The structure of environmental attitudes: A first- and second-order confirmatory factor analysis

This paper addressed two questions: (1) Do environmental attitudes form a two-factor second-order structure as proposed by (Pers. Individ. Diff. 34 (2003) 783) and others? If so, (2) do these two factors differentially predict self-reported ecological behaviour and economic liberalism? A questionnaire with 99 items from established measures of environmental attitudes was administered to 455 undergraduate students and two procedures were used to test the higher-order factor structure of these attitudes. First, all the items were forced into two-factor and one-factor solutions using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and the fit of these solutions then tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Second, EFA was used to extract first-order factors, which were themselves factor analysed to extract second-order factors. CFA indicated that a correlated two-factor solution, consisting of a Preservation factor and an Utilization factor, provided the best fit to the data. Discriminant validity was demonstrated by showing that self-reported ecological behaviour was predicted by the Preservation factor, and not by Utilization, while attitudes toward economic liberalism were predicted by Utilization, and not by Preservation. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.