Turkish Validity And Reliability Study of "Residential Student Fire Safety Behavior Scale (RSFSBS)"

Abstract

House fires, which generally occur as a result of the intense effect of the human factor, are in the category of preventable disasters because they allow individual and social behavior changes and the creation of safe living environments. In this context, the aim of the study is to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the scale of fire safety behavior in student living spaces (RSFSBS) developed by Griffin (2011). Within the scope of the study, the RSFSBS scale of 29 questions was applied to 244 students who volunteered to participate in the research at Bucak Health School. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to determine the construct validity of the scale, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine its reliability. As a result of the principal components factor analysis performed to examine the factor structure of the scale, it was seen that the factor load values of the items were between 0.41 and 0.92 and there were three sub-dimensions that explained 63.63% of the total variance. According to the DFA results, it was determined that the scale (Chi-square/freedom value: 1.95; RMSEA: 0.06; CFI: 0.94; NFI: 0.88; NNFI: 0.93; GFI: 0.85 and AGFI: 0.81) consisted of 3 components and 25 statements. The internal consistency reliability of the scale (Cronbach's alpha = .95) was high, when the sub-dimensions were examined, the sub-dimension internal consistency coefficients for F1, F2 and F3 were 0.94, 0.81, 0.90, respectively, and the corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.49 to 0.78. The findings obtained as a result of the research show that the three-factor structure of the RSFSBS scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool for Turkish culture. © 2023, Ankara University. All rights reserved.