Sustainable transportation stage of change, decisional balance, and self-efficacy scale development and validation in two university samples

Abstract

Single occupancy vehicle (SOV) transportation is a key contributor to climate change and air pollution. Sustainable transportation (ST), commuting by any means other than SOV, could both slow climate change and enhance public health. The transtheoretical model (TTM) provides a useful framework for examining how people progress towards adopting ST. Short valid and reliable measures for ST decisional balance, self-efficacy, and climate change doubt were developed and their relationship with stages of change was examined. Two large university-based volunteer samples participated in measurement studies. Using multiple procedures, three brief internally consistent measures were developed: decisional balance, self-efficacy, and climate change doubt. The stages of change correctly discriminated both decisional balance and self-efficacy, as well as replicated hypothesized relationships. Climate change doubt did not vary by stages; however, it may prove useful in future studies. Results support the validation of these measures and the application of the TTM to ST.

Exploring Sustainable Transportation Attitudes and Stages of Change Using Survey and Geospatial Data in New England Campus Commuters

“…(3) I plan to use AT regularly within the next 30 days (Preparation); (4) I use AT regularly and have been for less than six months (Action); or (5) I use AT regularly and have for six months or more (Maintenance) Decisional Balance for Alternative Transportation. A decisional balance measure assessing pros and cons of Alternative Transportation (AT) reported good measurement structure, assessed by principal components and structural equations modeling analyses (Redding, Maddock, and Rossi 2006), and replicated previously established relationships with stages of change in college students, staff, and faculty (Redding et al 2015). More specifically, the pros (5-item α = .84) and cons (5-item α = .77) each showed a relatively high value for Cronbach's alpha, α, which is a measure of internal consistency (Cronbach 1951).…”

“…Stages of Change for Alternative Transportation. Stages of change for AT was assessed using the following item, consistent with prior research (Redding et al 2015): "Alternative transportation includes any way of getting to URI or UNH other than driving by yourself (single occupancy vehicle use). So walking, biking, public transportation (bus/subway/train) and carpooling are all means of Alternative Transportation."…”

“…Decisional balance, specifically, addresses individuals' evaluations of the costs of changing, and/or the cost savings of adopting a new behavior. These TTM constructs have been adapted and applied to sustainable transportation (Redding et al 2015). Meta-analyses across a series of randomized trials including a range of different health behaviors have found that TTM tailored interventions are more effective than non-tailored interventions (Krebs et al 2010;Noar et al 2007).…”

“…Since 2001, UNH has regularly conducted campus-wide transportation surveys with the most recent prior data collected in 2007. The 2011 surveys were adapted based on this 2007 UNH Transportation Survey (UNH 2007) by adding TTM measures for AT (Redding et al 2015). The goals of past surveys were to assess community attitudes regarding UNH's transportation system, campus mobility, and accessibility issues.…”

Giving Over Taking/Receiving in Volunteer Tourism. The impact of motivation, attitude, and subjective norm on stage of readiness and its implication on social marketing

“…According to these scholars, the stage consists of pre-contemplation -contemplation -actionmaintenance -relapse. Further, they modified the stage into pre-contemplation -contemplation -preparation -actionmaintenance (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1992 Stage of change or in other studies it is adapted into stage of readiness has been employed in prior studies, for example, stage of change of universities students relating to transportation sustainability (Redding et al, 2015), the use of mobile money among micro enterprise owners (Suhud & Hidayat, 2015 (Suhud, 2013(Suhud, , 2015.…”