Questionário de atitudes e comportamentos pró-ambientais

: contributo para o estudo de validação junto de crianças e jovens

Abstract

The present study arises from the scarcity of instruments validated for the Portuguese context that assess pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours in children and adolescents. Thus, the main objective was to contribute to the construction and validation of a self-report instrument that assesses pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours in Portuguese children aged 10-17 years old, by analysing its psychometric characteristics. The study included 330 students from the 2nd (26.36%) and 3rd (73.64%) cycles of basic education who participated in the “Nature is the Best Classroom” project. To achieve the objective, the following procedures were implemented: (i) construction of the “Questionário de Atitudes e Comportamentos Pró-Ambientais” (QACPA); (ii) data collection and (iii) psychometric analyses of the QACPA. After the elimination of some items, the QACPA integrated 32 items, subdivided into two factors: 1) pro-environmental attitudes; and 2) pro-environmental behaviours. The results of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed an explained variance of 37.78%, which indicates that the two-factor structure of the QACPA reasonably explains the variation of the data. In terms of internal consistency (α > .86) and internal validity (r < .39), the QACPA showed good indicators. It was also found that, overall, the questionnaire items are sensitive and have discriminative power. As for divergent validity of the QACPA, the weak positive correlation with school engagement indicates that the instruments measure different constructs. The results highlight the need for the further study of the psychometric qualities of the QACPA so as to refine and validate the instrument for other contexts, namely to assess the effectiveness of interventions, which aim to promote attitudes and behaviours towards the environment, and thus contribute to environmental protection and climate change mitigation.

Date of Award	11 Oct 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Marisa Costa (Supervisor) & Alexandra Carneiro (Co-Supervisor)