Development and Assessment of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale

Abstract

This article describes the development and the initial psychometric evaluation of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale in two studies. In the first study, an exploratory factor analysis (n = 278) revealed a four-factor scale, accounting for 71.4% of the variance, measuring different aspects of social issue advocacy: Political and Social Advocacy, Confronting Discrimination, Political Awareness, and Social Issue Awareness. The second study (n = 509) supported the structure. Results indicated excellent internal reliability and associations with another social advocacy scale, political interest, and multicultural empathy, but not with self-esteem and life satisfaction; all of which provided initial evidence of construct and discriminant validity.

Cultural Adjustment and Social Justice Behaviour: The Role of Individual Differences in Multicultural Personality

“…Items are rated using a five‐point Likert‐type scale with anchors at 1 ( strongly disagree ) and 5 ( strongly agree ). Researchers have found strong evidence for the internal structure of the SIAS, its convergent validity, and its discriminant validity from measures of self‐esteem and life satisfaction (Beer, Spanierman, Greene, & Todd, ; Nilsson et al, ). Coefficient α s in the current study were .89 for PSA, .88 for CD, .86 for PA, and 0.86 for SIA.…”

A National Survey of Social Justice Engagement Among Professional Counselors

“…Others assess internal aspects of social justice, such as attitudes (Social Justice Scale; Torres‐Harding, Siers, & Olson, 2012), interests (Miller et al, 2009), or propensity to engage in social justice behaviors (Activism Orientation Scale; Corning & Myers, 2002). One instrument purported to assess behavior, but the response options of the scale seem to assess attitudes rather than behaviors (e.g., Social Issues Advocacy Scale; Nilsson, Marszalek, Linnemayer, Bahner, & Misialek, 2011). Thus, there is a need for a brief (i.e., fewer than 50 items), psychometrically robust self‐report assessment that examines engagement in social justice behavior.…”

Longitudinal Leadership Capacity Growth among Participants of a Leadership Immersion Program: How Much Does Structural Diversity Matter?

“…Social issues advocacy. Due to the LeaderShape curriculum focus, in part, on the application of social justice behaviors, we also included an adapted version of the Social Issues Advocacy Scale (Nilsson, Marszalek, Linnemeyer, Bahner, & Misialek, 2011), designed to assess a person's motivation to publicly advocate for social issues considered both socially just and important to the person completing the measure. Aspects of political advocacy (i.e.…”