Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Social Justice Scale (SJS)

• Published in: American journal of community psychology Vol. 50; no. 1-2; pp. 77 - 88
• Main Authors: Torres-Harding, Susan R., Siers, Brian, Olson, Bradley D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.09.2012; Blackwell Science Ltd
• Subjects: Attitudes; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Clinical Psychology; Community and Environmental Psychology; Confirmatory factor analysis; Decisions; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Health Psychology; Humans; Locus of Control; Male; Original Paper; Personality and Social Psychology; Psychology; Psychometric evaluation; Psychometrics; Public Health; Quantitative psychology; Racism; Sexism; Social Attitudes; Social Justice; Social Values; Student Attitudes; Students; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Teachers; Theory of planned behavior; Psychometric evaluation; Confirmatory factor analysis; Social justice; Theory of planned behavior
• ISSN: 0091-0562; 1573-2770; 1573-2770
• DOI: 10.1007/s10464-011-9478-2

The study describes the development of the Social Justice Scale (SJS). Practitioners, educators, students, and other members of the community differ on their attitudes and values regarding social justice. It is important to assess, not only individuals’ attitudes and values around social values, but also other constructs that might be related to social justice behaviors. The implication of Ajzen in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50:179–211, ( 1991 ) theory of planned behavior suggests that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and social norms predict intentions, which then lead to behaviors. A scale was designed to measure social justice-related values, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and intentions based on a four-factor conception of Ajzen’s theory. Confirmatory factor analysis and analyses for reliability and validity were used to test the properties of the scale.