Adaptation of the Attitude and Behavior Scale of Carbon Offsetting to Turkish
Keywords:
Carbon offsetting, attitude behavior scale, validity, reliabilityAbstract
Carbon offsetting has become a popular tool in global efforts to combat climate change. These programs allow regulated polluters to increase their emissions in exchange for supporting equivalent emission reductions in unregulated markets. This study aims to adapt the Carbon Offsetting Attitudes and Behaviors Scale, developed by Denton et al. (2020), into Turkish. The scale consists of 28 items and 7 sub-dimensions. The sub-dimensions are defined as follows in the original: "Attitudes Towards Carbon Offsetting" with 4 items, "Subjective Norm" with 3 items, "Perceived Behavioral Control" with 3 items, "Behavioral Intention" with 6 items, "Subjective Knowledge" with 3 items, "Trust in Airline Companies" with 3 items, and "Perceived Credibility of Climate Science" with 6 items. The sample of the study consists of 331 individuals who travel by air at least three times a year. To ensure language validity, the correlation between scores obtained from the Turkish and English scales was found to be r=0.996, indicating a highly significant relationship and confirming language validity. To determine the item discrimination power, item-total correlation values were calculated, and the significance of the differences between the upper 27% and lower 27% groups' item averages was analyzed using the t-test. The corrected item-total score correlations ranged from 0.507 to 0.775. Additionally, t-test values for the 27% upper and lower groups ranged from 4.567 to 9.521, with all t-values being significant at the 0.05 statistical significance level. The Content Validity Index (CVI) for each item was greater than 0, indicating content validity, and no items were eliminated. In the pilot study, the Cronbach's Alpha value for a sample of 50 was 0.811. Following this positive result, the general survey was conducted. To determine construct validity, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was first applied, yielding a seven-factor structure that explained 73.82% of the total variance. The reliability criteria for all dimensions and the overall survey, as measured by Cronbach's Alpha (CA) values, were above 0.70 as expected. The fit of the item-factor structure obtained from the EFA was examined through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and the seven-factor structure of the scale was confirmed to have good fit indices. To assess the reliability over time, the survey was re-administered to a randomly selected 100 participants from the sample group two weeks later. The correlation analysis of the total scores from both tests showed a highly significant positive relationship (r=0.976, p<0.01), indicating that the scale's results do not change over time and demonstrating test-retest reliability. In light of these results, it was determined that the Carbon Offsetting Attitudes and Behaviors Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool.
References
Brown, T. A. (2006). Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research. New York: Guilford Press.
Bumpus, A. G., & Liverman, D. M. (2011). Carbon colonialism? Offsets, greenhouse gas reductions, and sustainable development. Global political ecology, 203, 203-224.
Davidson, S. (2008). Voluntary carbon offsetting: An overview. Business Law Review, 29(11).
Davis, K. A. (1992). Validity and reliability in qualitative research on second language acquisition and teaching: Another researcher comments. TESOL Quarterly, 26(1), 605-608.
Denton, G., Chi, O. H., & Gursoy, D. (2020). An examination of the gap between carbon offsetting attitudes and behaviors: Role of knowledge, credibility, and trust. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, 102608.
Eijgelaar, E. (2011). Voluntary carbon offsets a solution for reducing tourism emissions? Assessment of communication aspects and mitigation potential. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, 3(11), 281-296.
FAA, (2018). The FAA reauthorization act of 2018. https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/7e6c1d57-cf33-4c29-98de-a001b4cbb124, (21.12.2023).
Frunza, M. C. (2013). Fraud and carbon markets: The carbon connection. Routledge, Bölüm (1),1-27.
Gössling, S., & Scott, D. (2018). The decarbonisation impasse: Global tourism leaders’ views on climate change mitigation. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(12), 2071-2086.
Gössling, S., Broderick, J., Upham, P., Ceron, J. P., Dubois, G., Peeters, P., & Strasdas, W. (2007). Voluntary carbon offsetting schemes for aviation: Efficiency, credibility, and sustainable tourism. Journal of Sustainable tourism, 15(3), 223-248.
Gössling, S., Hultman, J., Haglund, L., Kallgren, H., & Revahl, M. (2009). Swedish air travelers and voluntary carbon offsets: towards the co-creation of environmental value? Current Issues in Tourism, 12(1), 1–19.
IATA, (2017). Iata 2017 Annual Review Report. https://www.iata.org/contentassets/c81222d96c9a4e0bb4ff6ced0126f0bb/iata-annual-review-2017.pdf, (11.11.2023).
Kossoy, A. (2015). State and trends of carbon pricing 2015. World Bank Publications.
Lawrence, M., Gentleman, R., & Carey, V. (2009). rtracklayer: an R package for interfacing with genome browsers. Bioinformatics, 25(14), 1841-1842.
Lohmann, L. (2005). Marketing and making carbon dumps: Commodification, calculation, and counterfactuals in climate change mitigation. Science as culture, 14(3), 203-235.
Lohmann, L. (2006). Carbon trading-a critical conversation on climate change, privatisation and power. Development Dialogue, 48(1), 1-36.
Lovell, H., & Liverman, D. (2010). Understanding carbon offset technologies. New Political Economy, 15(2), 255-273.
Lindsey, R. (2020). Climate change: atmospheric carbon dioxide. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide, (23.09.2023).
Mair, J. (2011). Exploring air travellers’ voluntary carbon-offsetting behaviour. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(2), 215-230.
Puci, J. ve Guxholli, S. (2018). Business internal auditing-an effective approach in developing sustainable management systems, European Journal of Sustainable Development, 7(2), 101-112.
Parıltı, N. ve Aydıntan, B. (2011). İşletmecilik ile ilgili genel bilgiler. M. Mithat Üner (Ed.), Genel işletmecilik (ss. 1- 45) (2. Baskı). Ankara: Detay Yayıncılık.
Randles, S., & Bows, A. (2009). Aviation, emissions and the climate change debate. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 21(1), 1-16.
Sausen, R., Isaksen, I., Grewe, V., Hauglustaine, D., Lee, D. S., Myhre, G., ... & Zerefos, C. (2005). Aviation radiative for Hcing in 2000: An update on IPCC (1999). Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 14(4), 555-561.
Smith, K. (2007). The Carbon Neutral Myth Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins. The Netherlands: Transnational Institute, Imprenta Hija de J. Prats Bernadás.
Smith, I., & Rodger, C. (2009). Carbon emission offsets for aviation-generated emissions due to international travel to and from New Zealand. Energy Policy, 37, 3438e3447.
Wilson, F. R., Pan, W. & Schumsky, D. A. (2012). Recalculation of The Critical Values For Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio, Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 45(1), 197-210.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Deniz Sulu, N. Tülin Irge (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.