Environmental Attitudes Measurement Validity in TIMSS 2023: Cross-National Comparisons

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Educating for Climate Literacy and Justice: Preparing Teachers, Students, Communities, and Institutions for Sustainable Futures

Abstract

This study evaluates the cross-national validity of the newly implemented TIMSS 2023 Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors Framework using data from 297,262 eighth-grade students across 44 countries. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis reveals that the three-factor preservation-utilization-behaviors model demonstrates configural and metric invariance but not scalar invariance across countries. These findings establish that structural relationships and correlations with external variables can be validly compared internationally, while direct comparisons of latent means across countries are not empirically supported. This methodological validation provides essential guidance for researchers using this unprecedented global dataset on adolescent environmental attitudes.

Author

• Christopher Irwin, Florida International University