Abstract

A well-designed strategy for effective solid waste management is a compelling necessity of the modern world. Today, solid waste management is gaining so much of an importance because lack of planning could affect the quality of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Most of the studies have illustrated production of solid waste is due to human needs and desires and the best strategy of solid waste management is to tackle at the point of origin. However, to measure such pro-environmental behaviours among residents, an appropriate and a replicable scale is important. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explain the processes undertaken to develop a valid instrument to measure the antecedents of solid waste management behaviour. The constructs were assessed using Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour and data was collected from a survey of 233 students belonging to three different colleges of Udupi district, India. The specific validation processes used were: mixed methods approach of content validity, face validity, construct validity, reliability, internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha correlation coefficient, discriminant validity and convergent validity. Measurement invariance for urban and rural groups was established and the measured model adopted confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling technique for assessing the psychometric properties of constructs. A final and fifth version of questionnaire was designed with 57 items from the initial indicators of 132 items. The findings of this research indicate that psychometrics used in this study are reliable and valid, and can be extended to other research contexts for its higher purpose in environmental protection.

摘要

精心设计的有效固体废物管理策略是现代世界的迫切需要。如今，固体废物管理正变得越来越重要，因为缺乏规划可能会影响社会，经济和环境可持续性的质量。大多数研究表明，固体废物的产生是由于人类的需求和欲望，而固体废物管理的最佳策略是从源头上解决。但是，要衡量居民中的这种环保行为，适当且可复制的量表很重要。因此，本文的目的是解释为开发一种有效的工具来测量固体废物管理行为的前因而进行的过程。使用Ajzen的计划行为理论对结构进行了评估，并从对印度Udupi区三所不同大学的233名学生的调查中收集了数据。所使用的特定验证过程为：内容有效性，面部有效性，构造有效性，可靠性，内部一致性，Cronbach's alpha相关系数，判别有效性和收敛有效性的混合方法。建立了城乡群体的测量不变性，并采用验证性因子分析和结构方程建模技术对被测物的心理计量特性进行了评估。问卷的最后和第五版设计了132个项目的初始指标中的57个项目。