Development and validation of the 4-Factor Critical Consciousness Scale

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Public Health
• Psychology

Background:

• Critical consciousness, rooted in Freire's praxis, is vital for community-level social change addressing health disparities.
• Existing instruments lack comprehensive measurement of critical consciousness constructs for intervention research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an instrument measuring four key constructs of critical consciousness: passive adaptation, emotional engagement, cognitive awakening, and intentions to act.
• To provide public health and social science researchers with a tool for assessing individual readiness for social change.

Main Methods:

• Two studies (June 2018, October 2019) with distinct cohorts recruited via Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
• Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for initial data evaluation and model fit determination.
• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for construct validity verification in the retest cohort.

Main Results:

• The developed instrument demonstrated adequate construct validity with a good model fit.
• Factor analyses confirmed the theoretical 4-factor structure of critical consciousness.
• The instrument effectively measures passive adaptation, emotional engagement, cognitive awakening, and intentions to act.

Conclusions:

• The validated instrument reliably measures critical consciousness at an individual level.
• This tool supports researchers in evaluating community and individual readiness for social change interventions.
• Findings confirm the theoretical framework of critical consciousness as a multi-construct phenomenon.