uses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Charles A. Ogunbode & Rouven Doran & Gisela Böhm, 2020. "Exposure to the IPCC special report on 1.5 °C global warming is linked to perceived threat and increased concern about climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 361-375, February.
    15. Jing Shi & Vivianne H. M. Visschers & Michael Siegrist, 2015. "Public Perception of Climate Change: The Importance of Knowledge and Cultural Worldviews," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(12), pages 2183-2201, December.
    16. Josephine Bremer & Martina K. Linnenluecke, 2017. "Determinants of the perceived importance of organisational adaptation to climate change in the Australian energy industry," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(3), pages 502-521, August.
    17. Pitkänen, Atte & von Wright, Tuuli & Kaseva, Janne & Kahiluoto, Helena, 2022. "Distributional fairness of personal carbon trading," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    18. Lianping Yang & Wenmin Liao & Chaojie Liu & Na Zhang & Shuang Zhong & Cunrui Huang, 2018. "Associations between Knowledge of the Causes and Perceived Impacts of Climate Change: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Medical, Public Health and Nursing Students in Universities in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, November.
    19. Albert Zeyer, 2022. "Teaching Two-Eyed Seeing in Education for Sustainable Development: Inspirations from the Science|Environment|Health Pedagogy in Pandemic Times," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-12, May.
    20. Piyapong Janmaimool & Jaruwan Chontanawat, 2021. "Do University Students Base Decisions to Engage in Sustainable Energy Behaviors on Affective or Cognitive Attitudes?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11933-:d:1209565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.