The Development and Validation of the Spatial Anxiety Scale for Secondary School Students

Abstract

This study aims to develop a scale for determining the anxiety levels of secondary school students in situations that require them to use their spatial skills. The scale was developed in three stages. In the first stage, after expert assessments, a pilot study was conducted. In the second stage, the scale was applied to all students (N=348) studying in a secondary school selected by random sampling for exploratory factor analysis, and results supported a structure with two sub-dimensions consisting of 14 items. For confirmatory factor analysis, the scale was applied to a different group of students (N=206), and analysis results confirmed the two-factor structure of the scale. The first factor, including spatial relations and orientation items, was named Anxiety of Spatial Relations and Orientation, and the second was named Anxiety of Spatial Visualization. In the third stage, Cronbach’s alpha reliability of the scale was found to be ,82 for the whole scale and ,81 and ,72 for sub-dimensions. The McDonald’s omega was also calculated as ,97 for the whole scale and ,96 and ,91 for sub-dimensions of it. The results revealed that the scale measures the spatial anxiety level of students validly and reliably.