Laboratory of Psychology, Cognition, Behaviour, Communication (LP3C), Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Science, Rennes 2 University, 35000 Rennes, France.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024 Aug 30;21(9):1158. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21091158.
The mental health impact of the environmental crisis, particularly eco-anxiety, is a growing research topic whose measurement still lacks consensus. This study aims to use item response theory (IRT) to gain a deeper understanding of the constructs measured by existing questionnaires. To conduct this review, we applied the graded response model with the help of the MIRT package in R on open-access data from the short French version of the Climate Change Anxiety Questionnaire, which measures cognitive-emotional impairment and functional impairment. The models tested in this study are the one, two, and three-factor models, and the bifactor model. After model selection, the psychometric properties of the selected model were tested. Our results suggest that the unidimensional model seems to be the most appropriate for measuring eco-anxiety. The item difficulty parameter extracted from the IRT enabled us to discuss the severity levels of the items comprising this tool. The Climate Change Anxiety Questionnaire appears to be more appropriate for measuring moderate to severe eco-anxiety. Avenues for improving this questionnaire and the measurement of eco-anxiety in general are then discussed.
环境危机对心理健康的影响，特别是生态焦虑，是一个日益受到关注的研究课题，但对其的测量仍缺乏共识。本研究旨在使用项目反应理论（IRT）深入了解现有问卷所测量的结构。为了进行这项研究，我们在 R 语言的 MIRT 包的帮助下，应用等级反应模型，对公开获取的短版法语气候变化焦虑问卷（该问卷衡量认知情感障碍和功能障碍）的数据进行分析。本研究中测试的模型是单维、二维和三维模型，以及双因子模型。在模型选择后，我们测试了所选模型的心理测量特性。结果表明，单维模型似乎最适合测量生态焦虑。IRT 中提取的项目难度参数使我们能够讨论该工具组成部分的严重程度。气候变化焦虑问卷似乎更适合测量中等到严重程度的生态焦虑。然后讨论了改进该问卷和一般生态焦虑测量的途径。
