Measuring Science Literacy in a Digital World: Development and Validation of a Multi-Dimensional Survey Scale

Abstract

We present a new multilingual 14-item scale for measuring science literacy in survey and experimental research. The scale captures three essential dimensions of science literacy in a digital world: civic science literacy, science media literacy, and cognitive science literacy. We developed, tested, and validated the scale through two preregistered national quota surveys in Switzerland and the United States in four languages (English, German, French, Italian). Iterative factor analyses, Bayesian Item Response Theory analyses, and validity tests confirm robustness and reliability of the scale.