Development and psychometric properties of the attitude toward science scale

Abstract

This study presents the development and evidence of validity of the Attitude Toward Science Scale (ATSS). Participants included 697 individuals (53.5% men), aged between 18 and 75 years (M = 27.51, SD = 9.8) in several Brazilian states. Exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) and confimatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that ATSS has a two-factor structure (Personal Initiative and Beliefs & Affects). ATSS comparisons with sociodemographic variables revealed that men have a more favorable attitude towards science (ATS) than women, non-religious individuals show more favorable ATS than religious ones, students of public universities have more favorable ATS than those of private universities, students of hard sciences show more favorable ATS than those of humanities and a positive correlation between 'need for knowledge' and ATS. ATSS shows reliable and valid adequacy for measuring attitude towards science in Brazilian samples.