Browsing by Subject "scale development"
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Item A multi-dimensional scale for repositioning public park and recreation services(Texas A&M University, 2004-09-30) Kaczynski, Andrew ThomasThe goal of this study was to develop an instrument to assist public park and recreation agencies in successfully repositioning their offerings in order to garner increased allocations of tax dollars. To achieve this, an agency must be perceived as providing public benefits, those that accrue to all members of its constituency. The scale sought to identify the importance of various community issues and perceptions of the agency's performance in contributing to those issues. A valid and reliable 36-item instrument was developed that encompasses nine distinct dimensions: Preventing Youth Crime, Environmental Stewardship, Enhancing Real Estate Values, Attracting and Retaining Businesses, Attracting and Retaining Retirees, Improving Community Health, Stimulating Urban Rejuvenation, Attracting Tourists, and Addressing the Needs of People who are Underemployed. These dimensions represent community issues that a park and recreation agency can contribute towards, and can therefore use as a basis for its repositioning efforts. Using a screening process by expert judges, a pretest sample of undergraduate students, and a sample of municipal residents, each of the importance and performance dimensions in the scale was judged to possess content validity, internal consistency, construct validity, and split-half reliability. A shortened version of the instrument was also demonstrated to possess internal consistency and construct validity. In a practical application, the scale proved useful in identifying repositioning options for the park and recreation department, both in isolation and relative to a public agency'competitor'. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are offered.Item Development of an instrument to assess residents? perceptions of equity(Texas A&M University, 2005-02-17) West, Stephanie TheresaThis study examined equity in the context of the allocation of park and recreation resources within a community. The contributions made by this study include: extending the original taxonomy of equity models proposed by Crompton and Wicks (1988); development of a theoretical framework for their original model; providing a current synthesis of equity based literature; advancing the Equity Implementation Model (Wicks & Crompton, 1989) by developing an instrument capable of measuring residents? perceptions and preferences of park and recreation resource allocation in their community; empirically confirming the legitimacy of alternate dimensions of equity through Structural Equation Modeling; applying information gained from using the instrument to determine the usefulness of selected variables in predicting equity preferences; and comparing data on equity preferences with those of prevailing perceptions to illustrate the utility of the instrument in guiding resource allocation decisions. Five of the original operationalizations of equity were validated (Compensatory, Taxes Paid, Direct Price, Efficiency and Advocacy). An additional operationalization, Professional Judgment, was included and also validated, while one of the original dimensions suggested by Crompton and Wicks, Equal Outcomes, could not be distinctively conceptually differentiated and so was discarded. The operationalizations of Equal Inputs and Equal Opportunity could not be differentiated to reflect distinctively different equity concepts. However, further efforts should be invested in operationalizing these two equity concepts, since they do appear to be conceptually different. Using confirmatory factor analysis, a model consisting of all seven operationalizations (Compensatory, Taxes Paid, Direct Price, Efficiency, Advocacy, Professional Judgment and Equality) was an acceptable fit and all paths were significant at the .05 level, suggesting that the proposed 23-item, seven-dimension scale, P&R-EQUITY, effectively measures seven facets of residents? perceptions of equity in the allocation of park and recreation resources. Two additional operationalizations (Demonstrated Use and Coproduction Opportunities) emerged during the research which suggested that Demonstrated Interest was inadequately operationalized, so future efforts could be focused on operationalizing those three. The scale developed in this study is intended to help officials make appropriate decisions when allocating park and recreation resources.Item Factor Structure and Validity of the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Knowledge and Attitude Scale for Heterosexuals (LGB-KASH)(2011-12-12) Summers, Bryce; Arbona, Consuelo; Burridge, Andrea; Gaa, John; Backus, MargotHeterosexual attitudes toward Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) individuals have become the focus of recent research as sexual minorities and allies have advocated for LGB human rights issues and have subsequently captured the attention of the media (Rimmerman, 2001, 2008; Rimmerman, Wald, & Wilcox, 2000). Multiple influences shape heterosexual attitudes including gender socialization, individual sexual identity exploration, religious beliefs, and systemic prejudicial attitudes (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 2005; Kilanski, 2003; Worthington, Savoy, Dillon, & Vernaglia, 2002; Worthington, Becker-Schutte, & Dillon, 2005). Worthington, Dillon, and Becker-Schutte (2005) and colleagues proposed that heterosexual attitudes toward sexual minorities are one aspect of the individual’s sexual identity that is comprised of several dimensions. Worthington et al. developed an instrument titled the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Knowledge and Attitude Scale for Heterosexuals (LGB-KASH) to assess the proposed dimensions of heterosexual attitudes toward LGB individuals. Results of confirmatory factor analyses with primarily white college students and adults in the Midwest identified five factors that were consistent with the proposed dimensions. These factors were labeled: hate (violent homonegativity; avoidance of LGB people); LGB knowledge; attitudes toward LGB civil right issues; religious conflict (ambivalent and negative attitudes caused by religious beliefs); and internalized affirmativeness (degree of comfort of having friends who are identified as LGB; feeling comfortable of having feelings of attraction towards the same-sex). The LGB-KASH’s five dimensions correlated in the expected direction with scales assessing traditional homonegativity and religiosity. No other study was located that examined the factor structure and the validity of the LGB-KASH subscales. The purposes of the proposed study was to examine (a) the factor structure of the LGB-KASH with an ethnically diverse college sample, and (b) the relation of the LGB-KASH dimensions to scales assessing modern-homonegativity and religious fundamentalism. It was hypothesized that the LGB-KASH five-factor structure would be confirmed with ethnically diverse college students. It was expected that modern-homonegativity would correlate positively with the hate and religious conflict subscales, and correlate negatively with the LGB knowledge, LGB civil right and internalized affirmativeness subscales. It was expected that religious fundamentalism would correlate positively with the hate and religious conflict subscales, and correlate negatively with LGB knowledge, LGB civil right and internalized affirmativeness subscales. Spirituality experiences of participants were also assessed expecting to find that experiences of spirituality would be unrelated to LGB-KASH subscales. This study surveyed 701 heterosexual identified volunteer participants. Participants represented several major ethnic groups including African-Americans, Latino/a, Asian-Americans, and European Whites. The instruments that were used in the study include: a demographic questionnaire, the LGB-KASH, the Modern Homonegativity Scale (MHS; Morrison & Morrison, 2002), the Religious Fundamentalism Scale (RFS; Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992), and FACIT-Spirituality Scale (Peterman, Fitchett, Brady, Hernandez, & Cella, 2002). A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with an oblique rotation using AMOS 17.0 to examine the factor structure of the LGB-KASH. Several indexes of fit were computed to assess how well the model fit the data including the chi-square, goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), comparative-fit index (CFI), root-mean-square residual (RMR), incremental fit index (IFI), parsimony comparative fit index (PCFI), and root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA). The CFA results indicated that the five factor-oblique model had a mediocre fit, and a comparable fit to the results found by Worthington and colleagues. Seven items with poor fit were identified and deleted from the scale in order to re-specify the five factor model. A CFA was conducted on the revised 21-item scale and results indicated that the model had a good fit. Convergent validity was evidenced as the LGB-KASH subscales scores were correlated in the expected direction to the measures of modern-homonegativity and religious fundamentalism; additionally, LGB-KASH subscales religious conflict and internalized affirmativeness were related to the construct of spiritual well-being. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.