This paper presents the results of a large-scale study to validate a questionnaire that measures pupils’ attitudes towards socioscientific issues (the PASSI questionnaire). We define socioscientific issues (SSI) as those topics that are about complex societal and technological developments that may induce ethical dilemmas. In this study, the term attitudes describes a combination of attitude components that relate to pupils’ engagement with SSI. Based on a literature review within social and educational psychology and sociology, on topics such as attitude development, scientific citizenship, social or civic engagement, and SSI teaching and learning, we developed a framework that describes several underlying components of pupils’ attitudes towards SSI. These components were translated into nine scales that comprise the PASSI. Results of a validation study among 1370 pupils (age 8–15), using exploratory factor analyses on subsample 1 and subsequently confirmatory factor analyses on subsample 2, indicated an eight-factor structure that showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Furthermore, the PASSI instrument showed adequate measurement invariance for boys and girls, pupils in primary and secondary education, and for pupils at different secondary educational tracks. The results are discussed in terms of directions for future research to further investigate the validity of the PASSI questionnaire. To conclude, the PASSI questionnaire validly measures eight attitudes towards SSI and could serve as a tool that raises awareness of pupils’ engagement with SSI. It can be used by researchers and teachers as a diagnostic instrument, to compare groups, and to study effects of SSI education.

中文翻译：

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衡量学生对社会科学问题的态度

本文介绍了一项大规模研究的结果，以验证衡量学生对社会科学问题的态度的问卷（PASSI 问卷）。我们将社会科学问题 (SSI) 定义为与可能引发道德困境的复杂社会和技术发展相关的主题。在这项研究中，态度一词描述了与学生参与 SSI 相关的态度成分的组合。基于社会和教育心理学和社会学领域的文献综述，关于态度发展、科学公民、社会或公民参与以及 SSI 教学和学习等主题，我们开发了一个框架，描述了学生对 SSI 态度的几个基本组成部分。这些成分被转化为九个量表，构成 PASSI。对 1370 名学生（8-15 岁）进行的验证研究的结果，使用对子样本 1 的探索性因素分析和随后对子样本 2 的验证性因素分析，表明八因素结构显示出良好的收敛效度和区分效度。此外，PASSI 工具显示出对男孩和女孩、中小学学生以及不同中等教育轨道的学生有足够的测量不变性。结果将根据未来研究的方向进行讨论，以进一步调查 PASSI 问卷的有效性。总而言之，PASSI 问卷有效地衡量了对 SSI 的八种态度，并可作为提高学生对 SSI 参与意识的工具。它可以被研究人员和教师用作诊断工具，比较组，