A new validated instrument to assess sustainability perception among university students

Abstract Promoting sustainability within university institutions entails conducting assessments to lay the groundwork for developing educational methodologies. This article presents the validation of a quantitative 36-item scale questionnaire that aimed to measure university students' perceptions towards sustainability. A total of 285 university students from different Spanish Universities participated in completing the questionnaire. The reliability and validity of the instrument were statistically assessed through the Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis. The questionnaire consists of six dimensions: affective, knowledge, attitude, willingness to act, behavior, self-efficacy, which were confirmed by the confirmatory factor analysis, with results that show a good fit level in the model (RMSEA = 0.043, CFI = 0.972, SRMR = 0.076, TLI = 0.970 and X2/df = 1.45). Internal reliability, which was found using Cronbach’s alpha, varies between 0.737 and 0.909. The results show that the instrument meets the validity and reliability criteria. Consequently, a valuable tool for academic utilization is suggested, offering a diagnostic and monitoring mechanism for evaluating sustainability perceptions, a topic that has recently garnered significant attention.