Abstract

The Critical Consciousness Scale (CCS) is a scale developed by Diemer and colleagues (2017) that can measure the capacity of the oppressed or marginalized people to critically analyze their social and political conditions, support societal equality, and take action to change the perceived inequities. In this study, we validated the CCS for Korea by adapting and localizing the scale and validating it among university students. Content validity was verified by having five individuals with master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology evaluate the suitability of the translated items. Afterwards, reliability and validity were verified through a survey of 314 university students nationwide using the CCS, along with the opportunity inequality recognition scale, recognition of the need for environmental change scale, social participation scale, and belief in a just world scale. To verify the scale’s validity, exploratory factor analysis was conducted, confirming three subfactors. Then, a confirmatory factor analysis was carried out, where 14 items out of the original 22 were retained. The construct validity and reliability of these 14 items were found to be satisfactory. Additionally, in the correlation analysis between the CCS and similar scales, a significant clear relationship was found. The CCS showed a positive correlation with scales such as opportunity inequality recognition, need for environmental change recognition, and social participation, and a negative correlation with the belief in a just world scale. Based on these results, the CCS can be considered valid and reliable. Finally, the limitations and significance of this study were discussed.